Bollé has been making eye glasses for over 130 years. Many people know them for their excellent and stylish sunglasses, but in the industrial world they are also well known for their safety eyewear. The company was founded in 1888 and immediately became the pioneer in molded nylon sunglasses. In 1950 Bollé began making safety glasses and goggles. Today, they have a separate division known as Bollé Safety where they make protective eyewear for the industrial, healthcare and tactical industries. Of course, we wanted to test out some of their new tactical offerings.
The first glasses I tested were the Sentinel. These are a frameless design with a flexible black frame. They have thin, non-slip temples, a rubber nose piece and ballistic polycarbonate lenses. Bollé has an anti-fog and anti-scratch coating they call PLATINUM which really seems to work. I used these glasses for two months on both indoor and outdoor ranges. They come in several different lens tints but I tried the CSP PC. At a glance, they appear to be clear lenses but they actually have a brown tint base that allows them to work in high or low light environments. While I didn’t take any hard hits while wearing these glasses, I did subject them to flying brass, debris, dirt and numerous drops. The PLATINUM coating really seems to work. The lenses were easy to clean and the glasses still look great. I found they had great wrap around protection with excellent edge-to-edge clarity.
The next pair I played with was the Tryon. These are also frameless and feature the PLATINUM coating and wrap around design. They have a very rugged and flexible black frame also with rubber temples and nose piece. For these, I tested the smoke tinted lenses which only allow 13% visible light transmission. I used these outdoors on very bright days and they worked great. The color rendering was terrific and they made shooting in bright sunlight much easier. Just be aware when you walk inside after being in the bright sun you will think you went blind!
The final pair I spent some time wearing was the Ranger. These are a full frame design also featuring a black flexible nylon frame. These have small PVC pads on the temples and nose piece to keep them from slipping. The lenses are a dark smoke tint which worked great in bright sunlight. These are good looking glasses truly aimed at the tactical operator.
One final note on Bollé Safety glasses. They are extremely affordable. I was shocked at how low the cost was considering the look and quality of these glasses. Add them to your shopping list and put some in your range bag. You will not be disappointed.