The Best Ski Goggles of 2023 Guide [Ratings, Tests, and Reviews]

Updated September 10th, 2023

Ski goggles are a piece of equipment that can make or break your ski experience. The right set of goggles protects your eyes and makes it easier to see in any light condition. The wrong set of goggles can leave you a fogged up mess that can’t see anything. We spent our winter on the mountain testing goggles so we can find the very best performers.

See below for our best ski goggle top picks. Keep reading for reviews, Ski Goggle Guide, and FAQ with everything you need to know and more about ski goggles.

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How we test

We ski with our test goggles throughout the winter in a variety of conditions. We ski everything from heavy fog and rain at Whitefish, MT to sunny powder days at Powder Mountain, Utah. Most of our skiing is done in the overcast flat light conditions that make up most of our winters here in Michigan.

See our guide to the best Budget Ski Goggles for the best cheap under $100 ski goggles out there.

The 15 Top Ski Goggles Of Winter 2022-2023

Are you still confused about what to buy? Talk to an expert at Curated.com

Ski Goggle Guide

There are a lot of options and things to consider when shopping for ski goggles. Lets take a look at all the things you should look for and think about when buying ski goggles.

1 – UV Protection

Almost all ski goggles offer UV400 protection against UV Rays. UV400 means that they block all UV rays up to 400nanometers. This covers both UVA and UBV rays. A set of ski goggles that provides UV400 protection blocks almost 100% of UV rays that are harmful. Always look for UV400 protection from your ski goggles so you know they are keeping your eyes safe.

2 – Size and Fit

Ski Goggles tend to come in 3 sizes. Small fit, medium fit, and large fit. Small fit tend to be goggles meant for children. Medium fit and large fit are sized for adults. Medium fit tends to work best for smaller adults, women, or teens. Large fit works best for larger adults or men. Goggle frames also have different curvature and nose shapes.

The only way to really know what will fit you the best is by trying them on and seeing what fits well. A ski goggle should fit snug and the foam should seal against your face all the way around. If you have an air gap above your nose or anywhere else you should try a different set of goggles.

3 – Lens Shape

There are 3 main lens shapes that ski goggles come with.

• Cylindrical – A flat lens that wraps around the goggles
• Spherical – A curved lens with the same curvature in both horizontal and vertical directions
• Toric – A curved lens with less curvature in the vertical direction than horizontal

Cylindrical lens

Cylindrical lenses are the oldest style of ski goggle lens. They’re basically just flat pieces of glass or plastic that curve around your face. The main benefit of cylindrical lenses is that they’re usually cheaper than other types. This type of lens has more distortion because the lens shape doesn’t match your eyes shape.

Cylindrical lenses have a more lean and low profile look. The lens doesn’t stick out from the frame. This retro look has become more in style lately. Goggle makers have figured out how to reduce the distortion by thinning the lens.

Spherical Lens

Spherical lenses are a lens cut out of a sphere. They have the same curvature in the vertical and horizontal direction. The main advantage to spherical lenses is they have less distortion than cylindrical lenses. You still get some noticable distortion out towards the edges of the lens. Because there is more air space inside the goggle with a spherical lens, you get better ventilation and anti-fog performance with this lens type. The lenses can look like they are bulging out from your face and helmet which some people don’t care for.

Toric Lens

This is the latest and most advanced lens shape. Toric lenses have less curvature in the vertical direction than horizontal direction. They don’t look like flat lenses. They don’t bulge out like spherical lenses. They have the best match to your natural eye shape and the least distortion of any goggle lens shape. They have anti-fog performance that is almost as good as spherical lenses.

4 – Field of View

You want to be able to see as much of your surroundings as possible while wearing ski goggles. You want goggles that don’t block your peripheral vision. You can get good field of view out of any lens shape and from frameless or framed designs. The Oakley Line Miner’s have great peripheral vision and they are cylindrical lens goggles with a framed design. The Smith 4D Mag goggles also have great field of view. They are toric lens shape frameless goggle. The top models from the most popular goggle makers all have really great field of view these days.

5 – Lens color and VLT

VLT stands for Visible Light Transmission. This is the amount of light that a lens lets pass through. A 10% lens will be very dark and only allow a small amount of light through. A 90% lens will be almost clear and let most light pass through it. A VLT of 10-20% is good for really bright days. A VLT of 20-40% is good for partly cloudy, or overcast days. They also work well when it’s snowing or raining out. 40-60% is good for dark low light days with heavy clouds or later in the day right before sunset. >60% VLT is good for evening and night skiing.

Different color lenses work better for different conditions.

For really bright conditions mirrored lenses that are any color work well. Darker black, grey, blue, green, and red lenses all work for well for bright days.

