Ted Ligety has collected two gold medals in his Olympic career and most recently was a participant in PyeongChang. During his career, he also co-founded a business to help him and other athletes win more.
That business? Shred Optics, which creates helmets, sunglasses and other gear designed to help professional and recreational winter athletes. Ligety’s co-founder, Italian materials engineer Carlo Salmini, developed a carbon-fiber shin guard for Ligety and his friends, CNBC reported. First, the pair created embarked on separate enterprises: Ligety paired with a lens maker to create ski goggles that emphasized light and dark forms in snow.
Ligety and Salmini became business partners after the latter expressed interest in the goggles, CNBC reported, and have since developed a number of other products. Shred’s latest? A pair of eyeglasses that protect athletes from flat light, which launched on Kickstarter in November, the company announced. The sunglasses, called Boost, were created using high-grade urethane lenses created in Japan, according to the announcement. Compared to typical sunglasses made with CR-39 or polycarbonate lenses, the urethane lenses are supposedly more durable and precise.
“There’s no substitute for quality shades,” Ligety said in a statement. “Yet for years an industry dominated by giants has done little to fuel progression, touting the benefits of lens materials and frame designs that are riddled with compromises.
“That’s why we’re out to change the game. Our frames and lenses establish a new standard in durability and optical precision—while also proving that style need not come at the expense of performance.”
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The Boost sunglasses allow for more defined images, higher contrast, and vivid colors, diminishing the effects of flat light, which MIT engineers said can make it hard to see on overcast days. The glasses are geared toward those living active lifestyles.
Students at the institute helped work on the sunglasses to protect their wearers against those dangerous conditions; Salmini, who helped develop Shred’s glasses, graduated from MIT as well.
“Of all the problems we have, this is the most challenging one,” Salmini told MIT.
“For racers, a difference of seconds can exist between how they perform in the sun and how they perform in flat light,” Ligety told MIT. “You have so much more confidence to push hard in good light.”
The Kickstarter campaign ended in December, and the sunglasses will soon be available on Shred’s website for $160-200, the company announced.
