As announced the other day, we'll be holding an OMBRAZ POPUP at Circles Tokyo as part of the Tomei tour.
To tell the truth, it's a brand I'd had my eye on for a long time.
The Nagoya shop has carried it for a little while now, and a lot of the Nagoya staff wear them.
And having become thoroughly hooked on mountain hiking lately, I'm lucky enough to be on friendly terms with the staff at Moonlight Gear (the renowned shop that established the UL hiking style), and what they all wear, on the bike, in the mountains and around town, was OMBRAZ.
Tremendous presence, and a design that is, as they say, “out of the ordinary.”
How could you not be curious?
And so we'll now be holding a POPUP at Circles Tokyo as well!
This POPUP isn't just about lining up products and showing them off.
A representative from the brand will be on hand, and we're holding a ride event to go with the POPUP, too. We'll also create a chance for you to actually try OMBRAZ out.
Before that, I'd like to write honestly about what I found from actually using them myself, so if you're even a little curious, I hope you'll find it useful.
[Contents]
- First of all, what kind of sunglasses are OMBRAZ?
- My pick: the “OMBRAZ DOLOMITE”
- (Feature 1) The nylon cord's gentle yet secure hold, and how incredibly light they are.
- (Feature 2) A great match with caps and helmets
- (Feature 3) Hard to break, hard to lose
- What a downside taught me…
- You can try them for yourself!! Morning Ride announcement🕶
First of all, what kind of sunglasses are OMBRAZ?
When you look at OMBRAZ, the very first thing that catches your eye has to be the distinctive design. They have none of the “temples,” the arms that hook over your ears, found on ordinary sunglasses.
What they have instead is a nylon cord.
Snugging this cord up at the back of your head holds the sunglasses to your face. That's their defining feature.
When I first saw them, I honestly thought, “Are these actually easy to use as sunglasses?”
The design is cool, but are they just distinctive to look at? It was with that doubt in mind that I started using them.
My pick: the OMBRAZ DOLOMITE
The DOLOMITE combines a distinctive round frame with a double bridge and an integrated mini visor that cuts glare from the periphery.
I love how design-led it is, which is rare among sunglasses you can also use on the bike.
A rounded, circular frame. With its wide field of view, it's a shape that's easy to use for both cycling and hiking.
When it comes to sunglasses you can use on the bike, sporty designs inevitably dominate, so this classic feel is really refreshing.
So how do they actually feel to wear? Let me try to unpack that.
The nylon cord's gentle yet secure hold, and how incredibly light they are
The first thing you wonder about has to be this: the nylon cord.
A nylon cord in place of arms over your ears:
how does it feel, is it stable, how does it get along with cycling? I was uneasy at first.
Put them on, and the hold is gentle yet firm.
First of all, they don't slip.
They're stable on pavement, of course, and even in scenes with heavy shaking on unpaved roads, because the cord at the back secures them to your head, there's very little of that slipping.
They stay put without being cinched tight, so there's no feeling of pressure. Even wearing them for hours on end, I hardly ever noticed their weight; they were comfort itself.
And they are just so thin and light!!
Helped by the absence of side temples, they come out extremely lightweight. That lightness is one reason there's so little sense of pressure, and why your ears and head are unlikely to start hurting even after long use.
Wearing them all day, the stress is so low that you forget you have them on, and that is truly one of a kind.
A great match with caps and helmets
A small but important point for cyclists: how sunglasses get along with a cap or helmet.
With ordinary sunglasses, the side temples run over your ears, so they can interfere with a cap or helmet.
Especially when you wear sunglasses with a helmet on, they can press on your ears and hurt… that sort of thing happens, doesn't it.
OMBRAZ have no such temples.
So there's very little interference when you pair them with a helmet or cap.
The feature of “having no temples” is, just as it stands, a functional advantage.
Hard to break, hard to lose
Until now, when I've had to replace sunglasses it has often been because a side temple broke.
Leaving them on a chair, sitting straight down on them and bending a temple, or having force applied in some odd direction inside a bag. (Sorry, I'm careless.)
Ordinary sunglasses have moving parts so they can fold. But OMBRAZ don't have those “temples for folding” in the first place.
So structurally, they're hard to break.
Even if you step on them, there's no worry of a temple going “snap.” Using them, I really felt they resist breakage in a way conventional sunglasses don't.
And another convenience comes after you take the sunglasses off.
Because of the nylon cord, you can leave them hanging from your neck. Never being stuck for where to put your sunglasses the moment you take them off is very appealing.
Hard to break, and hard to lose.
Aren't those two very important factors for a cyclist? For me, using them as an everyday tool, they were a bigger advantage than I'd expected.
What a downside taught me…
There was also something that bothered me a little when actually riding.
It's that you can't casually take them off and put them on.
Ordinary sunglasses with side temples go on and off fairly easily with one hand, but the cord-type OMBRAZ take a bit of fiddling to put on.
Sometimes I can't get them on properly without using both hands. (Maybe I'm just not used to them yet…?)
But as the rides added up, something suddenly dawned on me.
I hardly ever need to take the sunglasses off in the first place.
With my usual sunglasses, the lenses can fog up on a long ride on a humid day.
The DOLOMITE, however, doesn't fog at all.
As a result, compared with ordinary sunglasses, I take them off far less often during a ride.
That's because they're designed, through a shape and design that are little affected by the contours and size of the face, to keep the right distance between the lenses and your face.
After finishing a ride, I realized, “Come to think of it, I had them on the whole time today, didn't I?”
What I'd first taken for a downside, being “hard to take on and off,” actually led to an OMBRAZ strength: “you don't need to take them off in the first place.”
Not an “unusual design,” but “reasons to change”
At first, your eye inevitably goes to the unique design.
- No temples.
- Held in place by a nylon cord.
- The design flair of the distinctive round frame.
At first glance, they're pretty unusual sunglasses.
But once you actually use them, there turns out to be a proper reason for every one of those “unusual parts.”
- Having no temples makes them hard to break and unlikely to interfere with a helmet or cap.
- Being a cord, it can hold them gently to suit the size of your head, and when you take them off you can leave them hanging from your neck.
- A frame shape that is little affected by the size and contours of the face.
By actually putting them to use, I was able to experience for myself the reasons this unique design came about.
You can try them for yourself!! We'll be lending them out at the Morning Ride!🕶
Seeing them in photos and actually putting them on should leave quite different impressions.
The fit of the nylon cord in particular is, I think, easiest to understand by experiencing it for yourself.
If you're even a little curious, please join the Ride event we're holding on Sunday, August 30. We'll have lots of samples ready for the Ride event.
By actually wearing OMBRAZ and riding a bike, you can experience their appeal for yourself.
A representative from the brand will be riding along, too, so it's your chance to ask whatever you'd like to know.
If you'd like to try them on the bike. If you're looking for sunglasses you can use in the mountains, too. And if you've been wondering, “How on earth do these work?”
Do come and try on a pair in person.
Why are these slightly unusual sunglasses called OMBRAZ so loved by cyclists and hikers?
Put them on for yourself, and I'm sure you'll understand why.