Ombraz Sunglasses Review

I first saw someone wearing Ombraz during a Pursuit Series event last year. I was immediately intrigued and eager to try them out. Instead of the typical arm (or "temple") of glasses, Ombraz has replaced it with an adjustable cord. For those of you thinking that will look weird, it really doesn't. The cord pulls taut mimicking the look of a normal arm. When you want to wear glasses, tuck the cord over your ears and tighten, and when you don't want to wear them, let them hang free around your neck.

When I first saw them I thought they might be great for climbing. While I don't often like wearing lenses while I'm leading a pitch, it is nice to have something to pull on when you're belaying your partner. Especially when trying to move quickly at belays, I often forget to pull my glasses out of my pack before my partner starts climbing up. The fumbling in and out of my bag to put away my glasses or take them out annoys me. It always feels inefficient.

Enter Ombraz! I took them out on a few climbing-specific trips this fall and they worked great! Even if I forgot to put them back on after my partner started climbing, it was easy to slide them onto my face with one hand. And when it was time to climb, I dropped them to my neck and started up. (User note: Depending on the type of climbing I was doing, they sometimes bounced around my neck and felt in the way, but I solved this issue by tucking them into my tank top or sports bra and voila!)

Their design is classic and cool, and their lenses are polarized and surprisingly durable. I unintentionally banged them around while I was trying to figure out how to best wear them for climbing, and I was surprised to come back to the car with scratch-free lenses! And, because there are no "arms" on the glasses, you can leave them in your back pocket and sit on them with much less worry. All of this being said, my Ombraz have become a worry-free favorite for adventures from climbing to hiking to SUPing!

Ombraz is a relatively new, crowdfunded company that is starting to make strides in an already saturated industry. On top of a cool design and comfortable, functional product, Ombraz is on a mission to give back to the planet by planting trees in hopes to offset the carbon it takes to make the sunglasses and deliver them to us. For every pair of Ombraz sold, they plant 20 trees through their relationship with Eden Reforestation Projects, a non-profit that has established native tree nurseries in Madagascar, Indonesia, Nepal and Haiti. Eden Reforestation Projects employs local farmers to plant and protect native trees. 50 trees can provide one local farmer with a full day of employment. By employing locals in these countries, Eden is slowly bringing local families out of poverty.

For more information, check out their fun story and their glasses here. 

Photos courtesy of Kristi Teplitz and Ombraz.