Best Lenses for Sports Frames

Best Lenses for Sports Frames

Some customers complained that they cannot get used to their prescription sports glasses. They experienced giddiness, blurriness towards the side of the lenses and found that it took them awhile to focus when they turn their head.

Why you cannot adapt to your sports glasses?

This can be due to inappropriate lens type used for your sports glasses. Sports glasses are usually more curved as compared to your usual glasses. When standard lenses are used in these wrap frames (high curve frames), the lenses will be tilted. This can induce prisms and change the prescription, which can lead to you feeling giddy or uncomfortable when wearing your sports glasses.

Also, when standard lenses are used, there will be more peripheral lens distortions because its a non-customized lens which did not take into account the high wrap value. This can lead to you experiencing more peripheral lens distortions and finding the need to take awhile to focus when you turn your head.

Besides adaptation issues, standard lenses will also ‘flatten’ your curved frames and can result in the temple of your frames to open up. This will be more obvious when you have myopia (minus lenses) on one eye and hyperopia (plus power) on the other. The temple on the plus power will open up more than the temple on the minus power. This can make the frame cosmetically unappealing and might not fit as well.

Wrapped Lenses

To solve the adaptation problem and still have a cosmetic appealing high curved frame, wrapped lenses such as ZEISS Sports Lenses, Hoya Sportive, Essilor Stylistic are used. Wrapped lenses are customized lenses which takes into account the wrap angle of your curved frames such as sports glasses or sunglasses. They are the most suitable lenses to minimize peripheral lens distortions for your high curved frames.

How does wrapped lenses work?

For highly curved frames, lenses are tilted at opposite angles to each other in a slanting position to the eye. This leads to the optical axis bypassing the eye’s centre of rotation as shown in the diagram below. Hence, resulting in optical aberrations such as prism, astigmatism and decentration, which may cause discomfort, giddiness or dissatisfaction with vision quality.

This require several parameters to be recalculated to ensure best possible vision.

Wrapped lenses are customized lenses designed based on your prescription, frame parameters and fitting geometry to minimize the optical aberrations, providing you a clear and comfortable vision.

For conventional lens (Figure 1), severe aberrations are due to high wrap angle and many are unsatisfied with the quality of vision in this lens. On the other hand, for standard wrap lenses (FIgure 2), there are some compensation for the optical aberrations. However, not the full optical performance is achieved.

Lens designed for wrap will provide the best possible quality of vision as it compensate the optical aberrations by taking into account the relevant measurements (wrap angle, centration, back vertex distance and more).

What type of frame can wrapped lenses be used on

Other than sports glasses, sunglasses or frames that are more curved can also benefit from wrapped lenses. Some eyewears such as ic! Berlin have frames with high wrapped angle. If a regular stock lens is used on frames with high wrapped angle, the frames might be less curve which will not look cosmetically appealing. Also, if a regular wrapped lens is used, the lens might look thicker on the side as the higher the curvature of the lens, the thicker the lens thickness.

ZEISS Sports Lenses

With ZEISS Sports Lenses, it takes into account the wrapped angle of the frame which will then minimize the peripheral distortions. It also reduce lens edge thickness when done on frames that are more curved. It is available for both single vision and progressive.

Measurements taken into account to design your lenses
ZEISS Single Vision Superb SportCentration
Inclination of the lens
Wrap angle of the frame
ZEISS Single Vision Individual SportCentration
Inclination of the lens
Wrap angle of the frame
Distance between your eyes to lens

ZEISS Sports Individual takes into account more measurements to design your lenses to further reduce the peripheral distortions as compared to ZEISS Sports Superb.

Technology behind ZEISS Sports Lenses

The more curved the lenses are, the thicker the lens will be. ZEISS Sports Lenses uses ZEISS Cosmetic Edge Technology (CET) to reduce the edge thickness in minus lenses by up to 30% in high prescription lenses.

The images below shows the edge thickness between a regular wrapped lens vs ZEISS Sports lenses with Cosmetic Edge Technology. As shown below, ZEISS Sports lenses with Cosmetic Edge Technology is thinner than regular wrapped lenses.

Hoya Sportive

Hoya Sportive lenses enhanced natural viewing and improved optical performance. It allows good binocular visual experience and wide peripheral vision with clear visual field.

Essilor Stylistic

Essilor Stylistic wrap lenses are designed to fit popular large and wrap frame designs, in most prescriptions, while offering wearers uncompromised vision quality regardless of their style and lifestyle requirement.

Wrapped lenses @ Evershine Optical

Evershine Optical offers wrapped lenses such as ZEISS Sports Lenses, Hoya Sportive and Essilor Stylistic. Our optometrists will advise you whether wrapped lenses are needed based on the frame you have chosen. We will then use iTerminal 2 to take the measurements needed to design the lenses. Book an appointment with us now by clicking the button below or WhatsApp us at +6588461234.

References

  1. Essilor Stylistic. Essilor.
  2. Hoya Sportive. Hoya.
  3. Sun lenses. ZEISS.
  4. ZEISS Sports Lenses. ZEISS.