Deeply futuristic, wraparound sunglasses have been on the up-and-up for a while now — though in the world of professional sports, they were never really out.
Let’s look back to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, when Trinidadian Olympian Ato Boldon stepped onto the field wearing a standard running leotard with a pair of silver, reflective sunglasses that went – not over his ears – but over his head. Fittingly called Overthetop, the Oakley pair morphed Boldon into a speedy dystopian character out of Mad Max. And while it made sense for Boldon (and Swedish golfer Jarmo Sandelin) to wear the pair on the track, from that moment, the glasses became a hit in the fashion world, too.
“They aren’t mainstream, but that is kind of the point. A car company will build typical cars for their normal consumers, and then they’ll build a prototype to show what they can do,” says Boldon of the moment. “This was Oakley showing a glimpse of what they can do.”
So can the world of sports sunnies continue to make their mark in mainstream culture? Of course they can.
Among the hundreds of photos seen over the last few days at the Tokyo Olympics, it has been impossible not to notice the sunglasses worn by athletes and athletes during their Olympic performances. Much more than a simple necessity dictated by sporting commitment (only a few were used for their actual purpose), but rather they acted as accessories: designs capable of transforming the athletes into cyborgs.
Check out our faves below.
