I recently had the opportunity to try out these Bollé Virtuose goggles. I‘ve skied for most of my life, and unfortunately, until I got older I couldn‘t afford a nice pair of goggles. So I made do with what I could whenever I skied. Usually, this was cheap goggles that always seemed to fog up on me, or else a pair of sunglasses. Eventually, I saved up some money and bought a new pair of goggles. I don‘t recall the exact model, but they were Bollé brand, they looked great and felt comfortable. In my mind, I was making an investment that I hoped would last me several years. And I was right, as it‘s now been almost twenty years and I still use that same pair of goggles.
Of course, I was stoked to try out their Virtuose goggles for several reasons. First, they came with two interchangeable lenses and I was excited to try them both out. Second, the lens were bigger than my current goggles and I was interested to see if my view would be less restricted. The last reason was that they were the same brand, Bollé, as the goggles I have had for several years.
The big fat feature list:
EQUALIZER® VENTS
CARBO GLAS®
DOUBLE LENS
P-80+ LAYER ANTI-FOG
UV PROTECTION
FLOW-TECH® VENTING
PERFECT GOGGLE / HELMET INTEGRATION
SILICONISED STRAP
WIDE FIELD OF VIEW
TRIPLE DENSITY FOAM
SPORT OPTICAL SYSTEM
First impressions:
I have to mention that I don‘t wear a helmet when I ski so my initial observation when I put them on was about how they felt while wearing them with a beanie. It took a couple of attempts to get the strap adjusted properly, but after that they felt pretty comfortable. The first thing I noticed after getting them adjusted and on was that they had fogged up a little bit. This was a bit of a surprise but they cleared up quickly and didn‘t fog up again for the remainder of the day.
Some observations:
- The goggles seemed to stick out a little further from my face than what I was used to. However, this wasn‘t a big deal and I probably wouldn‘t have even noticed it if I were wearing a helmet.
- It wasn‘t quite as easy to switch out the lens as I had expected. The first lens came out very easily but putting the other one in took a minute or so to get attached and aligned properly. I was, however, very impressed with the case that protects the second lens when not in use. It is very solid and seems to protect the lens in my coat pocket very well. It was easy to open and access the lens to switch them out.
- I was very impressed with the wide field of view. And no distortion, out to the edges.
- They were very comfortable and the lining that touches the skin was very soft.
Overall I was very impressed and find them to be a comfortable, good quality pair of goggles. You can find them, and other great Bollé eyewear on their website, Bolle.com.
Jason
I’d like to thank Bollé for providing their Virtuose goggles for this review.