The Case Against Expensive Sunglasses

Welcome to another edition of our “The Case Against…” series!

Memorial Day weekend just came and went. Summer has unofficially started.

Right around now, you’ll probably see some internet menswear articles encouraging you to splurge on a “nice” pair of sunglasses. Those articles will usually say that investing more in your accessories is a great way to elevate your look. Buying an expensive pair of sunglasses is almost seen as an indication that you’re a proper adult. Kind of like wearing a nice watch or using a fountain pen.

While I am on-board with the concept of purchasing items of high-quality, expensive sunglasses, to me, aren’t worth the investment. Unlike a watch or a leather jacket, sunglasses are not an item I am going to have for the rest of my life, so I can’t justify spending more than a few bucks on them.

The reason I am thinking so much about sunglasses these days, beyond the fact that summer is right around the corner, is because I recently purchased my first pair of sunglasses in about seven years.

I got them at my local drug store. They cost me thirteen dollars.

And I love them!

Before that, I had prescription sunglasses, which I found to be a nuisance. Since I couldn’t remove my prescription sunglasses without losing my ability to, you know, see, I always had to carry my regular glasses with me, too. So, for me, prescription sunglasses were a bit of a pain in the butt.

I once had a pair of really nice Ray-Ban sunglasses I got from Brooks Brothers about fifteen years ago. I would wear them when I had my contacts in, which I preferred to using prescription sunglasses. The problem with the Ray-Bans was that I spent like $150 on them and they promptly got scratched up and bent. Oh, I also lost them. Again, not ideal.

Some of you might think that spending $150 on sunglasses isn’t so bad. After all, REGULAR glasses are several times that much.

That is true. I recently paid almost $500 for new glasses. But that expense is mostly tied up in the lenses, not the frames.

But why am I recommending NOT spending a lot of money on sunglasses when it’s perfectly reasonable to spend a lot of money on regular glasses?

It all comes down to how we use them.

Consider how you treat a pair of regular glasses versus sunglasses. At first glance, you might think your behavior with either is the same, since they are both pieces of eyewear that just sit on your face. But the reasons and environments in which we use sunglasses are very different than regular glasses.

Many of us wear eyeglasses daily. Even though they are expensive, they are relatively safe from harm since they sit on our faces all day. We rarely take them off, except when we are bathing or sleeping. So, spending a lot of money on “necessary, prescription eye-glasses” makes sense.

There’s very little risk involved with regular glasses.

I think I can count on one hand the number of times in the past twenty years I have lost or broken a pair of regular glasses, and that’s even taking into account raising two rambunctious little boys.

Regular glasses are worn all the time, in almost every scenario, but there is very little “on-and-off” happening.

Now, take sunglasses. I don’t know about you, but I usually wear sunglasses when I am at the beach, playing outside with my kids, on hikes, at the park or zoo, or some other activity where I am actively DOING something.

But then there inevitably comes a time when I need to remove my sunglasses. I go inside my house, or a restaurant, or a grocery store. I take off my sunglasses and either put them on top of my head or hang them on the front of my shirt collar. Or I take them off to get my kids into their car seats in the truck. Or I take them off to wipe sweat from my face due to whatever activity I was engaged in while wearing them.

My point is that sunglasses are always coming off and going back on throughout the times we’re wearing them, UNLIKE regular glasses which just stay put.

If you took off your wristwatch multiple times a day, it would probably get lost or damaged, too.

I’ve had the lenses of sunglasses get scratched to hell while at the beach due to the sandy, salty spray. I’ve had them get cracked from picking up and hugging my son while they were hanging on the front of my shirt. They’ve been knocked off tables. They’ve been crushed under old CD cases in the console of my car.

I’m sure those instances have happened to more than a few of you, too.

Given how we use sunglasses, it doesn’t make sense to drop a lot of money on them.

Also, high-end (non-prescription) sunglasses are more likely to get stolen, which would be a huge bummer. If someone swipes my $13 drug store pair, however, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.

The only real argument for nice sunglasses over the cheapy ones is that the nice ones look better. On that point, I can’t really argue. The Ray-Bans I had a number of years ago were tortoise-shell Wayfarers with a red-white-and-blue madras pattern on the inside of the arms. They were really cool.

My cheap sunglasses don’t look nearly as good as those Ray-Bans did. But… I feel much more care-free in my cheap sunglasses than I did wearing those cool Wayfarers. I don’t have to baby them. I don’t have to think about where I put them down. I know I won’t get all bent out of shape if THEY get all bent out of shape.

I don’t feel responsible for preserving them, which means I can more fully enjoy the activities I am engaging in while wearing them.

And THAT’S the point! There are times when the cost of something negatively impacts our enjoyment of that item.

An expensive pair of sunglasses doesn’t really do anything that my cheap pair doesn’t. Sure, the pricey ones might subjectively look better but the cheap ones look good enough.

So, this summer, don’t worry if you’re still wearing junky sunglasses from the dollar-store. For dads, high-end sunglasses just aren’t worth it.