Tuesday Review Post: GlassesShop.com

Disclaimer:  I received a pair of sunglasses for free in exchange for this post.

While I've worn glasses since I was a teenager, I've only been wearing sunglasses for the past few years, which coincided with starting to wear contacts again after about 25 years of just glasses.  So when GlassesShop.com contacted me about doing a review of prescription eyeglasses, I wasn't interested - but when I was offered sunglasses, I decided to give this a try.  While they offer prescription sunglasses, I chose non-prescription lenses, because I wear them with contacts.

For the blog review, I was limited to a smaller selection of sunglasses than what they offer; out of what was offered, I went with the Bowling Wayfarer in black, because I have a similar pair in brown and I like how they fit on my face.  This was a simple order based on what I was allowed, and they arrived in just over a week.

This is what I received - sunglasses, hard shell case, cleaning cloth.

As you can see, the lenses aren't all that dark, considering they are sunglasses.  More on that later, but here's how they looked on my face:

They felt good and fit well.

I have to be honest here - to me, these aren't dark enough to qualify as sunglasses.  But I thought, maybe they might work for my Saturday morning runs, where it's still dark when we start running, but becomes light soon enough; there's been many times when I've wished I had my sunglasses while we run directly into the sun as it rises.  So I wore them on my run last Saturday.  We started at 6:00 am; the sunrise was at 6:30 am.  I wore them right from the beginning of the run, when it was still dark - but I could see just fine because as I mentioned, the tint on these lenses isn't all that dark.

For running, the sunglasses worked nicely - they didn't bounce around or slip down my nose, despite the copious amount of sweat that was pouring down my face.  They did fog up a bit, but once I made a turn and got a breeze, the fogging stopped.  As for helping with the sunrise, yes - having these sunglasses helped, definitely.  I'm curious to see how well they do when I'm out even longer in the sun, such as during a 10 miler, or during a half marathon.

Immediately after finishing my run.

So, here's my list of pros and cons for these sunglasses:

Pros

• Sturdy frames and lenses - I had to take them off several times during that run to wipe the sweat off my face and accidentally dropped them on the sidewalk once; no damage was done, whew.
• Decent price - this pair of sunglasses would have cost me $44.95, had I paid for them.

Cons

• The lenses are just too light to be considered sunglasses.  My contact at GlassesShop.com said they were a 60% gray tint.
• You can customize the lenses - to get mirrored lenses, these sunglasses would have cost $99.80.  And to get these Polarized, the sunglasses would have cost $168.95, and considering that's about the same price as a pair of Ray-Ban Polarized sunglasses, I'd just as soon go for the name-brand at that point.

To be fair, I'm just reviewing a small part of what GlassesShop.com does - I suspect most of their business is in prescription eyeglasses, and that is something that I did not try out, nor would I want to, as I wear transition lenses and that can be tricky to get right - for those lenses, I go to my local optical shop.  But I'm also a bit old-school when it comes to ordering something like eyeglasses online - have any of you ever tried this?

I do have a discount code for you, if you'd like to give GlassesShop.com a try - use "GSHOT50" for 50% off all regularly-priced glasses and sunglasses.  I don't receive any compensation for this, but if you do order a pair, I'd love to hear your thoughts on your new glasses!