Making life look better & adventure proof

A pretty big claim from an up and coming brand who have set out to change the eyewear industry. SunGod make Sunglasses and Snow sports goggles that are designed to last, look great doing it and not break the bank.

Their 2 big statements, #Life looks better & #Adventure proof

We wanted to know if these claims were to good to be true and as we spend nearly 600 hours on the snow every winter, in some of the most challenging conditions we decided to put them to the test. We love the brand and we love what they stand for so we had high hopes. We focused our test on the SunGod Revolt Goggle, we always recommend wearing a helmet and in our opinion goggles and a helmet just looks better. We did put the SunGod Classics with Polarised Lens’ through a few tests too though

We came up with 6 tests.

• The flat light test
• The bright light test
• The Lift Test
• The “I forgot my Sun Glasses test”
• The small child test
• The line spotting test

Flat light

As standard you can choose any lens you like from the sungod range when you place your order. For low light we all went for the 4KO Snow high Vis Blue. It looks great and despite being the lowest light lens still has a slight mirror.

We tested the Lens in Norway skiing everything from complete white out can’t see the person in front of you conditions to the infinitely more frustrating flat light. Where everything looks identical and whether you are going up, down or even moving at all is a mystery.

We were blown away.

After skinning up wondering if we were actually going up or just around in circles we popped on the goggles. (I wish I had worn them on the way up but that is test 4.)

With the goggles on the little light available was transformed into a soft spring evening glow, the landscape glistened a warm pink and all the rollers, drops and terrain traps revealed themselves. If only we had a filter that did the same for the camera, all the photos and video ended up just showing various shades of grey.

With the goggles on we quickly forgot how bad the light was and skied some of the best snow on the trip down and back to the boat in dream like light.

Bright Light

Here we were divided I went for the 4KO Snow Chrome while Pete and Marco went for the 4KO Snow Fire.

While not as surprising as the low light performance both Lens give awesome definition and really sharpen up the terrain in front of you. On top of that they also look great.

The lift test

We have all been there. First few runs the clouds are in and you are lapping the trees with friends staying while staying low so you can see where you are going. Lunch rolls around and it starts to clear and blue skies are appearing left and right. The piste patrol have opened the rest of the mountain and it is time to go.

No one wants to be the person holding up the group, but you need to change your lens. This leaves you two choices. Be that guy faffing around or change your lens on the move. Easier said than done with some goggles.

You need to be able to change the lens fast to avoid numb fingers, the mechanism needs to be simple enough to do while holding all your other kit and you need to be able to keep your other lens safe.

So….. we tested it. It was -12 (pretty cold) the chair was modern and fast and we had full avi gear. With only 3 of us on a 6 man chair  though we did have plenty of space though and we had our secret weapon the capsule case.

A long rather boring story cut short it was pretty easy. With the case acting as a handy shelf on our laps we whipped off the low light lens, placed it safely in the capsule case and fitted the new lens. It was the first time we had changed the lens’ so the internal rubber clips were more resistant than normal but this caused no issues and with in 2 minutes the lens was sorted.

The best part of this system is there is need to fit the lens into an internal groove or manipulate the shape of the frame beyond recognition. The lens’ just go straight on to the front clipping onto the frame before locking into place.

The “I forgot my Sun Glasses test”

It happens to the best of us. You are pumped for a big day out and rushing to get out the door and up the hill. You make first lifts and get to the point where you start hiking for your favourite line. In our case we had just skied our favourite line and now had a 90 minute skin out in warm spring like temperatures.

We stripped down to base layers, opened all our vents put on our skins and then realised our mistake. The choice was 90 minutes of squinting or wearing our goggles while skinning

At this point I think I should highlight we are not all completely incompetent and did not all actually forgot our sunglasses. In fact we all had them in our bag but the test had to go on. Could the goggles take the sweat and remain fog free?

So we started skinning, after an hour of sweating buckets we all still had full vision, no fog . Given the level of sweat around, this is a pretty impressive feat, I have had goggles from big brands steam up walking to the lift.

It was not until the 75 minute mark when I started to see some mist appear at the top of the lens. This however may have just been a reflection of my fitness as Pete and Marco were fine.

At the end of the 90 minutes, I had fog over the top 3^rd of my lens’ Pete and Marco over the top quarter. Given the amount we were sweating the goggles did an awesome job and while not ideal it is always better than no eye protection.

Within 5 minutes of leaving my head the fog had cleared and I was back to full vision for the ski home.

The Small child test

Nothing is capable of ruining smart, clean ski kit faster than a 5 year old out in the cold on skis for the first time. Many think of ski instructing as a glamorous job where lunches on the mountain and heliskiing are a daily occurrence.

While this does happen occasionally we also spend some weeks getting pelted with snowballs (most of which are just lumps of ice), wiping snotty noses and getting abuse from kids who think rugby tackling their ski instructor is the best thing ever.

The goggles took the abuse well, despite being prodded, poked and pulled into all manner of shapes before being blasted with ice like snowballs the lens remained scratch free. This is possibly more luck than judgement but a great indicator of quality. I have seen other mirrored lens’ scratch with the slightest efforts.

The Line spotting test

While skinning through the mountains or spotting your line from across the Valley, sunglasses are just more comfortable.

We tested the Sungod Classics with the polarised lens. After reading the rest of this review it may not surprise you to hear we were really impressed. One of the Fjord Adventures staff said it was like wearing 3D glasses.

There is no glare and the clarity and definition offered is great. When trying to piece together contours in the distance they make a huge difference allowing you to read the terrain with far more accuracy.

The glasses come with a lifetime warranty so if you do manage to damage or break the frame SunGod have you covered. I use my kit pretty hard and these are still going strong. Unlike some other Sunglasses that look great in a ski resort but a touch out of place in the real world you can also wear these from beach to bar without having to worry.

Long story short, if you are after new glasses or goggles these are an awesome choice. The goggles look great and outperform far more expensive brands while the sunglasses look clean and modern lending themselves to an effortless beachside or mountain top style without looking out of place in the city. The quality and price combined makes them a guaranteed winner and we will be recommending them to all our trainee instructors, friends and guests.