Two weeks ago, my loyal pair of goggles, which I received in my swag bag at a Rev3 race, finally disintegrated after six months of intensive use. As what happens with any pair of goggles, chlorine and other pool chemicals break them down and they consequently lose their suction so that they fill with water the instant you kick off the wall, which is annoying while you swim and also leaves you with eyes that look like you just smoked 2 kilos of pot. I mentioned it to my boss, and after rummaging around in his desk, threw me a case of these.
“Here, try these” He told me. “I think you will like them.”
The next morning I went to pool and immediately fell in love with them. Blueseventy is known almost exclusively for their wetsuits and not their goggles, which is a shame because these goggles are some of the best that I have had yet.
There are three important qualities that I look for in a goggle: visibility, fit/comfort, and style (I am a very vain athlete—if I cannot swim or race like a pro, I might as well look like one). This is how the Blueseventy Vision stacked up:
Visibility: 4.5/5
There is a wide range of goggles when it comes to visibility. Some goggles, like old fashioned Swedish types, don’t allow you to see anything except the black line at the bottom of the pool if that; while others are almost like scuba goggles and allow you to see everything around you. The Vision fall in between this range. Although I cannot see that much to the left or the right, I can see fairly far in front of me with perfect clarity both in open water and in the pool. These also did not fog up like some goggles tend to. The yellow tint to the lenses handles sun glare well but not as good as mirrored ones.
Fit: 5/5
I have a medium shaped face so it is hard to find a pair of goggles that fit well and do not leave me with goggle lines for the rest of the day. These goggles though fit snugly just around my eye sockets, providing water tight seal while not digging into my face. When I hop into the pool I actually forget that I am wearing goggles at all. I would recommend these for a wide variety of face sizes from large to narrow.
Style: 3/5
This is the only area that I found the Vision lacking. I would not say that these look dorky nor do you look like “that guy” with the scuba mask in a pool, but they do not have the sleek hydro look that you get with other competition grade goggles.
Overall: 4/5
BlueSeventy has a wide variety of goggles, which I am itching to try out, but for now, the Visions are an excellent quality goggle for both pool and open water swimming.
