Product Review: Zoggs Prescription Goggles

Glasses wearers have two options: either pay a substantial sum of money to an optician to get goggles made with your exact prescription or buy a pair off the shelf with corrective lenses that are a close match to your prescription. Simon Griffiths reviews a flexible mid-priced solution by Zoggs for short-sighted swimmers.

Swimming for glasses wearers presents a problem. Using standard goggles is disorientating when you can’t see clearly. In open water, it may be dangerous if you struggle to see your route or exit point. Wearing contact lenses under your goggles fixes the vision problem but is frowned upon by opticians because of the risk of microbial keratitis, an eye infection that can lead to blindness in the worst cases. Goggles with corrective lenses are a better solution.

There are two options: either pay a substantial sum of money to an optician to get goggles made with your exact prescription or buy a pair off the shelf with corrective lenses that are a close match to your prescription. For most people with myopia, the second option is usually sufficient, but note that the lenses only correct for distance, not for any astigmatism.

Zoggs Prescription Goggles use the second approach and can be supplied with lenses between -2.0 and -8.0 dioptres, in full units. Unlike some other prescription goggles on the market, the Zoggs version is sold in two parts: frame plus lenses. Once you receive the frames and the lenses, simply click the lens into place. This is easy and only takes a couple of minutes. One advantage of this system is that it allows you to choose a different power of lens for each eye, which isn’t always the case for goggles sold with the lenses already fitted.

Once the lenses are fitted, the look and feel of the goggles is standard. In terms of comfort, these don’t match up to the outstanding Zoggs Predator Flex, but that’s a high bar and they are perfectly adequate for pool training and outdoor swimming. The lenses are exceptionally clear and vision is great, especially in gloomy conditions. However, it would be good to have a tinted version for bright days.

Care needs to be taken when fitting the lenses. On our first attempt, we didn’t manage to click one of the lenses into place properly, which resulted in leakage. There are better prescription goggles on the market at a higher price but these are a good mid-priced choice offering clear vision.

£20 for frame, £7 for lenses

Find out more: https://www.zoggs.com/en_GB/vision-optical-corrective-goggle-461097