We hesitate to contradict the bards of ZZ Top, and don't get us wrong, we do love us a pair of cheap sunglasses, especially when we know they are likely to get scratched, lost or broken. But there are also times where we're going to be on water, snow or ice and we want the best optical clarity we can get, regardless of conditions. For those times Costa has our eyes covered with their OCEARCH Spearo polarized shades. Sales of OCEARCH collection sunglasses help fund that organization's mission to protect sharks. You might have heard of the OCEARCH shark tracker app, a very cool way to get to know your local shark population. So good on Costa for pitching in and giving us a chance to direct our dollars to a worthy cause.
The OCEARCH Spearo is a damn good looking set of shades, with a two-tone dark-over-light gray frame clearly inspired by the Great White shark. As befits a premium product like the Spearo, the lenses are glass, the best choice for scratch resistance and ultimate optical clarity. There are two tints available: blue, for bright light conditions like you'll find on open water, and green, for more mixed conditions.
Wearing the blue Spearos in Hawaii recently we found the lenses to have superb clarity, and colors just popped. Even now, sitting at our desk back in Alaska, we can pop them on and look out the window at our recently snow-free yard to enjoy the saturated colors. The technology behind the glass, what Costa calls 580P, is pretty fascinating; check out the slider on their website to get a pretty accurate depiction of what a scene will look like through different lens colors.
The Spearo fits our medium-sized face perfectly, and the styling draws "hey where'd you get those?" comments. The straight temples are easy on/off, and the flush-mounted nose pads keep them securely in place. Overall the construction seems pretty bomber, and we're careful to store them in the included protective case. If you need prescription lenses, Costa has you covered there too. We like the Spearo so much it's our everyday choice for venturing outside, and the enhanced colors through the blue lenses are helping us deal with post-Hawaii depression and drab spring foliage until things start to green up in a few weeks.