UKH

I’m looking to buy a decent pair of sunglasses with prescription lenses. 

mountains, walking, climbing, canoeing and very occasionally an alpine high day out (hopefully).

I value the voices on this forum and wondered if anyone could recommend a product or service.

thanks

RxSport are good, i had a bit of an issue with them on one order but they sorted it out very well and they are certainly cheaper for normal prescription stuff than the high street, i haven't had sunglasses but can't imagine why they would be any different with regards to service

https://www.rxsport.co.uk

Depending on your prescription, it may be worth getting them from your opticians who did your eye test.

I tried to get prescription sun glasses some years ago but found that for alpine stuff and sunny skiing I need very high protection, sometimes I need much lower protection and sometimes need to take sunglasses off due to light changes. Also, especially with alpine climbing / bivvying - I tend to go through sunglasses quite quickly; they get scratched because I don't look after them enough. Watersports also required sunglasses off and on again according to conditions. In the end I went for daily disposable contact lenses ( obviously don't suit everybody ) and different sunglasses / goggles for different jobs.

    Hopefully someone in the hive will have found the perfect answer for your question... 

I've used RxSport, would recommend.

That was spec savers and their sunnies range is pretty small and “high street”. 

Tried contacts and don’t really like them. It would save a fortune on sunnies though, you can get even a decent non prescription pair for £50 by the looks of it. 
 

Also putting them in and out at the start and end of a long Scottish winter day I found really tricky. 

I'm currently using a pair of Julbo Montebianco that I got from Eyekit who were easy to deal with and from what I remember fairly quick to arrive.

I've only got them in the cat 3 lens but if I was to do it again would probably go for one of the reactive lenses.

I got my prescription MTB glasses from our local opticians (Bolle lenses in a Sunwise frame, scratch resistant, clear, UV) for the same sort of prices as on the rxsport site.

Support local.

I got my Oakley Split Jackets from RxSports - expensive but the Iridium lenses are really good at rapidly reacting to changing light, such as riding through a forest where it's frequently changing. I use them for climbing, skiing, mountaineering, running etc.

Still going strong after 10 years. Changed the lenses once as my prescription changed. Used to have a set of clear lenses for them too but they looked ridiculous.

Adidas - expensive but excellent.  I've got some Kumacross 2.0 (for driving mostly) would make good outdoor prescription sunglasses.

https://www.adidas.com/us/kumacross-2.0-sunglasses/S46591.html

Another recommendation for Rxsport from me. I've had my Bolle Anacondas for at least ten years and they've taken a good number of bashes. Bifocals and not everyone does bifocals in sports sunglasses. Great for skiing cos you can see to ski then read the menu in the bar without the usual faff changing specs. 

Good dark lenses really can be dramatic - 'cheap' prescription sunglasses can be made by tinting clear lenses into tint baths, which is how they used to do it, but you're really missing out if you go for those. The lenses from the likes of Maui Jim, (get a 2nd mortgage), Oakley and Adidas are breathtaking - try them on on a sunny day and you'll go 'wow!' - they don't simply darken everything, they sharpen vision too.

Some local opticians (NOT the chains) specialise in sports vision, - maybe worth a google or a few phone calls to find out. If you can find someone relatively locally, e.g. who is authorised to provide Adidas, Oakley and a few others, that's likely to be your best though most expensive option - here's an example:

https://bridleopticians.co.uk/sports/

Otherwise RxSports seems the way to go. 

PS: Make the most of them - in a few years time your vision will start changing and you will need different correction for distance and near - I've not find a really satisfactory solution for that and I've been looking for 20 years!

I use spec savers for my specky needs and a couple of times I found that they were doing an “Osiris” frame which is robust, comfortable and very wrap-around, into which I got them to put tinted lenses. Under their buy one get one free system, I now have a pair of Cat 4 Sunnies in my distance prescription, four years old but still fine - your distance vision doesn’t seem to change as much as your close up focussing- and a pair of Cat 3 varifocals, the only additional cost was foregoing their 25% off option to only have one pair at each re-test. I’ve used the Cat 4’s (and their predecessors which I managed to destroy by stepping on them) repeatedly in the Alps, all the way to 4800m. 

If I had unlimited money I would get the prescription julbo explorers from rxsports, but since they are £550 I use daily contacts and the normal version. I also have a high street pair of prescription sunglasses for day to day use.  You could try the julbo clip in. They are a clear plastic frame that you put your clear prescription lenses in and clip inside the sunglasses, only compatable with some models though.

Thanks everyone. Some things I’d seen before and lots of new thoughts.