Sports Vision Contact Lenses

Contact lenses are essential to any athlete who requires vision correction. Can you imagine pro athletes wearing glasses while playing hockey, or basketball, or football? Contacts provide clear vision while also providing unobstructed peripheral vision.

But that's not all they can provide. A few years back, Nike and Bausch & Lomb collaberated to produce a revolutionary new contact lens called Nike MAXSIGHT. The lens was designed with a tint to enhance sport-specific vision above and beyond what a normal soft contact lens could provide. There were two colours available: amber and grey.

The amber lenses were designed for fast moving ball sports such as tennis, soccer, and baseball. The theory here is that human visual acuity is actually optimized around the yellow wavelengths, so the lens will allow mostly yellow rays through and absorbs the rest.

The grey lenses were more for sports or activities generally conducted in bright environments but did not require tracking of fast moving objects such as running or golf. The lens decreased glare thus making vision more comforable.

TSN recently did a story on Henry Burris, the quarterback of the Calgary Stampeders (CFL). In the 2008 season, Burris was wearing the amber tinted lenses. Calgary went on to win the Grey Cup that year. Burris decided to go back to the lenses this season, hoping for similar results.

In the first pre-season game of the 2011 season, The Stamps were shut out by the BC Lions, 24-0. Maybe Burris wasn't wearing the lenses that day ;)

Here's the video of the interview on TSN. You can clearly see the redish tint around his iris that is coming from the amber tinted lenses. http://watch.tsn.ca/cfl-news-and-highlights/#clip487910

Unfortunately, the MAXSIGHT lenses were discontinued shortly after they were introduced. There are other lens designers that produce a similar lens, but they're harder to find. Ask your eye doctor about sports vision lenses.

Henry Burris mentions in his interview that with the lenses in, lights seemed to be dimmer and he was able to look right into the sun without any problems. I would like to interrupt Mr. Burris here for a moment... Understandably, the tinted lenses may help make vision more comfortable in sunlight, but under no circumstances should anyone be staring directly at the sun!
Please refer to Sunburn in Your Eyes for more information.