The dreaded F word. Finding the right FIT can be tricky when it comes to sunglasses. From the different shapes and sizes of the sunglasses themselves, to trying to figure out if your face is an oval, heart, circle, or square, there are enough opinions out there to make your head spin!
This post explains more about what eyewear specifications can tell you, and concludes with a couple of our tips to help you match with that perfect pair!
Common Frame dimensions
The industry standard for eyewear is to find the measurements below in millimeters. If you aren’t super familiar with the metric system, a quick cheat to get to inches is just to divide mm by 25 as 1 inch = about 25mm.
- Overall Width - this measurement is the horizontal width across the top of the frame
- Bridge Width - this measurement is the width of the frame section that goes across the bridge of the nose (between the eyes)
- Arm Length - this is the measurement from outer edge of the frame where the lenses are contained to the tip that goes behind the ears
- Frame Height - this measurement is the vertical height from the top of the frame to the bottom of the frame (or lens if frameless)
We include all of the above dimensions on our individual product pages, as well as a compilation of all 9 of our frame shapes all on our fit page.
Tip #1 Don’t sweat the specifications
While the dimensions above are very helpful to form a baseline, they do not tell the whole story. Other aspects of the sunglasses like frame thickness, color, reflectivity, and lens color can make the overall appearance on your face vary greatly. Furthermore, a person’s eyebrows, nose shape, and hair style can also change the overall look quite a bit. Our recommendation? If you like how a pair looks, don’t rule it out on numbers alone! If it appears drastically big or small based on your face, it may be worth passing it over.
Tip #2 Experiment like an expert
Have you always worn aviators, or sunglasses with black frames and gold lenses? There’s always a chance you won’t be super happy if you go completely against all of your normal favorites at the same time--but that doesn’t mean you should be afraid to try something new! If you are going for a new SHAPE that seems to be a bit much for you, try a neutral, dark colored frame. Several of our more bold designs, including the Alder and Birch, are offered with a Matte Black frame option. This trick will still allow you to draw attention to the new shape, without making it TOO obvious. Alternatively if you are going for a new COLOR on a familiar frame shape, it is important to think about your overall style. If you generally stick with certain colors for your shirts, outerwear, etc., you may not want your sunglasses to clash. Alternatively, if you dress in a more linear color palette, adding some bright colorful lenses can be a great way to add a pop to your look!
Tip #3 Materials matter
Sunglasses are made out of a slew of different materials. From the expected frames and lenses, all the way down to the hinges and arm tips, the plastics, rubbers, and metals that go into a pair of sunglasses absolutely affect the fit. Take aviators for example. With their thin metal frames, they are certainly flexible. This however can be a functionally and aesthetically bad thing if your head is a bit too wide for them--and they end up hugging your temples at a convex (greater than 90 degree) angle. To ease the fit on these styles, SunHeist uses memory Titanium on the temples to ease the fit.
When it comes to plastics, not all frames are created equal either. Some plastics are very rigid and hard; and while this may seem to be a positive thing in terms of build quality, it actually makes your them much more likely to break if they are twisted, crushed, or pulled in just the wrong way. It also means it will feel like something is ON your face, rather than moving ALONG with your face. We recommend looking for high quality, durable materials like the Swiss TR90 material offered on all of SunHeist's plastic frames--especially if you are going to be using them in very active situations.
Tip #4 That’s a wrap
One area that we frequently see ignored by other fit guides, is how sunglasses wrap around the face. While shapes like squares, ovals, and diamonds are useful when thinking about your face in two dimensions, our faces / heads certainly have different curvatures as you move away from the eyes. Consider the tradeoff of how much light vs. how much frame you are OK with seeing out of your peripheral vision. For someone participating in sports, it may be very important to have wrap around coverage that blocks out as much light as possible. For people who don’t like things right up against their eyes, or prefer to see some light through the sides of their frames, you may want to look for styles that offer a bit more distance between the corner (where the hinge of the arm and frame meet) and your face.
In conclusion, at SunHeist we feel that it is important to have a sunglasses company that is going to help you through the fit process. We offer free exchanges and returns, and a 1 year warranty guaranteeing the quality of our products. Not sure how one of our pairs will fit, or have any other question about our sunglasses? Just contact us. That’s what we are here for!
