That ADIDAS have one of the best selection of performance sports sunglasses on the market today is no secret. Top athletes like All Black Dan Carter, MTB Downhiller Sam Blenkinsop and Golfer Natalie Gulbis can be seen wearing their ADIDAS eyewear wherever you see them. But not only top performance athletes enjoy the incredible benefits behind the ADIDAS eyewear technology. They are built to be durable, fit most comfortably, protect the wearer from harmful light and wind, and even improve visual comfort in extreme light conditions. ... read more

2 brand new models from the ic!Berlin sunglasses range have arrived in the shop. As usual, they ooze quality and style with the trademark ic!Berlin temple hinge and their unsurpassed comfort. The ladies model “Nikola” and the mens style “Kornelius” both feature top quality polarised lenses which are coated with an anti-reflection coat on the inside surface. Both can also be fitted with prescription lenses if so desired. ... read more

I can assure you we won’t do it all year round like some other shops. A sale should be a sale and not a year round event, because if it does, it isn’t a sale any more, right? So, what’s our first ever “Spring Sale” all about? Well, between now and the middle of December, we are giving our clients a great discount of $100 off the price of selected prescription glasses or prescription sunglasses. Although the sale is limited to certain ranges of frames and sunglasses collection, it still covers a large part of our inventory. If you are in need of new glasses or want to invest into some really great prescription suglasses for the summer, let us show you what’s possible. ... read more

Let’s say you are shopping for prescription sunglasses. A good way to do it is to use a “normal” pair of sunglasses and replace the lenses with your prescription. Ideally you want the final product to look as close as possible to the original pair you selected when they still had non-prescription lenses in them. We have already discussed the basic requirements that prescription sunglasses should fulfill. That includes a good coverage, good glare protection and certainly good UV protection. We are very fortunate at the moment that the sunglasses fashion is big, beautiful and many of them even wrap around the face nicely. But can we fit all prescription lenses into frames like that? ... read more

When the first people come into the shop and ask if it is possible to get sunglasses made with prescription lenses, we know that summer isn’t far away. The simple answer to this question is “yes”. OK, there are a few restrictions, but in general terms it is possible to make prescription sunglasses for most glasses wearers. They can be done in single vision, bifocal and even progressive powered lenses. So what qualifies as a pair of prescription sunglasses then? I know there is some debate over this. Many consider any prescription lenses that are tinted to a degree darker than, say, 50% as being sunglass lenses. Personally I tend to disagree with this. ... read more

Summers in the Nelson region are legendary. That’s mainly why we are here, right? Just looking out the window now, I can’t see a single cloud in the sky. Although the temperatures are still a bit nippy, most people in Motueka have reverted back to summer clothing. Positive thinking! Also, since last week our new sunglass ranges have started to come in and I will introduce some of them here as they actually arrive. This morning, a variety of new models from the Marco range came in and as usual, they are all outstading. ... read more

You know the feeling – everybody around you has the coolest of sunglasses and you, because you wear prescription lenses, can’t. Even when you have tinted lenses in your frames, your glasses always look like “tinted prescription glasses”, never like “real sunglasses”, right? Most likely. We hear it so often, that a client had bought a pair of non-prescription sunglasses, brought them to her optometrist or optician, only to be told that the frames aren’t suitable for prescription lenses. Either the frames are too wrapped, the bevel not suitable, or the quality of the frame may have been such that there was a real risk of it breaking during the glazing process. ... read more

Today we received a large promotional pamphlet from Transitions, the world leader in colour changing self-tinting lens technology. We have discussed the benefits and performance of Transitions lenses before and if you are interested in refreshing your memory, you can do so by clicking here. This particular promotion is aimed at promoting Transitions lenses and offering them to every single customer who enters an optometry practice or optical shop. There is a grand prize of $20,000 offered for the person who purchases a pair of Transitions and wins the “Live Your Vision” photo competition during the months of June and July. But then there is also a prize for the optical practice where the client bought her/his Transition lenses. Great news? Maybe, maybe not! You see as professionals, we should only recommend what we feel is of benefit to you our client, not something that promises us to win great prizes. ... read more

Probably the only complaint we receive about Transitions lenses is that many people feel they don’t go dark enough behind a windscreen to give good glare protection. Unfortunately this is true, simply because Transitions lenses on their own require ultra violet light to react and  to go dark. The problem is that behind the windscreen of a car, there just isn’t enough ultra violet light available for them to go dark to their full extend. Now, unless you are driving a concertible with the roof folded, you would have experienced exactly that. So what is the solution to this? ... read more

A couple of weeks ago we attended a seminar conducted by the French lens manufacturer Essilor. One of the more interesting topics discussed was the performance of the new generation of self-tinting lenses, namely the Transitions VI lenses. ... read more