Gear Review: Ryders Via

Sunglasses are one of those items that make running much more pleasant (because no one likes squinting into the sun, or eye damage for that matter), but tend to cost a lot of money. While everyone tends to recognize big (expensive) names like Oakley, there are also companies that are making high-performance sunglasses at a lower price point, (the previously reviewed Tifosi Slip and Podium XC fall into this category). I've recently discovered another bang-for-your-buck company: Ryders. The Ryders Via is one of their lightweight sport models, and today I'll be reviewing the photochromic version.

Gear Review: Tifosi Podium XC

A little while ago, I reviewed the Tifosi Slip. Tifosi fills a niche as a budget-performance sunglass company, with most of their offerings falling between $50 and $80. I've always considered them a great value, bang-for-your-buck company, since they're less than half the price of similar products from companies like Oakley and Smith, yet they're still high quality products (though perhaps not quite as solid feeling as their far more expensive brethren). My parents both wear Tifosi, and I tend to wear the Slip whenever I'm doing something where I want sunglasses but am afraid of breaking my expensive Oakley Flak Jackets (mountain biking comes to mind), or whenever I want something other than the really dark Flak Jacket lenses (replacement Oakley lenses are ridiculously expensive). Today I'll be reviewing the Tifosi Podium XC.

Gear Review: Tifosi Slip

I recently reviewed the Oakley Flak Jacket: sexy, performs great, and expensive. Consider it the Lamborghini Gallardo of sunglasses. Now, we all love Lambos, but not all of us want to spend the money for one, especially if you're someone who tends to lose or break sunglasses. In that case, you can go with a Honda Civic, aka your typical pair of cheap, but still UV-protective, sunglasses from a department store, or you can decide you still want great performance without the huge price tag and get yourself a Subaru WRX. The Subarus of the sunglasses world come from a company known as Tifosi, and their WRX is the Tifosi Slip.

Tifosi Slip in Carbon with High Speed Red Fototec lens

Gear Review: Oakley Flak Jacket

I've had Oakley lust since I can remember. As an elementary school kid, I bought a pair of $10 Foakleys at a flea market because they looked almost exactly like the Oakley Twenty (which I believe went by a different name back then, but that name escapes me right now). Unfortunately, as you've probably guessed, while they looked like a genuine pair of Oakleys, they were not made like a genuine pair of Oakleys, and they broke within a few months. Come to think of it, they probably didn't offer very good sun protection either, but I digress. It wasn't until after undergrad that I finally bought a quality pair of sunglasses, and while my running partners at the time all sported either Zeal or Rudy Project, I was unable to resist the siren song of Oakley. The guy I was dating at that point had a pair of Oakley Flak Jackets, and after trying on his, I decided that the next pair of sunglasses I bought were going to be Flak Jackets.

Oakley Flak Jacket with XLJ lens