Gunnar Optiks Trace Collection glasses review

I’ve been wearing Gunnar glasses since around 2010. I stumbled upon my first pair at Best Buy before I knew Gunnar existed. They were called Vayper’s. These were marketed to Esports competitors and promised protection against blue light, which causes eye strain—a battle I was losing and didn’t know was caused by blue light. So, I bought them.

But you wouldn’t catch me wearing the Vayper’s in public. The yellow tint, the near borderless rims, and the odd checkerboard pattern on the arms screamed nerd. I endured enough funny looks and social ostracization from being a gamer; I’m not going to invite more with these glasses.

As Gunnar grew, it seemed they understood their frames needed more stylish looks. Years later, I found the Enigma’s. Those looked like glasses I’d see someone wear. They were stylish enough to overcome the odd yellow tint that people weren’t accustomed to seeing. I bought a pair, wore them at work, and people started asking me about them and wanted to try them for themselves. I wasn’t trying to evangelize; I just needed stylish blue-light protection at work so I wouldn’t get clowned.

Now, Gunnar has all but mastered the technology that reduces eye strain, and they continue to release new frames. One of the newest lines, the Trace Collection, outfits Gunnar with some of its most modern styles, suitable for any business-casual environment—probably casual, too.

The Trace Collection is inspired by the Californian tech industry and comes with three styles of glasses, seemingly named after cities in Northern California—Barton, Hayward, and Davis. Gunnar gave me each one to sample. I’ve worn them for about two weeks and used them as I would my other glasses, except with some stress testing of the hinges. Technologically and stylistically, these are good glasses, but purchasing the exact glasses you want is more difficult than it should be.

Technology

There’s little new to say about Gunnar’s blue-light technology at this point. It’s been consistent for years. But what can be improved is their options for their non-prescription glasses. Amber Max 98—Gunnar’s strongest blue-light protection—is only available for prescription glasses.

I stare at my desktop screen for about 10 hours a day, on top of intermittent time looking at my phone. Without Gunnar glasses, my eyes fatigue after about two hours. With them, I last about five hours. I could lower my monitor’s brightness or enable night mode, but that would reduce my ability to read text.

Gunnar’s advantage is that I can keep my screen brightness as high as I want without losing clarity. I don’t understand why I can’t order non-prescription glasses with Amber Max lenses. I use blue-light glasses to decrease my potential for prescription glasses. Allow me the strongest protection.

When choosing frames, Gunnar organizes its glasses into five performance tiers: Signature, Epic, Legendary, Mythic, and Pro eSports. Each tier offers different options, such as lens technology, accessories, or hinge style. I bring this up because I’m not sure which performance tier my samples fall into.

For example, the legendary tier includes an elegant hard clamshell case, a cleaning cloth, and a microfiber bag—all of which were included with the sample glasses. But the hinges on each pair of glasses fall under the epic tier—performance multi-barrel hinges, precisely. Do I have the legendary or the epic? I don’t know.

The website is problematic, too. Each pair is exclusively classified as legendary (there’s no option to choose a different tier), but the pictures show hinges that you get in the epic tier. If the Trace Collection is considered the legendary tier, they should come with the awesome flexible spring hinges, a hard clamshell case, a cleaning cloth, and a microfiber bag. No one can have confidence that they’ll get what they bought with inconsistent information.

What I can tell you is that whatever Gunnar sent me works great. The sturdy hinges, in particular, provide strong support for the arms. Even after relentlessly opening and closing the arms, they didn’t lose their tautness. That support became delicate once they reached 90 degrees, though. It felt like I could easily break them if I accidentally pushed them beyond 90 degrees.

Design  

Gunnar’s designs have come a long way. They still have some, let’s say, experimental frames, but the Trace Collection feels like glasses anyone could wear. I can appreciate that Gunnar still explores an adventurous style with this color selection.

Let’s start with Barton. The frame is styled with straight edges and has hard angles where the rims curve. The sweat bar sits above a silver bridge, creating a sophisticated look, but I don’t think it looks good on my face. The top bar clashed with my naturally curved eyebrows.

Barton was also the only frame in this collection that frequently slid off my face. I had to constantly poke the bridge to keep the frame in place. I suspect they were too wide. The arms didn’t grip my ears as tightly as the other two in the collection.

The color came in a somewhat translucent brown, printed with a straight faux wood grain pattern. It added to the sophisticated appearance, still felt business-casual, and looked like a color you would find on a regular pair of glasses. They’re certainly eye-catching without being distracting.

Hayward offers a slightly curvier frame compared to Barton—straight edges, rectangular rims, but no harsh angles. These are the kind of frames I’m used to wearing. The top bar casually dips toward the middle, agreeing with the shape of my eyebrows and my not-soft-but-not-angular face.

These came in steel blue (with the faux wood grain pattern). It’s technically darker than the brown Barton’s, but the unique, unexpected color makes the frames pop. It’s my favorite color of the three.

The Davis frames are a bright brown that looks like the next tint up from the Barton's. They’re exciting, lively, and the faux wood grain feels vivacious in this color. They’re still warm and certainly striking, but probably too much for an office. The frames are a rounder, softer, curious look—no hard edges here. I didn't think these would look good, believing they would contrast against my face the way the Barton’s did. But I was surprised how well they sat perfectly under my eyebrows. And as round rims tend to do, they accentuated my eyes. I felt like an anime character.

What's unfortunate is that these colors aren’t available on the website at the time of writing. Each pair is only available in black. Of the six pairs of Gunnars I own, only these three come with color.  Black is always a safe choice, but I like the warmth and personality of these glasses. It would be disappointing if others couldn’t have their choice. I’m hoping they’re simply out of stock.