by Jeff Valliere
Revant Optics was founded in 2009, soon after founder and CEO Jason Bolt crashed while mountain biking and damaged his sunglasses. When he tried to buy replacement lenses, he found that they were no longer available, so ordered a batch of 200 lenses from the manufacturing company, kept a few pairs and sold the rest. The idea was born to make available lenses for sunglasses, new and old, at a fair price and offer great customer service.
I'll admit that I had never heard of Revant Optics before being offered to review a set of their lenses and when I learned that they offer prescription lenses as well, I was quite excited. My Oakley Flak Jacket prescription lenses were over 8 years old and even though I have a very mild prescription, things were getting a touch fuzzy. Even with insurance, performance oriented prescription eye wear costs a good bit of money and I kept putting it off.
I scrolled through the Oakley options and soon (as I expected I would) found the Flak Jacket. I could have used the search function and got there faster, but was interested to see all of the model glasses where replacement lenses were available and was blown away. That was just Oakley!
Poking around the site under various brands and lens options, I was quite impressed with the selection. Popular brand names as expected, but quite a few obscure brands as well, prescription, non prescription, polarized or non, various levels of tint and mirrorshield coatings, transition, etc.... If you don't see your glasses on the list, they also offer custom cut lenses as well.
In addition to lenses, they also offer accessories and frame parts as well, such as temple sleeves and nose pads at a reduced rate.
The process of ordering my new lenses could not have been easier. Within a matter of a few prompt and informative emails, I was able to confirm that the Titanium Mirrorshield lenses most closely replicated my original Oakley prescription black Iridium lenses. I debated changing it up, but those lenses have been working very well for me over the years. I run, hike and bike with my Flak Jacket glasses on occasion, but primarily use them as my daily glasses, driving and general use, so was less interested in some of the more high definition lenses, transition or polarized options they offer.
Once I selected my lenses and provided my prescription, a few days later, I received a box in the mail with bubble wrap, Revant glasses bag, a return shipping label, instructions and a very small bit of paperwork to fill out and return. I immediately got them out in the mail and then waited.
The Revant website states a 2-5 week turnaround time and I had mine back in about a week and a half, which I found to be pretty reasonable. I'll admit to being a bit impatient, as these are my primary sunglasses, but was able to get by using contacts (which I rarely use and don't really care for) and various other non prescription sunglasses I use.
The finished product is quite impressive and looks very much original.
Revant kindly returned the old prescription lenses, though I am not sure what I will ever use them for.
The new lenses seemed to be thinner and lighter than the originals.
I thought I was imagining things, until I compared (old lens top). The new lenses are indeed thinner and lighter and I do not necessarily think it was from my prescription changing, as the change was very minimal.
Comparing the lenses, old (top) vs. new (bottom). They look exactly the same.
The Titanium Mirrorshield is very clear and reflects the sun nicely.
The Titanium Mirrorshield is also one of the darkest lens options, perfect for the brightest sunny days here in Colorado no matter the season.
Overall performance: I have been using my new lenses for nearly 3 weeks and have to say that I am very impressed with the new prescription, the lens clarity, quality and overall experience of dealing with Revant Optics. They were very prompt, friendly and offer a high quality product at a fraction of the cost of any other RX lenses or standard replacement lenses. For obvious reasons, I will not test durability such as impact or scratch resistance, but have no reason to believe that these will hold up as well as any other OEM lens.
I will certainly recommend Revant Optics to anyone looking for replacement lenses, RX or non and am also planning to purchase more lenses to breath new life into old glasses of my own and my wife's.
Editor's Note: As some prescriptions may end up with lenses thicker than original frames can accommodate your prescription generally needs to be between +4.00 and -4.00. Unfortunately mine was -6.75!
The Revant lenses were provided at no cost. The opinions herein are entirely the author's.
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