There’s a movement afoot right now to add performance features to casual-looking shades. The Electric Knoxville S is a part of that movement; they’re one of four sunglasses in Electric’s S line up. Each features a classic style with additions like non-slip temples and nose pieces. They’re also ANSI rated and feature weight-reduction design.
The Electric Knoxville S Sunglasses also feature Electric’s OHM lens. OHM is an abbreviation for Optical Health through Melanin. OHM lenses are designed to block HEV blue light (high energy visible blue light). Many companies are trending towards either blocking blue light or blocking parts of the blue light. Many out there believe that this HEV blue light is responsible for damaging of the retina, eye strain and aging of skin around the eyes. The OHM lenses act as an SPF 140 for your eyes. We don’t really have a way of testing that, but we can comment on the feeling that our eyes were more relaxed when wearing the Knoxville S sunglasses.
Besides the OHM lens, the Knoxville S are really nice sunglasses. The model we tested was Matte Tort, a classic color, with the OHM Bronze lens. The bronze lens gave a nice sepia tone to the world and enhances contrast just a bit. VLT of 11% made it wearable in high sun or lower light. We liked them for walking around, driving and looking cool. Well, we never really look cool, but we keep trying. Worth noting, the Knoxville are hand made in Italy. So you get some class with these shades too.
The Knoxville S comes in 6 colors and has over a dozen different lenses to choose from. All of the lenses are OHM based, with some being different colors as well as polarized. With that many options, you are sure to find a pair that fit you needs. Speaking of fit, these fit our tester very well. Specs are 48-139-159. They were lightweight (26 grams!) as well, thanks to the Grilamid frame. MSRP $120 – 220. The model we tested goes for $120.
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