Released last month, Nike’s Vaporwing Elite running sunglasses consist of a one-piece design that fuses the lens with the frame to significantly reduce weight while minimizing wind resistance and debris.
While casual sunglasses designed for the average pedestrian are one thing, eyewear designed for the demands of competitive runners is a whole different ballgame. Among other design challenges, this includes the need for a responsive design that adapts to sweat, flexible arms that conform to the shape of a wearer’s face for accurate stability and fit during rigorous motion, ventilation with auto-adjusting nose pad for eliminating fog and finally, all of this while increasing the lens coverage as much as possible to prevent stress-causing light leaks that prevent the runner from staying relaxed and focused over long distances.
Working in collaboration with Zeiss Optics, the design team not only had to create a complicated new one-piece frame design that provided a solution, but also ensure that the lenses were specially tuned to the unique visual challenges of different outdoor environments.
In this latest installment of the eyewear’s design and manufacturing process series, the Zeiss engineers give us a closer look at what went into developing an entirely new manufacturing process for the one-piece design:
