Mirror Shade Sunglasses

You have no doubt seen police officers on television shows wearing the big sunglasses made with mirror lenses. Truth is, there is a good reason such glasses are favored by law enforcement. Let's take a look at some of the benefits of mirror shade sunglasses.

Mirror shade sunglasses are made when a special reflective optical coating is applied over the outside of lenses. This makes them look like small mirrors. The mirror coating can take out from 10% to 60% of the light that strikes the lens. Therefore mirror shades are great from someone that spends a lot of time outside such as police officers who are on a motorcycle or car for 8 hours or more each day.

However, mirror shade sunglasses have an even greater purpose than just blocking light from the eye. These particular sunglasses prevent a person from making eye to eye contact with the wearer of the glasses. Instead the mirror will just give the onlooker his own reflection to gaze upon.

That is the main reason that mirror shade sunglasses are so popular among law enforcement and the military. Since they are so popular among law enforcement, mirror shades have been given the nickname of cop shades. The mirrors tend to unnerve suspects since they cannot see into the eyes of the policeman. For the same reason, mirror shades are often worn by professional poker players.

Mirror shade sunglasses are available in many different styles but the style favored by police and the military are Aviators. The Aviator style was created in the 1930's by Ray Ban and was sold to the US Military where it was used among military pilots. The military issued the sunglasses to its pilots to protect their eyes while they flew.

Another common style of mirror shade sunglasses are the wraparounds. This style is comprised of two semi-circular lenses that completely cover the eye like goggles. These sunglasses are popular in competitive and extreme sports, particularly snow sports like skiing and snowboarding.

As previously stated, the mirror shades are created by applying a coating on the lenses. This coating can be a very thin layer or it can be a very thick reflective layer. The thinner the layer of coating, the easier it is to scratch and the more sensitive the lens is to salt water so these mirror shades must be treated with care.

The most modern mirror shades are made with several layers of coating so that they are durable and hard to scratch. These sunglasses tend to be on the expensive side, but this is a case of you get what you pay for. Mirror shades protect your eyes and do it in style.