Glade Optics Challenger Ski Goggles – Test and Review

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Updated May 9th, 2024

I recently got a chance to check out the Glade Optics Challenger goggles. I saw a lot of Glade Optics ads recently and mentions in Blister Gear and Outside Magazine. I wanted to see what all the talk was about. I contacted the folks at Glade Optics and Curt Nichols hooked me up with some goggles to try out. The Challenger was the original Glade Optics goggle. It is a stylish medium fit cylindrical lens goggle with swappable lenses. Keep reading to get the full review on the Glade Optics Challenger Ski Goggles.

Glade Optics Challenger Snow Goggle Features

I picked up a set of Challenger goggles with green lens and black strap. The Challenger goggles do not come with an additional lens so I also got a low light lens to try out. Here in Michigan, it is overcast, dark, and cloudy in the winter a lot more often than it’s sunny. I use the second low light lens that comes with goggles a lot more often than the standard bright light lens.

The Challenger goggles are medium fit with a cylindrical lens. They have a semi easy to use lens swapping system but do not come with a second lens. They are available with 4 color lenses and a black or white strap.

Price

The Glade Challenger goggles retail for $99. They do not include a second lens. A low light lens or other extra lens will set you back another $45. You also get a black microfiber goggle bag with the goggles.

If you order a low light lens it will not come with another bag or other method for storing the lens. This is a bit of a miss as every other goggle maker I know of either gives you a bag or hard case when you buy an extra lens.

There is no Glade Optics coupon code, discount code, or promo code available for Glade Optics. If I ever get my hands on a Glade coupon I’ll add it here since I’m always looking out for deals and savings for my readers.

Lens

The Challenger goggles use a flat cylindrical lens. It has a row of vent slots built into the lens along the top. The vents have a bit more character to them giving the goggles a very unique look. A lot of cheap Amazon goggles have a row of straight vent slots. It’s good that the Glade didn’t just put a straight row of vents into the Challenger lens.

Both lenses have a very shiny mirror finish to them. The green lens looks really sharp in bright light.

The lenses are clear without much distortion. I didn’t find any obvious areas of distortion around the corners or edges of the lens. The clarity and focus are right there with other $100-$200 ski goggles.

Both lenses have UV400+ 100% UV protection to block UV rays and keep your eyes safe from the sun.

There is no photochromic lens option available for the Glade Optics Challenger goggle. If you would like a photochromic goggle, check out the Glade Adapt. The Glade Adapt lenses will not work with the Challenger frame. They are different.

Frames

The frames are made with TPU plastic and are soft and bendable. They have vents along the top and bottom. They have triple layer face foam.

I find the frames to be comfortable to wear. The foam is soft enough to be comfortable. The inner most fleece layer has a good feel. The nose area feels like it is tight enough to seal but not tight enough to feel like they are pinching my nose.

The construction looks similar to most other goggles in the $100-$200 price range. Everything looks well put together like it will last. Nothing looks like it might break or fall apart.

Field of view

The field of view is good for a medium fit goggle. It is as good as any other medium fit spherical or toric lens goggle. Glade Optics has done its homework with frame design. All the Glade goggles I have tested have really good peripheral vision.

Bright light performance

The Green lens has a VLT of 24.8%. It’s on the lower edge of what you would want to use on a really bright sunny day. I found it worked well as long as you didn’t stare right at the sun (which you shouldn’t do anyway). Sometimes it’s hard to avoid if you are staring straight into it riding up a chair. The clarity and terrain definition was good in bright conditions.

The 24.8% lens is perfect for a bright partly cloudy day or slight overcast. If you live somewhere with a lot of really bright bluebird days you should look at the 8.4% VLT silver lens. For people living in places where clouds are more common the orange, green, and blue lenses make a lot more sense.

Flat light performance

I skied with the Challenger ski and snowboard goggles on a really flat light day at Nubs Nob. It was overcast with some sleet/snow mixture falling. It was as flat as flat light gets. The yellow flat light lens worked as well as any yellow tint low light lens I have tried. I had no trouble seeing the snow surface and terrain.

It doesn’t work as well as a more advanced flat light lens utilizing blue light filtering such as a Chromapop lens found in Smith goggles. I’ll give it an 8 out of 10 for flat light performance. For great flat light performance from Glade Optics, check out their Adapt goggle.

The yellow low light lens has a higher VLT of 76.5%. In addition to flat light, it will work well in any low light conditions such as night skiing.

Anti-fog performance

This goggle has double pane lenses, a double layer anti fog coating and plenty of ventilation. I had no issues with fogging so far. My goggles have stayed fog free while skiing and while standing around. They didn’t fog while I was standing around at any point. I didn’t get to see how well the vents would work at defogging them once I started moving.

Ski Helmet compatibility and appearance

I tried the Challenger goggles out with a few helmets for compatibility and appearance. The goggle strap has silicone beads so that they don’t slide on helmets. I tried the goggles out with the following helmets. Anon Echo MIPS, OutdoorMaster Diamond MIPS, and Giro Nine-C. The goggles have small to no gap with all the helmets I tried.

These goggles are medium fit so they work well for people with smaller faces. I really like the bright mirrored finish these have when out in bright light. You definitely won’t look like a gaper while wearing Glade Challengers.

If you prefer a bigger oversize looking goggle, check out the Glade Optics MagFlight.

See the below images to see how they look with different helmet designs.

Lens swapping

I’m not going to lie. These aren’t the easiest goggles in the world to swap lenses. They are not a 4 second quick swap magnetic lens goggle. They are a minute of fussing and trying to align small tabs goggles. I admit, I hated swapping lenses the first time I tried it. It took me forever to line up the outside edge pins. Now that I have done it a bunch of times I can swap the lens out pretty fast. The 2 pins on each outboard end never snap in easily. The tabs snap in a lot easier than when the goggles were new. Check out the Glade MagFlight for really easy lens swapping.

I’m not a fan of this type of lens swap system. I would rate these goggles similar difficulty to swap lenses as Oakley Ridgelock goggles such as Flight Decks. Like the Oakley Ridgelock, you have to push and squeeze the lens and frame a lot to get them apart and together again. That is more chances to smudge and scratch the lenses. The more you touch and rub oils and dirt onto the inner side of the lens, the more the anti fog coating loses effectiveness. I would rather buy 2 sets of goggles to switch between than swap the lens this way on a regular basis.

OTG – Over The Glasses

The goggles will fit over my glasses. They have cutouts in the foam on the sides. Like the other Glade Optics flat lens goggles, I don’t think they are that comfortable to wear with glasses. The Challengers are the smallest frames so it stands to reason they don’t work better. If you wear glasses I would look at the Glade Optics Gamma OTG goggles if these don’t work for you. The Gamma model is a purpose built OTG goggle.

The Verdict

The Glade Challenger goggles are a great choice for someone looking for medium fit goggles. They have good lenses and a great stylish mirrored appearance. The lens swapping system leaves a little bit to be desired but it’s not bad once you get used to it. My wife is quite fond of the Challengers and will be keeping this in her ski gear for the rest of the season and beyond.

Overall, the Glade Challengers are worth checking out if you are looking for new goggles. I hope we see a lot more good things come out of Glade Optics in the future.

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