ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Despite the large number of Americans participating in some type of sport activity, less than 17 percent of American adults said they had purchased sunglasses or goggles specifically to be used for sports activities, according to The VisionCouncil’s VisionWatch 2017 Sports Sunglass Report. In April of 2017, The Vision Council interviewed approximately 10,500 American adults and queried them about their use of sunglasses when participating in sporting activities.

Approximately 84 percent of the U.S. adult population said they had participated in at least one sports activity in the past year (the most common activities were walking, hiking and running). Younger Americans and men were more likely than other Americans to have ever purchased sports sunglasses. It comes as no surprise that Americans who played sports in the past year were far more likely to have purchased sports sunglasses than those that had not.

Respondents that played any kind of winter sport in the past year were the most likely to have purchased sport sunglasses or goggles, with 45.4 percent saying they had done so. “X-treme” sports enthusiasts also were more likely than other respondents to purchase sports sunglasses, with 35.3 percent saying they had done so.

While “sports” sunglasses are similar to other types of plano sunglasses; sports sunglasses are more likely to possess certain enhancement features that are valued by the people who use them. The majority (70.6 percent) of Americans that had purchased sports sunglasses said their sunglasses were polarized. It is no surprise that Americans that had recently played road sports were most likely to have purchased polarized sports sunglasses (76.5 percent).

Purchasing sunglasses that had a hydrophobic lens treatment was also relatively common. Among sports sunglass purchasers, 20.4 percent had purchased sunglasses with a hydrophobic lens treatment. This was especially common among X-treme sports participants, of whom 31.2 percent had bought sports sunglasses with a hydrophobic lens treatment.

Just under 15 percent of sports sunglass purchasers said they purchased sunglasses that were photochromic. And 15 percent of sports sunglass purchasers said they had purchased their sports sunglasses with Rx lenses. This is slightly higher than the general population of Rx sun purchasers, which is about 11 percent.

The color gray was the most popular color, used by nearly 29 percent of recent sport sunglass purchasers, especially among road sports participants. Gray was followed by the colors brown (17.9 percent) and blue (16.0 percent).

In regard to lens color tint, respondents mostly chose lens color based on how much they like the look of the color (42.5 percent). “The lens color/tint helps block glare so I can perform better” was valued by 32.3 percent of recent sports sunglass buyers. Only about 8.8 percent of recent sports sunglass buyers said that they wanted to try a new color/tint when they bought their last pair of sports sunglasses or goggles while 15.8 percent of recent sports sunglass buyers bought their sunglasses based on the color/tint they used previously.

Snowboarding, snow skiing and BMX riding were the most common sports in which Americans wore sports sunglasses or goggles. Younger adults were more likely to wear sunglasses and/or googles when partaking in these activates.

Moto Cross, Rally Cross and Road Bicycle Riding were also common sports in which sports sunglasses were used. In general, men were more likely than women to wear sports sunglasses while playing sports and younger Americans were more likely than older Americans to wear sports sunglasses during sports activities.

There are a lot of different motivating purchase factors for sports sunglasses or goggles buyers. Some 7 in 10 sports sunglass users/buyers stated that “comfort” was a very important and valuable factor when making a sports sunglass purchase.

“Durability” and “UV protection” were the next most important features for sports sunglasses (about 58 percent to 64 percent of recent buyers valued/looked for sunglasses with each attribute). Mirrored lenses were voted the least important feature when purchasing sports sunglasses, only sought after by 17.5 percent of recent buyers.

Online retailers were the most common locations that sports sunglass purchasers visited when making their sunglass purchase (22.2 percent of buyers). Chain sporting goods retailers was the next most common retail location for sports sunglass purchasers, with 19.9 percent of recent buyers saying they visited an online retailer when recently buying their sports sunglasses—particularly among people who participated in X-treme sports. Sunglass specialty retailers were another popular choice among recent sports sunglasses purchasers (17.9 percent of buyers), particularly among women and younger adults.

Data in this article was compiled from the VisionWatch 2017 Sports Sunglass Report, part of the large scale continuous VisionWatch research study conducted by The Vision Council. VisionWatch contains useful industry data on lenses, frames, sunglasses, reading glasses, contact lenses, eye exams and refractive surgery. For additional information, contact Alexis White at (703) 740-2251 or awhite@thevisioncouncil.org.