Legit. (but bend easy)

By Kyle Nicolls Ranked #113 - Polarized Sport Sunglasses February 1, 2011

Like the homes below, these are sweet shades. My Oakley half-wire 2.0's were heavy as hell, this is a refreshing. Also go gray/sliver. Or whatever they call them.

My only complaint is hopefully a uncommon occurrence. The arms were not mounted parallel. One was visibly low. My way of checking is opening them and setting them on a flat surface. For a nicely manufactured set of shades, they should touch under the lenses and on the ends of the arms. 4 points. On these as I got them, they teetered on 3. This is a huge pet-peeve of mine so I was disgruntled. Not to mention they fit slightly off as result. Talked to a eye-ware shop and they said there wasn't a lot they could do without risking breaking the hinge. So I got home. Thought about it. Figured I got them off SAC for cheap and they are sweet, why not? So I carefully tweaked the hinge. Worked good. They have a ever-so-slight s-curve in the arm from the process, but my ear is in the way anyway. Ever-so-slight...

Low-down. They look bad-ass and fit very nice and the tint is wonderful. I have a pretty average dome for a 5'8.5" male. Think my snowboard helmet size is 58cm or so. Needed a tweek that should not have been necessary but I got lucky (choice I made based off cost). These were worth my 70 bucks shipped. If I inspected them in a store and tried them on (assurance of no defects) I would have paid more.
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4 month in update: Still equally cool but my big complain now is they are VERY fragile. I did drop them a few times and there was less nicks than expected, thats good. But they are VERY prone to bending. Kaenon must have used about the most ductile of a material possible, thats bad. Like lead vs chromo/vanadium steel (car spring steel). But yeah carry the hard case EVERYWHERE. I just replaced them with some glasses I owned prior, Oakley Halfwire 2.0 polarized. I half-way sat on them and they didnt bend, the V8's would have needed a jig to get put back to shape. The hinges are also getting a little rough feeling. I have sweat on them like a mo-fo because I use them when mountain biking but I have never had any other glasses do that. Just sayin.

I know complaining about bending them when you put force is stupid. I agree. But it also comes to the material. Some prescription frame (that a buddy of mine had in high school, 6 years ago) would bend like no other. Technically speaking high modulus of elasticity. THe V8's are rather low...they undergo permanent deformation after a small displacement.

Wear them, case them.

View Details: Kaenon V8 Sunglasses - Polarized

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