We spend an awful lot of time in the fly fishing space — and I’m as guilty as anyone — fawning over the newest rods, reels, lines, packs, waders, boots, and myriad other pieces of gear. We don’t pay nearly enough attention to the one item that actually impacts what we see while fishing — our sunglasses. That is likely partially due to the length of time between new sunglass tech hitting the market. New tints and frames are always being released, but more significant innovations are few and far between.
Smith thinks it is offering anglers one of those larger leaps with its newest lenses. These new lenses are actually a combination of existing Smith technology (mostly, but not exactly, more on that later), brought together in a single lens for the first time. The ChromaPop Glass PolarChromic lenses combine Smith’s ChromaPop polarization technology with their PolarChromic lenses, which adjust their tint based on how much UV light hits the glass.
Allie Flake, Eyewear Category Manager for Smith, told me it took two years of development to get these new lenses to market.
“Making these lenses from glass made (the process) more complicated,” Flake said. “Lens enhancement tech in glass can be difficult. But I knew there was an opportunity for Smith to be first to market with this, so I took it.”
Flake told me that much of the process involved testing, verification, and validation with the governing body that oversees sunglasses (yes, such a thing exists), as well as extensive time in the field with pros. “We send the lenses out for feedback, then tweak them, then change them,” Flake said of Smith’s development process.
The development of these lenses is the first major innovation Smith has made since patenting their ChromaPop polarization technology over a decade ago, which took place during what Flake called the “colored lens enhancement race.” Smith, Costa, and Oakley were among the major players looking to patent as much of the polarization process as possible.
“That’s when 580 came out at Costa, Prizm came out at Oakley,” Flake said. “We really wanted to see who could patent what, what was patentable, what could be developed, what was possible.”
After those lens technologies were developed, innovation “came to a screeching halt because you could only patent so many dips in the VLT,” Flake said.
VLT is an important concept to understand. It stands for “Visible Light Transmission” and it tells you how much light is filtered through a lens to your eye. A lens with a 23 percent VLT, for example, only allows in 23 percent of all visible light.
The new ChromaPop Glass PolarChromic lenses were built from the ground-up by Smith, and they own all the technology included. These new lenses are a step up from the company’s previous PolarChromic tech, which wasn’t their own and was readily available from lens suppliers. With these new lenses, Flake said she and her team really focused on delivering something that met the demands of anglers.
“We set out to reimagine the VLT percentage range and really tailor it to that angling consumer,” she said.
Smith currently offers the lenses in two colors — Yellow Blue Mirror and Brown Green Mirror. The Yellow Blue Mirror lenses have a VLT range from 11-23%, while the Brown Green Mirror lenses range from 11-20%. That means, based on how much UV light hits the lenses, they’ll adjust tint to let in anywhere from 11 - 23% of all light.
That wide VLT range means these lenses essentially function as three lenses in one, another feature Flake said was important during the product development. Many of Smith’s products feature interchangeable lenses, but that’s tough to do with glass lenses, which offer the best clarity. So, the wide VLT range of these new lenses give anglers a wider range of visibility without the need to carry two pairs of glasses.
This new technology is embedded into the lenses, which means it can't be scratched off, removed, or deteriorate over time. Baking the tech into the lenses ensures anglers get their benefits for as long as they have the sunglasses. That wasn’t always the case with color-enhanced lenses, especially in the early days of polarization.
“Polarization wasn’t great in the beginning,” Flake said. “It used to be a spray on the lenses, or like a film. Now it’s much better.”
This combination of ChromaPop and PolarChromic technology is still new, of course, and Smith plans to invest heavily in optimizing it over time. That includes adding new tints to the lineup in 2025.
“It’s an unmatched experience we want people to finally have,” Flake said. “We were just kind of getting lost in the weeds with other eyewear brands, nothing was setting us apart.”
Comments