Last year I had the opportunity to try out a pair of Switch Vision sunglasses. You can read my review here of them. The short of it was I loved the sunglasses, I wore them during river rafting season, I wore them biking, I wore them out to drinks with friends. They got a lot of wear, those sunglasses. So you can imagine my excitement at trying out the new Axo frame design just recently released this summer.
The Axo frame has many of the signature Switch Vision designs that I already love, most notably their magnetic interchangeable lenses. The sunglasses were complete with a set of polarized lenses and low light rose amber lenses, a hard case to boot. The benefit to the two types of lenses is that in certain situations, say snowshoeing or fishing on the water, you can choose to wear your polarized lenses. These lenses block the majority of light and help to define shadows. When you’re driving in and out of a forested area, or mountain biking through the woods, the rose amber lenses are the choice pick, as they let in more light and allow better visibility for these situations. Two kinds of sunglasses in one frame.
Just as before with the Boreal Switch Vision frames, it wasn’t noticeable in the slightest that the lenses were interchangeable. Easily the lenses popped out of the frame, and there was no fuss in putting the others in-the magnets in the frame take care of this. In terms of visibility, the lenses were very good, though at times I wished for the lenses to be slightly darker. I found myself squinting on particularly bright days, which defeats the whole point of sunglasses in my opinion.
The glasses fit comfortable on my face, with the padded temple tips and nose pad helping to create a comfortable fit. That being said, I felt the frames were just a bit too big for me, proven after I leaned forward too far, or shook my head back and forth, they would fall off. They do note on the website it best fits a large size, and so I can’t say I wasn’t warned.
Unfortunately a big turnoff for me with these glasses was the frame itself. Written as being extremely impact resistant, I had a hard time believing that I could thrash these sunglasses and they would withstand the treatment. The shiny black budget-looking frames really couldn’t compare to the cool magnetic interchangeable lenses that were within them. The simple design ended up hurting more than helping with the look. Thankfully, Switch Vision has a wide variety of frames to choose from, but for me, the Axo frame just didn’t quite work.
You can check out the Switch Vision Axo sunglasses as well as a number of other frames here on the Switch Vision website.
Photo courtesy of the Switch Vision website.