From top: 20Five, Defcon and Clamor

Ryders has been making affordable sunglasses since the 80's and they have only improved with age. Their sunglasses are fully featured to fit with just about every outdoor activities needs. We’re focusing on the Defcon which is aimed at endurance sports, the Clamor which is geared toward active and casual activities and the 20Five designed as their retro 80's model.

Ryders' sunglasses have optically correct lenses that help eliminate distortion in the lenses making them comfortable to look through while minimizing eye fatigue. The lenses use a scratch-resistant coating making it harder to scratch under normal use. The lenses are also made to be shatterproof, and while a strong impact may damage the lenses, they will not shatter into little shards. All the lenses come with complete UV protection covering all three bands in the UV spectrum as well as harmful blue light in the 400nm wavelength. Those sunglasses that offer polarizing lenses help eliminate glare while giving increased definition.

Detail of the temple grips

Detail of the nose grip

Both the Clamor and the Defcon are full frame sunglasses while the 20Five are a partial frame sunglass. All three sunglasses come with the standard features of optically correct lenses, anti-slip pads, shatterproof lenses and UV protection. The 20Five are the only glasses that do not have polarized lenses.

Detail of the Clamor Sunglasses

Detail of the Defcon Sunglasses

The Clamor and the Defon are a polarized sunglass with a grey lens tint on the Clamor and a brown tint lens on the Defcon. The grey and brown lens tints are ideal for bright to glaringly-bright light conditions. According to Ryders, the polarizing effect helps with definition and depth perception. The colors are darkened but without changing the hue or contrast. The Clamor sunglasses are a hybrid cross between a sports style and a casual style while the Defcon are a full sport sunglass. The fit of the Clamor sunglasses are designed for medium to large heads with a width of 128mm and the Defcon are for small to medium heads with a width of 124mm. Multiple people have found that the sunglasses have a very close fit to the face which really helps prevent light from coming in around the side of the frames. The frames of the Clamor have a fairly chunky sized arm near the frame but narrows near the ear.

Clamor in use as a raft guide

The Clamor have been used both while being a raft guide on the river, doing lake tours as well as while hiking around in North Carolina. The Clamor performed at their best while on the water as the amount of glare that water can through up is really quite dazzling. The polarizing effect has really helped make rocks stand out clearly as well as fish. The colors are a little more vibrant, especially green, when I wear the Clamor versus when I don't. In lower light conditions, like when I am hiking under tree cover, the sunglasses are a little darkening, but still easy to see through. I have not noticed any eye fatigue from wearing them. I do notice that they sometimes will fog up when I am exerting myself a lot on a cool morning. Since I am normally on the water, I just wipe the lenses with a wet finger and it clears the lenses. To this point, the lenses are essentially scratch-free, having only small micro-scratches on the lenses. I have been careful to not clean them with dirty clothes. I did have a hard time finding an eyeglass retainer for them given the thickness of the arms. I eventually found one that would work with the arms, but this was a little bit of a drawback to wearing them in a whitewater situation. I really do not trust any eyeglasses to stay on my face should I have to swim in moving water.

20Five in use while hiking

The 20Five are Ryders' retro sunglasses, a throw-back to their beginnings. The colors are exactly what you would expect from the 80's with hot pink and bright yellow mixed together. The sunglasses are designed for medium to large head with a width of 140mm. Like the other sunglasses in the Ryders line they have the sweat-resistant nose piece and along the arms of the sunglasses to prevent slipping while on the move. The glasses are very lightly tinted with a grey flash style tinting. This gives the sunglasses a slight mirror-like finish designed to work in medium to bright-light situations. I must have sensitive eyes as I could not use them in bright light conditions. I really love hiking with them when I am moving through dappled light conditions. The sunglasses protect my eyes from UV rays while not being so dark that I can't see where I am going on the trails. The arms on the 20Five are nice and narrow working well with most eyeglass retainers. The frames have a fairly close face fit helping eliminate glare from the sides. I really liked the partial frame on the 20Five but found that the top part of the frame was really straight and almost gave be a uni-brow appearance. Luckily the wild 80's colors distract the eyes away from the uni-brow.

Climbing glaciers in Alaska
Pic curtesy of ORGT program at Georgia Tech

The Defcon glasses have been used in Alaska on a variety of activities, including backpacking, kayaking, ice climbing, and mountain biking. They performed best in very bright conditions, like kayaking and ice climbing, as the polarized lens helped cut down on the glare. While backpacking and mountain biking, there were a couple times where it was too dark under tree cover to use them and due to the humidity they fogged up occasionally. No scratches on them yet, but I have been keeping them in the case when I am not wearing them. The thin tips made finding a sunglass strap for them very easy. I think my favorite part about them is the lens tint because it helps focus colors and is rarely too dark.

Kayaking in Alaska
Pic curtesy of ORGT program at Georgia Tech

Ryders has put a lot of thought into what is needed for active people in their adventures. The Defcon are great solid sunglasses for outdoor adventures. The Clamor make great crossover sunglasses for any activity. The 20Five while a little low on tint, are still great sunglasses. All the sunglasses were comfortable to wear, stayed on the face and looked good no matter the activity. It is the small details that really worked well, the hydrophilic pads that helped kept the sunglasses on sweaty faces, the narrow tips on the sports models, and the optically correct lenses. We are still wearing our sunglasses and foresee wearing them for quite some time.