Polarized Glasses & Traveling In The Outdoors

Many people don’t seem to understand all of the advantages of owning a pair of quality polarized glasses for traveling in the outdoors. Everyone knows that fishermen wear polarized glasses, but they shouldn’t be the only ones. Quality polarized glasses eliminate the glare crated by the sun, which is great for fishermen, but also for bikers, hikers, climbers, skiers, hell anyone who spends time in the sun. When boating, glare is a huge problem, and quality polarized glasses will all but eliminate that glare.

I emphasize the word “quality” because this is an integral part of the equation. Quality polarized glasses are almost incredible, cheap polarized glasses are, well cheap. And cheap, that is to say inexpensive, polarized glasses don’t work properly, don’t fit properly, and will make you dislike polarized glasses. How do I know this? Let me explain.

I’m a fisherman, and for many years I refused to spend more that $25 on a pair of polarized sunglasses. I would buy my inexpensive glasses, year after year, and I always hated them. The next year would roll around and I would buy another pair, hoping they would be better than the prior pair. Guess what? They never were. So I became totally disenfranchised with polarized glasses and rarely wore them, even while fishing. Then one day a friend of mine gave me an old pair of his polarized glasses to wear. I did, and guess what happened?

I loved them. They were incredible. The clarity and elimination of glare they provided was amazing. So I asked him how much they cost him. He said they were like $150. I almost fainted! Then, when I regained my composure, he explained that the glasses I was wearing were almost 10 years old He said that when he spends that kind of money, he takes care of them. I couldn’t believe all this, gave the glasses back to him, and went on my way.

The next week I went fishing again, and missed those borrowed glasses. They were so nice I just had to have some. So that day I went home, fired up the internet, and bought myself a pair of $100 quality polarized glasses (I still couldn’t bring myself to spend $150). That was 5 years ago! I’ve found out that my friend was right. If you spend good money, you take care of them. Who would have thought? I also realized that if I amortize my $100 glasses, they only cost me twenty bucks a year. That’s less than I used to spend on the cheap polarized glasses! My point to this article is that when traveling in the outdoors, get quality polarized glasses. They’ll actually end up saving you money in the long run!