For flat light and low light conditions, yellow, orange, red, and amber lenses work best. These lenses work by filtering out blue shades. This helps separate the colors in the snow surface allowing you to see it better. See this article on blue filtering from NASA to learn more.

Clear or very lightly tinted lenses work best for night skiing. You just want to see as much light as possible once the sun goes down.

SEE ALSO: What Color Lens is Best for Ski Goggles? How to Pick The Right Lens

6 – Photochromic lens

Photochromic lenses change VLT or how dark they are depending on how bright it is outside. A photochromic lens can have a VLT of 20-60% making it useful on a variety of days without changing lenses. The limitation is that they can only change so much. You can’t have a lens that goes full range from VLT 10%-60%.

7 – Color Optimized or Color Filtering lenses

The top ski goggle makers all produce something called color optimized or color filtering lenses on their high end goggles. The 2 most popular are Smith Optics ChromaPop and Oakley PRIZM. These work by filtering out shades of blue so that you can see the snow surface better than with the naked eye. These lenses all have a slight yellow or orange tint to them from the inside. It is very pronounced with ChromaPop. It’s much more subtle with PRIZM lenses. The rest fall somewhere in between.

These lenses can be any color or finish on the outside such as mirrored or black. You can have a blue mirror ChromaPop lens but it will look yellowish-orange from the inside. These lenses are worth the extra cost over a straight orange lens and they look a lot better too.

Some of the brand names for these lenses are:

• Smith ChromaPop
• Oakley PRIZM
• Anon Perceive
• Spy Happy Lens
• Outdoor Master Ultra
• Giro Vivid
• Dragon Alliance Lumalens
• Bolle Volt

8 – Polarized Lenses

Polarized lenses only let light pass through in certain directions. They do a very good job of reducing glare and reflections. Polarized lenses work best on really bright days when there is a lot of glare coming off the snow surface. Polarized lenses can make it harder to see during a flat light condition day.

9 – Anti-Fog performance

The formula to get good fog resistance in a goggle is these 4 things.

1. Dual pane lenses
2. Anti-fog coating
3. Foam that seals around the opening of the goggle
4. Ventilation

Almost every ski goggle made has these features. They are not all made equal. Features such as moisture wicking foam and more advanced anti-fog coatings can give goggles much better anti-fog performance.

Ski goggles today are designed to work with vents in ski helmets that pull more air through the goggles. This helps clear moisture out and defog goggles quickly as soon as you start moving. You can get the best anti-fog performance from a set of ski goggles by using a matching helmet with defog vents.

10 – Goggle to Helmet compatibility

You want your ski goggles to have a nice tight fit against your helmet. You do not want to have a big goggle gap between them. This makes you look like a “Gaper” and everyone will instantly think you don’t know what you’re doing. It also removes any defogging help your helmet might have given your goggles. Goggles and helmets have evolved so that almost any new goggle will work with almost any new helmet these days. You will still get the best fit by using the same brand goggle and helmet.

See our Ski Helmet Gear Guide to see our picks for the best ski helmets.

11 – Interchangeable Lens Goggles

A lot of ski goggles these days have interchangable lens systems so that you can easily swap lenses. There are many different systems. My favorite and the most user friendly is the magnetic system pioneered by Anon on their M2 goggles. It uses only magnets and changing lenses takes just seconds. Lenses can be changed without taking the goggles off your face.

There are other systems such as Oakley Ridgelock that use an interlocking ridge on the lens that engages the frame. You swap lenses by pulling the frame and lens apart and then wrapping the frame back onto the lens. You cannot change these lenses without taking the goggles off your face and helmet.

There are other systems that use latches or combinations of latches and magnets with varying degrees of user-friendliness. The Wildhorn system has easy to access latches that can be operated wearing gloves while wearing goggles. The Smith I/O Mag system has latches under the strap which means you have to take the goggles off to switch lenses.

Anon M4 lens swap

Oakley Ridgelock M4 lens swap

12 – Unisex vs Men’s vs Women’s ski goggles

There are a few ski goggles that are marketed as women’s goggles. There really isn’t any difference between men’s and women’s ski goggles. What does matter is the size and fit. If you are shopping for women’s goggles and have an average size women’s face start with medium fit goggles. If you are shopping for men’s goggles, start with large fit. The only real way to know if a goggle fits you or not is by trying them on.

13 – Regular Fit vs Asian Fit/Low Bridge Fit

Some goggle makers produce what they call “Low bridge fit” or “Asian fit” goggles. These are made to work with faces that have a smaller nose. They have more foam in the nose area so they will seal against a smaller nose shape. If you find that you have an air gap above your nose with regular fit goggles, you might find that low bridge fit goggles work better for you.

Ski Goggle FAQ

See our guide to the best Budget Ski Goggles for the best cheap under $100 ski goggles out there.

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