Oakley wants to change how athletes approach sport with its Prizm lens technology

OAKLEY wants to revolutionise sport with its lens technology that changes how athletes see their sporting environment.

Oakley is leading the way with lens technology in the sporting arena.

SUNGLASS giant Oakley continues to build on its hallmark lens technology in a move which the company hopes will revolutionise the sporting scene.

According to it creators, the lens technology called Prizm is a result of 15 years of research and development and was born out of an idea to solve environmental problems faced by athletes.

The snow sports lens, first released in October 2014, is the crown jewel of the range and since its launch Oakley has continued to release new versions, and lenses “specifically tuned” for other sports such as golf and motocross.

Winter Olympics gold medallist and Oakley team member Sage Kotsenburg uses the Prizm Snow lens and says the benefits for training and competing are invaluable.

“Honestly, it’s like a secret weapon. The conditions on the mountain are not always perfect and they can change any time. If you can’t see, you can’t snowboard ... What Prizm does is it enhances contrast and visibility, so I can see every little detail,” he told news.com.au.

The 22-year-old American who won the first-ever Olympic gold medal in men’s snowboard slopestyle at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi said the extra visibility provided by the lens adds to his confidence on the slopes.

“You see more which gives you so much more confidence out there, you can react quicker,” he said.

For Hans Arnesen, Oakley category manager, who oversees the product research and development, such appraisals are music to his ears.

“That’s the best part of my job, hearing testimonials from the athletes,” he said.

“Last year I was with Aksel Svindal (Olympic skier also sponsored by Oakley) after he had one of his world cup race wins, unprompted he just holds up the goggles as he walked by me and said, ‘These Prizm lens are amazing, I use them every day’.”

The snow lens offers different lenses to cater to various weather conditions.

The Oakley glasses come with a number of lenses to maximise the benefits of the technology in different conditions.

“When the light is low and flat it makes it super hard to see where you’re going which can be pretty scary and dangerous. Prizm lenses cut out all the bad light letting all the good light in,” Kotsenburg said.

“There’s also options for different light conditions so I can pick a lens like Prizm Rose for a low light cloudy day or Black Iridium lens if it’s sunny out.”

For Arnesen, the genesis of the lens was all about “trying to solve problems on the mountain”.

“For example, contrast, not being able to see well in low light or changing light conditions is really what prompted Prizm,” he told news.com.au.

Traditional old-school lenses work by dimming all colours and light equally but new products on the market such as Oakley’s Prizm lens are designed to amplify select colours.

In the case of the snow sports goggles, certain spectrums of blue and orange are harnessed while other colours are dimmed or blocked out which allows the user to better see the contours of the snow terrain.

“In order to get more contrast... you need to be able to separate out colours because otherwise your brain sees it all as the same,” Arnesen said.

During the manufacturing process engineers use specific dyes to manipulate the light which enters the goggles in order to create the desired effect.

“They absorb very specific spectrums of colour,” Arnesen said. “And what that does is it allows us to separate out colour and allows us to have more contrast and clarity in the lens.”

For the company to bring the product to market was an “evolving process” over nearly 15 years, which included 35 to 40 different field testing trips in a number of countries, Arnesen said.

But he see the extensive research and testing as the key to the success of the lens as the company continues to apply the technology-based approach to more sports.

“Each of our Prizm lens is tuned specifically to the sport you’re going to be using them in, and the environment you’re going to be using them in,” he said.

The Prizm snow lens amplifies spectrums of blue and orange to provide contrast to the contours of the snow terrain.