It looks like the kind of sunglasses Marvel will make for a new Cyclops movie. We mean… it’s big, it has a mask-like shape, and it’s got that comic book style befitting a righteous superhero. You don’t need to be a powerful mutant, however, to wear the Oakley Kato sunglasses, a new pair of sports sunglasses that effectively manages to eliminate the frame entirely.
Billed as Oakley’s “most revolutionary product to date,” the eyewear provides the competitive performance of traditional sports sunglasses, all while providing greater coverage, wider field of view, and better impact protection. It’s supposedly so good, in fact, over 1,000 athletes will sport them in the upcoming Tokyo summer games, so we’re going to be seeing a lot of this on our TVs soon enough.
The Oakley Kato consists of a single-piece wraparound lens, temples, and a nose pad, eliminating the presence of a frame entirely, making it completely unique in the category. That wraparound lens hews close to the contours of the face, creating a mask-like feel that fits more naturally than traditional sunglasses while giving the person wearing them a wider field of vision. It does all this while blocking out sun and wind even better with its closer fit, which should make for an overall more effective eyewear. Even better, the lens is fitted with an adjustable rake mechanism on the sidearms that allows you to tilt it across a 30-degree angle, allowing you to tweak the fit to conform to the exact shape of your face.
Obviously, a wraparound lens doesn’t seem like the most durable structure with the absence of a frame to provide any rigidity. Well, they solved that by making the lens thicker as it flares outward towards the forehead area, providing the necessary rigidity in key areas, so it’s able to hold up like a regular piece of eyewear.
The Oakley Kato uses the outfit’s Prizm lenses, which, the outfit claims, is designed to enhance color and contrast, so you can see more detail, no matter the time of day. Each one comes with three nose pads that you can swap at will, by the way, each one coming with a different offset, so you can further fine tune the way the glasses fit.
The Oakley Kato is available now, priced at $291.