When you're fishing or biking or driving (really anytime you're outdoors) you'd do well to strap on a set of sunglasses with polarized lenses. These optics are designed to filter glare from notoriously reflective surfaces like water, asphalt and sand. The best ones are capable multitaskers, winnowing harsh photons without distorting colors, all while looking effortlessly cool.
Ray-Ban 8041 Aviator Titanium
There's a reason why pilots, cops and your dad have been wearing aviators for years. They look tough and provide Secret Service-level protection for your eyes. Ray-Ban's model 8041 amps things up by adding polarized lenses and titanium frames to the equation. Bright, overhead retina-searing sunlight? Filtered handily without a hint of color distortion. In our water tests, the lenses drastically cut glare, even when the surface became choppy. And the titanium frames are a revelation for the accident-prone. We repeatedly sat on, dropped and haphazardly tossed the frames without seeing them get bent out of shape. Best of all the specs look good on everyone. An assortment of folks in the Wired office modeled the 8041s; some with enormous heads, others with mighty shocks of hair, and folks with slim, angular faces. Without exception, everyone looked awesome wearing aviators, despite not being jet-jockeys or police. (We did have a few dads.)
Persol PO2979S
For style, you can't beat a pair of tortoise-shell Persols. (Just ask this guy.) The lenses handily eliminate aquatic glare, but they really distinguished themselves behind the wheel: The Persols distilled the reflection from asphalt better than any other model we tested. The lenses are tough, too — a series of drops onto concrete and sand didn't leave a single mark on the optics. The frames however are a bit hefty and often slid off our tester's nose when his proboscis got sweaty. Still, when you look almost as cool as McQueen these are the most minor of quibbles.
