Nike Didn’t Design Its Insane $1,200 Sunglasses for Mortals
Nike teamed up with VSP Global's innovation lab The Shop and Zeiss to create revolutionary performance eyewear for elite runners - The Wing.
Nike Didn’t Design Its Insane $1,200 Sunglasses for Mortals
WHEN YOU’RE AN elite runner, something as small as ill-fitting sunglasses can distract you from the task at hand—covering leg-deadening distances as fast as humanly possible. Two common pain points, even for high-end shades, are the bridge of the nose and above the ears. For the 2016 Olympics, Nike teamed up with designers at VSP Global and optics gurus at Zeiss to create a pair of sunglasses that don’t work, or look, like the sunnies you wear.
Nike calls them the Wing, and they’re noteworthy for what they’re missing. The Wing eschews hinges, temples, and earpieces—all standard elements of sunglasses—in favor of a single lens that wraps, Giordi-like, past the temples. The unibody lens joins a silicone rubber strap that loops around the head. The result is a pair of shades that weighs just 26 grams and don’t so much sit on your head as hug it.
