Finding the right type of sports eye wear for your kids is essential for protecting eyes against serious injuries and enabling young athletes to see properly, therefore enhancing their performance.
The following tips will help you find suitable eye wear for your kids and prevent them from suffering one of the 40,000 sports eye injuries that occur every year.
Features to Look for in Sports Eye Wear
- Polycarbonate. Shatterproof frames and lenses are the safest for playing sports, and eye doctors often recommend polycarbonate for being virtually unbreakable, explains VSP.
- UV protection. For outdoor sports, eye wear must block 100 percent of both UVA and UVB rays, says optometrist Dr. Melman. Polycarbonate is usually available for shades, googles, and even lenses for helmets.
- Prescription lenses. If your kids normally wear glasses, you can fit sports eye wear with the same prescription.
Sports Eye Wear and Tints
The sports your kids play will determine the best color tint for eye wear. Here is a summary of the different options and their characteristics, provided by VSP:
- Green. This tint works well for all outdoor activities, no matter whether it is raining or sunny.
- Brown and amber. Ideal for slightly cloudy to sunny conditions, brown and amber tints are useful for activities at high altitudes and sports where judging distance is important, due to a red element that improves depth perception.
- Yellow. This tint filters blue light to improve focus, particularly in low light such as in fog, haze, the early morning, or the evening. Use yellow for skiing, mountain biking, hunting, tennis, and target shooting, but avoid this color for sports where you need to distinguish colors.
- Blue, purple, and double gradient. Top choices for golfers, these tints reduce glare, help you perceive contours, and enhance color.
- Gray. Best for baseball, tennis, football, soccer, and water sports, gray tints prevent the eyes from becoming fatigued by offering true color perception and reducing glare.
- Pink and red. Favorites with cyclists, these tints help with depth perception and avoids eyestrain.
You can find shades with all the above features in the Real Kids collection.