Optical confusion
You’d think a $488 pair of sunglasses would offer a smidge more UV protection than a $4 pair, wouldn’t you? You’d be wrong,
It started on the Atlantic City boardwalk. Sure, film stars and the very rich had already been wearing dark spectacles. But in 1929, Sam Foster, founder of Foster Grant, began hawking his mass-produced sunglasses there at a Woolworth store — eye protection and a stylish air of mystery for the everyman.
Today you can get sunglasses really cheap — three pairs for $12 recently at a Scarborough flea market. Or you can fork over $1,000 for a single pair studded with Swarovski crystals at a downtown eyewear boutique. And there’s every style — iconic aviators, sporty shades and glamorous Jackie O look-alikes — at every price in between. available at every dollar, drug or department store.
Not to mention at opticians, optometrists and online.
So what should you look for? What do you get for your money? To answer that, the Star had a selection of nine pairs of sunglasses, from a $4 pair to a $488 designerbrand, tested by an optometrist — with some surprising results.
Here was our lineup: Bright orange, rubber-frame child’s sunglasses, bought for $4, at a flea market; jade women’s rectangulars, $4, flea market; black faux-porsche, $10, Spadina Ave. shop; metal aviators, $20, drugstore, and brownframed unisex, $60, optician’s shop.
From the display cases at Queensway Optometric Centre in Mississauga, we selected name brands by price range: a sedate Michael Kors, $120; the ever-popular Ray-ban Wayfarer (think Blues Brothers), $208; a classy Chanel, $358, and a rhinestone-bedecked wraparound Bulgari, $488.
While fashionable shades may help you channel your inner movie star, sunglasses are most importantly a health aid to shield your eyes from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. Consumers are advised to buy sunglasses labelled “100 per cent UV protection” or “UV 400.” The ultraviolet spectrum ends at 400 nanometres.
Sunglass manufacturers follow voluntary industry standards when labelling their products, according to Health Canada. But how can you be sure the label is truthful, especially with the market flooded with inexpensive glasses? A consumer can’t see this important ultraviolet protection. The darkness of the lens has nothing to do with it.
At Queensway Optometric Centre, Dr. Joe Chan passed the nine pairs of sunglasses, both lenses, through the UV meter in his office. All nine registered 100 per cent UV protection, even the cheap ones. So why pay more? Apparently, for a less distorted view of the world.
The second test checked for lens clarity. Chan cleaned the sunglasses, all of them had plastic lenses, and then held them up individually in front of a light projecting an image of an eye chart onto a screen about 20 feet away. The sunglasses bought for $4, $10 and $20 all gave a blurry view of the letters on the screen. Disappointingly, the $60 pair made reading the letters a guessing game. That E on the top line contorted into a B.
The glasses priced from $120 to $358 provided a noticeably crisper, clearer read. However, the $488 pair made the letters a bit blurry. That was due to the curvature of the wraparound design, says the optometrist. “The clearer lenses are because of the quality of the materials and consistency of the tints,” says Chan, past president of the Ontario Association of Optometrists. How the lens is ground or cast makes a big difference. And how it’s finished and fitted into the frame is also important, says Rory Dwyer, dispensary manager at Queensway. On the $20 aviators, he points to how the lenses are squeezed into the frame, the bottoms slightly protruding. “If it’s in too tight, there will be warping and distortion.”
Wearing lenses with a bit of blur might give you a headache or eye strain — and deeper squint lines. “There’s no evidence it would cause permanent structural eye damage,” says Dr. John Lloyd, ophthalmologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. While our test sample was small, the results are similar to what Dr. Ralph Chou, associate professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Optometry and Vision Science, has found over the years. Ultraviolet protection is not expensive for manufacturers to add. But you’ll pay for quality lenses. As for frames, most are made from metal or plastic and vary widely in durability — and price. Chou thinks that $100 should get you a decent frame as well as good lenses. Others say about $150. People pay big bucks for sunglasses just for the designer name on the frame. A lot of designers see sunglasses as an entry point to the brand name, says Amin Mamdani, operations vice-president at Josephson Opticians. “It’s more reachable.” But buyer beware. There’s no shortage of designer knock-off sunglasses. The RCMP regularly seizes them in the Greater Toronto Area, says Inspector Todd Gillmore, officer-in-charge at the RCMP’S GTA enforcement section. A raid earlier this month netted 16,000 counterfeit sunglasses with names such as Gucci, Guess and Ray-ban among other major brands. Big name brand or not, the style of sunglasses you pick is a statement about who you are — or aspire to be. Aviator shades may tap into Tom Cruise in Top Gun. Oversized tortoise-shell sunglasses call to mind the ever-chic Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. In his downtown eyewear boutique named Karir, optician Bob Karir offers a tour of the possibilities. There’s the crystals and gold frame for lovers of bling, and the rectangular frame with water-buffalo-horn arms that cries out for an Armani suit and a Porsche. Or how about the edgy black frame with silver crosses at the temple and discreet swear words in sterling silver script for $1,200? That one, says Karir, is popular with stockbrokers and lawyers. Perhaps they’re channelling their inner biker.