Finally: Cheap Prescription Cycling Sunglasses with Optical Factor

I’ve been searching for more affordable good prescription cycling glasses online for years. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many cycling glasses that support prescription lenses. Even for those that do, only a few places will actually make prescriptions. For glasses that have prescription inserts, I could never find a place that would only do the inserts; even if you found the sunglasses on sale, you couldn’t find a place to just provide the lens inserts.

The end result is that such glasses and lens combinations end up being well over $300. I’ve been against paying this because 1) it’s a lot of money 2) I didn’t know whether I would like the glasses. As far as I knew, there weren’t many places to try them for a ride. This was just too much risk for me, not even accounting for the fact that prescriptions change.

My past solution was to buy prescription sunglasses from Zenni Optical for under $70. Not amazing, not as “cool” looking as your typical wide frame full coverage cycling sunglasses, but they worked reasonably fine.

My Zenni Optical sunglasses (no longer being sold, find current models here):

Compared to the sexy Oakley Jawbreaker.

But now I’ve found a real cheap, better looking alternative, these Luke Prescription Cycling Sport Sunglasses Kit frames from Optical Factor.

I got both variations with prescription lenses for under $100. That’s me above trying them out on a very light family ride over the weekend. They held up well in those non-stressing conditions. I’m not going to claim some amazing optical clarity that the likes of Oakley claim, but I have previously owned an expensive Oakley Juliet that I was never impressed by.

Two pairs for $100 – I have no regrets getting these so far as an experiment. Other notes:

• It took about two weeks to get the glasses manufactured and delivered from China.
• There is no customer support. Don’t even bother reaching out. Since I paid with a credit card that has purchase protection, I was ready to attempt a reversal if this had been a scam, but they came through.
• You can basically get the glasses flush to your eye ball, there isn’t a bridge to prevent them from getting too close.
• You get pretty good horizontal and vertical wrap-around coverage.
• They are very light.
• The frames pick up fingerprints easily.