The Progressor snow goggle is a face-hugging shape shifter

They’ve seen better days, those goggles.

No, no, they’re supposed to be like that. Well, not all at once. See, the concept of interchangeable goggle lenses has been around since the world moved from B&W to colour, making the weather a lot less predictable.

A simple concept in winter sports circles – darkening lens for bright days and brightening lens for dark days – has been subtly refined in the intervening years until the choice of lens colours, materials and coatings has become pretty well sorted. That is, until the boffins at Adidas noticed a more fundamental flaw…

Dreamt up a new marketing angle, you mean.

Tsk, cynic. Thing is, up in the crags where the snowsporters roam, there’s more to weather than just the light levels. There’s air temperature and humidity levels, and there’s the heat of your actual face, and if you put all of this into a solution-generator…

Revenue-maker…

Shh… What you get is the concept that a lens needs to be not just a different colour but also a different shape. Did we say ‘concept’? Behold! The Adidas Progressor. It’s available with two different ‘lenspods’ that fit on the front, the Progressor S and Progressor C.

Ooh, lemme guess: ‘S’ for sunny and ‘C’ for crappy?

Right weather; wrong names. ‘S’ for spherical, a more bulbous lens that offers wide-angle vision in good conditions. And ‘C’ for cylindrical: a closer-fitting, flatter lens for flatter light. Within the shapes, they still come in various colours – prices starting at £115 – or you can get a Pro Pack with both Lenspods for £155.

Down with the hype and looking for some new goggles? Ride on over to the eyewear section at Adidas, or they’re available at Sunglasses Shop.