Article by Matt Kolat
Vallon Freshwater Revivals ( $149/ £115) and Vallon Watchtowers ($169 / £128)
Introduction
Vallon is an eyewear brand whose spiritual home is in Vallon d’Arbi (vallon is French for valley). Originally specialising in eyewear intended for winter sports they have for a number of years now ventured into other disciplines.
Very kindly they have sent me, free of charge, two models, one intended for runners and cyclists and one for anglers. You might ask yourself - why would we review an angling specific model at road trail run? Well after speaking to Victoria at Vallon I thought that the angling model might hold secret potential for road runners in very sunny conditions. Please join me in my first ever Road Trail Run eyewear review.
Freshwater Revivals ( $149/ £115)
What I liked
Price
In the current market most top end brands charge £200 plus for a pair of top end, performance orientated sunglasses. But if you look closer at what drives those prices, it is often celebrity endorsements and overblown marketing, not the quality of the product itself. It’s good to see a brand like Vallon offering top shelf goods for half of that price, £115 here.
Performance
Although originally intended for anglers, I thought that the shape of Freshwater Revivals will lend itself to runners as well. First of all they stick to your face like glue, there is no chance of any wobble not to mention them falling off your face.
Second of all, your eyes are fully protected from the sun - please read my next section on polarisation. Finally a quick note that I would probably reserve Freshwater Revivals for those sunny days, particularly for road running as they might be a little too dark for shaded forest areas or trails.
Full Polarisation
One of the biggest qualities of sunglasses I pay attention to, regardless if intended for performance or not, is if they are polarised. If you are not familiar with this term, in a very simplistic way, polarisation is a quality of sunglasses that stops light reflecting off non-metallic surfaces. Think of a very bright, sunny day, you walk outside and simply by looking at a pavement your eyes get sore. When you put on a polarised pair of sunglasses that soreness immediately goes away. The easiest way to judge if sunglasses are polarised is to find a non-metallic surface, reflecting light and position the sunglasses at 90 degree angles, or in other words vertically. Why vertically? Because polarisation is always applied horizontally due to the fact that light is a wave. Please see the image below where you can see light reflecting off the top of the bookshelves (between the plants) in the form of a white spot.
As soon as I turn the lens to face the white spot in a horizontal position in the photo below (right lens, please ignore a lamp reflecting in the left lens), the white spot disappears - full polarisation takes place. Excellent quality by Vallon.
What that means for us runners is that we can wear Revivals confidently on those very sunny days, particularly on road runs, where light reflecting off pavements and roads can cause literal damage to the eyes and of course affect our performance. However some runners can find that reading displays off a watch or phone can be a little harder because of the polarisation. That is not the case for me.
What I did not like
Nothing
Really loved the Revivals - nothing to complain about.
Watchtowers ($169 / £128)
What I liked
Price
At the risk of repeating myself - great value compared to other up-market brands. They are slightly more expensive than the revivals but are multisport applicable (cycling and running) and are literally bigger, therefore more materials were used, resulting in a higher price.
Aesthetics
Of course this is just personal preference but I think with the Watchtowers Vallon did really knock the ball out of the park aesthetic wise. The colour schemes are excellent and what is interesting is that the way Watchtowers look on me is very modern and performance oriented without being extremely flashy. This is a huge advantage in my book as some of the running specific models from other brands often tend to be too eye-catching for people who (myself included) want to dress up a little more neutral or low-key for the runs.
Performance
The Watchtowers perform really well in a variety of scenarios. The field of vision is huge which is very helpful on road runs where we are mindful of other pavement users and traffic. The same principle applies to trail running where the field of vision assists with avoiding obstacles. In terms of fit, they are ever so slightly wider fitting than the Freshwater Revivals and you don’t get that feeling of them being ‘glued’ to your face. That said they do stay put on runs, no wobble or slippage issues to report.
What I did not like
Limited amount of lenses tint choices
This is a very small dislike and largely inconsequential one but I would appreciate it if there were more types of lenses to choose from.
Lack of polarisation (could also be a pro)
If you skipped the review of Freshwater Revivals and not sure what polarisation is - please read the polarisation section at least.
The Watchtowers are not polarised and I was a little surprised by that so I reached out to Vallon for feedback. Victoria from Vallon shared with me that initially Watchtowers were designed for cycling, and the decision not to polarise them was because of:
depth perception
improved visibility of road surface hazards such as oil, or water that can be slick on the tyres
avoiding ‘Moire Effect’ when looking at digital displays e.g. watch / gps computers
running/ cycling in varying light e.g. in / out of woods or dappled light at speed where consistency of vision is helpful
So depending how you look at it (pun not intended) the lack of polarization could be either a con or a pro.
All of VALLON
Maciej 'Matt' Kolat- 38 years old, hailing from Poland but pounding Scottish pavements and trails since 2007. Mainly runs shorter distances on pavement 5-10 km and reserves longer runs for beautiful Scottish Glens. Matt’s opinion sometimes may differ from other RTR testers as he is the slowest of the bunch (5k at 25:38). Matt also uses running as a way to stay healthy having shed 100 lbs so far (and counting).
Europe only: use RTR code RTR5ALL for 5% off all products, even sale products
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