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Welcome to The Esquire Endorsement. Heavily researched. Thoroughly vetted. These picks are the best way to spend your hard-earned cash.
I need to confess something: I’ve been doing sunglasses wrong my entire life. Every year, I buy into the sunglasses that are trendy and new; I snag a pair of Instagram pic-worthy shades from Amazon, knowing they probably won’t protect my eyes but will look damn good in a photo, and then, cheap as they are, they inevitably break and the cycle repeats. Or at least, it used to. All it takes is one perfect pair of shades to break old habits, and for me, that pair is Ray-Ban's Wayfarer Reverse Sunglasses.
Ray-Ban is a sunglasses brand that needs no introduction, and its iconic Wayfarers are the style the heritage company is perhaps best known for. You’ve seen ‘em on the likes of Bob Dylan and Leo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, and on every celebrity from Robert Pattinson to Bruno Mars and Jude Law. They’re the universally “cool guy” sunglasses, and as it turns out, they only get better with age: the Wayfarer Reverse Sunglasses are proof.
The right way to do sunglasses, I’ve learned, is to invest in a timeless, high-quality pair that you can wear all the damn time, for years to come. Make ‘em your signature sunglasses, and make ‘em Wayfarer Reverses.
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They’re timeless, yet modern.
It doesn’t get much more classic than the Wayfarer. The shape was invented in 1952 by Raymond Stegman of Ray-Ban, so if anyone has mastered the look, it is, of course, Ray-Ban itself. Stegman sought to create a frame that was simultaneously sleek and masculine, contemporary and timeless—and if the decades of everybody from actors to musicians wearing Wayfarers is anything to go by (or the hundreds of sunglasses brands producing their versions of the silhouette), Stegman absolutely succeeded.
The Wayfarer Reverse is a remix if you will. It takes something great and makes it even greater with a few contemporary tweaks. The Wayfarer is a sunglass that pervades generations, and the Wayfarer Reverse is a sunglass that subtly builds upon tradition and is distinctly now. The main difference in these sunglasses is that Ray-Ban, for the first time ever, employs concave lenses instead of convex lenses. This slight inversion of the lenses adds some flair to a pair of sunglasses so good, they’ve been virtually unchanged for decades.
For maximum comfort, the concave lenses are designed to follow the natural curvature of your cheekbone, sitting just right on your face. Let me tell you—I’m someone who frequently shifts from wearing sunglasses on my face to putting them atop my head because, after a while, the weight of sunglasses on my face is bothersome. But with these, lightweight and natural as they feel, you pretty much forget you’re wearing them. The high-bridge design adds to the refreshed look, making the sunglasses appear ever so slightly oversized, and it also means not having to push these back up your nose every 10 seconds. So when I say these are easy on the eyes, I mean that in every way possible.
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They look as good as they perform.
Having been around since 1936—and perfecting Wayfarers since 1952—Ray-Ban has mastered the art of functionality. It only takes one look at the Wayfarer Reverses to know the brand has mastered the art of fashion, too.
Aside from the sleek, modern look added to these sunnies from the inverted lenses, the Wayfarer Reverses are as cool and classic as they come. They’ve got the rounded-square Wayfarer silhouette that nearly every brand has tried to emulate, and a timeless black frame with dark green lens combo (although you can snag these in 10 different color variations, from black and blue to red with gold mirrored lenses). You won’t worry about how they look and you definitely don’t need to worry about how they perform; these sunglasses have 100% UV lenses, with anti-glare features that reduce reflections by up to 70%, targeting wavelengths that your eyes are most sensitive to.
And if you’re worried about the concave lenses letting in more light, don’t be. I was worried about it, too, but the high-bridge fit adds extra protection and style. There’s a fit for every face, too; you can opt for 50 millimeter lenses or 53 millimeter lenses, depending on your preference.
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And they’re sustainable.
With most sunglasses made out of acetate, the eyewear industry is one of the leading contributors to plastic pollution, particularly in the ocean. Remember earlier, when I said I used to buy cheap, trendy pairs of sunglasses, which would all inevitably break? Yeah—I’m sorry to say, I was part of that pollution problem, but now that I have the Wayfarer Reverses, I don’t see myself buying a new pair of shades in the foreseeable future.
These sunglasses are sustainably crafted with bio-nylon lenses and a bio-acetate frame; each contains 41% and 67% bio-based carbon content, respectively. Really, these sunglasses aren’t only better for your style, but they’re better for the environment, too.
SHOP $203, amazon.com
Photographs by Joe Lingeman. Prop styling by Heather Greene.
