The tale of the blue lens
At Epicstoke it’s safe to say that we’re big fans of well made sunnies and if you’ve landed here then the chances are that you are too. You care about your eyes, but you also want to look good great. People are beginning to realize that a pair of sunglasses is not just a pair of sunglasses. The lens makeup and color have a lot to do with when that pair is optimal to wear.
If you’re looking to enhance color recognition while reducing glare from visible white light (i.e. fog, snow, and water), then the blue lens is your Huckleberry- meaning, it’s got your back.
The history behind blue lenses
Blue shades have a pretty long and illustrious history that begins with a medieval contraption and ends with today’s super cool shades straight from our very own shelves. So we thought we’d share with you our knowledge about the blue lens.
It seems that the history of the blue lens begins with one James Ayscough in 1750 and a pair of rather bizarre looking blue glasses with lenses for both the front of the eye, as well as the side; these glasses, though deemed to be optician glasses, served only to worsen a person’s eyesight as the lenses were pretty misty with veins of glass caused by what were, after all, pretty archaic manufacturing processes (woops).
Despite this incredibly early appearance of blue lenses (so early that it predates the first official pair of sunglasses by some 200 hundreds years) it would take until the 1940’s for such a shade to be worn once more, when fashionable 1940’s women teamed blue lenses with their thick round and often colorful frames.
After this short appearance it would then take until the 1970’s for blue lenses to become a permanent fixture within the world of sunglasses. It’s fair to say however that it was well worth the wait as blue lenses were immortalized by one John Lennon.
Today’s world of blue lenses
Aside from looking legit and providing the world with an amazing color recognition enhancing tint, blue shades can also make for an idea sporting partner.
Optimal environments for blue lenses
Choosing the right tint for the right environment very much depends upon the lighting conditions that surround you as well as the sport that you may be playing (and after all, who doesn’t want a sneaky hand up within a sporting environment?). In general opting for blue shade of glass lenses will enhance your color recognition, whilst also serving to reduce glare. This then makes them perfect for misty, foggy, or snowy conditions where color recognition is important. Think golf, tennis, reflective ski slopes or glaringly bright beaches, as well as for sports that are color based. In fact, blue lenses were endorsed by the USPTA for tennis professionals and have been given to players at the French Open.
Polishing it all up perfectly with an orange or yellow gradient
Mirror gradients offer an extra layer of protection from glare without changing color perception. In the case of our blue lenses, they are perfectly polished with a yellow or orange morrow gradient, which makes them idea for the the previously mentioned environments. More rays in the yellow to orange spectrum will be reflected off of these lenses, thus increasing acuity in environments that are closest to this spectrum, i.e. green and red (green more importantly until we start making our way to Mars we suppose).