Sport Sunglasses That Look Good? Introducing District Vision’s Stylish Frames for Runners

In the year and a half since I started training for my first half-marathon, I’ve gotten very good at runnerspeak, a language heavy on koanlike utterances that sort of illuminate the central paradox of running miles and miles at a time, which is that it’s basically unpleasant and yet you keep going. You run until your mind tells you to stop—and if your mind is like my mind, it’s always telling you to stop. Any excuse will do.

Case in point: This summer, I went for a run along the river, at mid-morning; I was feeling fine as I set out, but as I hooked past Battery Park and came upon the broad expanse of the Hudson, the sun bounced off the water and flashed into my eyes in such a fierce, uninterrupted way that I briefly believed I’d blown all the circuits in my brain. So I stopped. And once I’d stopped, I was done. My body was fine. My mind had crashed.

I don’t run in a hat (because, ugh, sweaty head), and I also don’t run in those big wraparound shades (because, ugh, aesthetics.) So I’ve been at a bit of a loss about how to handle that whole flashing-sun-mental-crash problem. The new label District Vision feels my pain. Offering a range of running sunglasses, the company’s frames are featherweight and have been optimized for comfort, with features such as an adjustable temple tip (the bit that fits over your ear) and sweat-resistant nylon coating. They’ve also been optimized for style: District Vision founders Max Vallot and Tom Daly are alumni of Saint Laurent and Acne, respectively, and they’ve brought that downtown, cool-kid sensibility to bear on the look of their product. The frames themselves are very minimal, like tailored Ray-Bans, but there are some puckish touches, too, like the friendship bracelet–inspired sports straps produced at a kimono factory in Japan.

The District Vision glasses get their official launch this week at Dover Street Market. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I took them for a test drive. Daly and Vallot offered me my pick of three lenses: Sport Yellow, for low-light runs; Water Gray, a polarized lens made to be used near reflective surfaces, like the Hudson River in the middle of summer; and Sky G15, a black lens suitable for all but the dimmest conditions. I chose the latter. My first test-run of the pair wasn’t a run at all—it was a walk over the Williamsburg Bridge on an unseasonably bright Thanksgiving afternoon. I can attest that the lenses did yeoman’s work keeping the sun out of my eyes and that they were comfy enough that I’d actually forgotten I had them on by the time I arrived at my friend’s place for the holiday meal. Speaking as someone who’s forever shifting sunglasses from over her eyes to the top of her head, that’s saying something.

Actual running took place on a cloudy day. It was also cold, which meant that I was covering the ear part of the frames with a taut, heat-trapping headband. I was convinced in advance that I’d find the pressure of the headband against the frames really annoying, and also that the black lenses I’d chosen would be too dark for the overcast day. About a mile in, though, I realized that, once again, I’d forgotten I was even wearing the District Vision sunglasses. Which, when it comes to shades for running, is exactly the point: You forget you’ve got them on, so you can focus on all the other things that are bothering you. Your sore foot, the wind, the smell of kebabs roasting on nearby carts. Et cetera. So many reasons to stop! But you keep going.

District Vision sunglasses range from $299 to $349 and will be available starting this week at Dover Street Market locations in New York, London, and Tokyo. For more information or to join the District Vision community run program, visit districtvision.com.

The post Sport Sunglasses That Look Good? Introducing District Vision’s Stylish Frames for Runners appeared first on Vogue.