There are basically 3 things I ask myself when it comes to sunglasses. Firstly, do they look cool? Secondly, are they comfortable and finally, how good is the quality of the lenses - are they going to protect my eyes from the glare when I'm at the beach on a scorching day?
I got my hands on this pair of Oakley Dispatch IIs two weeks ago and I've worn them everyday since then.
This pair is the polished Rootbeer colour with Bronze polarized lenses. So considering the 3 questions above, this is what I found...
Are they cool? Well this is the pair that Jordy wears so in terms of personal endorsement they don't get much cooler than that. I generally prefer the oversized, rockstar look and so these suited my tastes perfectly. The lens orbitals of the Dispatch II are a little smaller and more rounded than the Dispatch I, and the earstems are absolutely unique. They’re a fresh twist on a look that salutes vintage style. They are made from what Oakley calls "O matter" which is the unique material that allows the ear stems to spring back into shape. The unique feature of the Dispatch II is that each pair comes with interchangeable Oakley Icons that you can change up at any point. Check this little clip out to see how quick and easy it is to customize a pair by changing out the icons:
No problems there.
Secondly, the fit. These are leisure shades as opposed to sports shades, so what I'm looking for here is comfort, alignment and weight. This pair is made up of 2 single lenses with a triangle in the middle. Comfort is optimized by what Oakley call the "Three-Point Fit" that balances pressure points instead of hooking around your ears like ordinary frames. This also means that optically they are perfectly aligned. The frames are lightweight and very comfortable to wear, so much so that once I popped these on my face I pretty much forgot about them altogether. Tick.
Finally, the lenses on this pair of Dispatch IIs is probably the best I've ever worn. I did some research and made some inquiries on these Oakley lenses, which are called the "Oakley HD Polarized" lenses, and are made out of Oakley's trademaked Plutonite lens material which filters out 100% of UVA / UVB / UVC & harmful blue light up to 400nm which means a minimized glare and the best possible protection for your eyes. Something we've come to expect from the market leader in eyewear over the years. As you can see from the images, the lenses are quite wide and so there is significant side protection on this style, and for the technical freaks out there, has a 6 base lens curvature, so now you know.
The Oakley Dispatch IIs are available from all good surf shops and optometrists and range from R1325 for the standard Polished Black pair to this particular pair which I wore, the Rootbeer with bronze polarized lenses at R1875.
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