Best Sunglasses for Wearing with Hats and Helmets

Almost every hiker wears a hat, and almost no sunglasses are designed with that in mind. Temple arms and hat bands occupy the same strip of head, and the result is pressure, lifted glasses, or a hat that will not sit properly. A few designs sidestep the problem entirely.

1. 1

   Understand the conflict

   A hat band sits horizontally around the head at roughly the same height as sunglasses temples. Add a helmet retention system and you have three things competing for the same few centimetres. The pressure point that develops is usually just above the ear, and it builds over hours rather than appearing immediately.

2. 2

   Cord designs remove the conflict completely

   With no arms, there is nothing between your head and the hat band. This is the clean solution rather than a mitigation, and it is why cord-arm sunglasses get adopted quickly by people who wear a hat every day.

   Why armless worksThe full design argument

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3. 3

   If you want conventional frames, look for thin flat temples

   Thin, flat temple arms slide under a hat band far better than thick round ones or arms with bulky rubber grips. Rimless and minimal designs tend to do better here than heavily built sport frames.

4. 4

   Wear order matters more than people expect

   Sunglasses on first, then the hat over the temples, is generally more comfortable than the reverse and stops the hat lifting the glasses off your nose. With a helmet, glasses go on after the helmet is buckled so the retention strap does not trap the arms.

5. 5

   Watch for the lens-fogging side effect

   A hat brim traps warm air rising from your face and pushes it across the lens, which increases fogging on climbs. Frames with brow vents handle this far better under a hat than sealed designs do.

   Fogging fixesVentilation and anti-fog technique

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What Works Under a Hat