First Look: Oakley EVZero Path

Oakley’s lightest sunglass ever, the EVZero Path, arrived in our office last week and, based on one bike and run, it’s going to be a hit.

The new EVZero Path is super light and offers a sleek, rimless lens that will be popular with triathletes. Here are a few of our initial thoughts – we’ll have a more detailed review of the EVZero Path in our July issue of Triathlon Magazine Canada.

Frameless

The advantages of a frameless lens is that you get a lot more vision as you look up through the top of the glasses while you are down in an aero position. While I’ve always been fine looking up with framed lenses like the Radar or last year’s Jawbreaker (which offers a crazy amount of peripheral vision), there’s definitely improvement with the “toric shield” that makes up the lens of the EVZero. The lens provides a lot of coverage to keep the wind and sun out of your eyes.

Are they there?

These are hands down the lightest Oakley’s I’ve ever worn. I was a fan of the old Zero glasses from the 90s that were also a frameless design, but those glasses had much thicker arms and didn’t provide nearly as much protection from the wind. They also weren’t as light as the EVZeros, which weigh just 22 g. The stems on the EVZeros are really thin, but still provide lots of stability and keep the glasses firmly in place when either running or cycling. There’s a locking mechanism that enhances that feeling of control as you’re opening them up to put them on. We haven’t tried the EVZeros with an aero helmet yet, but since they are so thin we can’t imagine that will be a problem.

I can see clearly now …

The EVZeros use Oakley’s Prizm Road lens that both shields your eyes from the sun’s rays while providing excellent optical clarity. Specially designed to help you spot subtle changes in road surfaces whether you’re in bright sun or shade, the Prizm Road lens is very comfortable on your eyes and works very well in a variety of lighting conditions. There’s a line around the outside of the lens that provides a bit of styling, but doesn’t affect vision at all. Oakley has also release the EVZero Range, which is geared for cyclists as it has a larger frame.

Based on our short trial run over the last few days it’s easy to see how the EVZero Path glasses will be popular for triathletes competing at any distance. Stay tuned for a more in depth review as we put the EVZero Path through its paces.