As much as we want to keep this article light, it would be remiss of us to start without we stressing how important your goggles are. They’re an essential piece of safety kit and we wouldn’t be heading out without them. No matter if you're on the beginner slopes or only heading out on a doozy of day, or if you're plowing up the backcountry, you need a pair of goggles. The UV is high in the mountains and your eyes need protection. We’ve also seen what can happen when you use sunglasses instead of goggles. If you take anything away from this article, please let it be that goggles are worth the cost (and they don't have to cost that much either!).

Top tips when choosing your goggles

We know that budget is almost always a factor so we’re skipping past that to the things we genuinely believe are useful to consider.

Lens colour

Despite contrary belief, it’s not just about what looks coolest. The colour of your lens will have a bearing on visibility so think about where you will be riding and the conditions. You can always go for a pair of goggles with interchangeable lenses if need be, this is very common, particularly for those who ski across the globe and in the backcountry. There’s some more information here to help.

Lens shape

Look a bit into the differences between spherical and cylindrical before jumping in to choosing a pair of goggles. It’s a bit of a fashion choice, and an even smaller bit of a performance choice, but worth thinking about. Check out this article for more information.

Temperature (of you and outside)

For the cold If you feel the cold or need to be prepared for rough weather, consider an integrated facemask. The Anon MFI system is just one option and will keep your whole face protected from the wind and snow. It’s a super popular choice for good reason.

For the hot Conversely, if you run hot, larger framed goggles will have more room to deal with the hot air from your face, so less likely to fog if hot face fog is your problem!

Glasses vs contacts

Let’s face it, many of us need glasses. Being able to see on the slopes isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity so if you wear specs to drive, you’ll need them to ski or snowboard. You have two options here. Contacts or over the glasses (OTG) goggles. If you’re going for OTG, take a look at our OTG size guide and compare different brand sizes to figure out what you need.

However, if you can, we highly recommend coming into store and trying them on with your glasses. Different goggle brands fit differently and there are so shapes of glasses these days it can be tricky to find the perfect fit. You can do this on your way up to the snow and, if you come to us, our store is open and staffed with experts 24 hours a day in Winter.