Why you should wear mil spec sunglasses

After watching GQ Rules 2 - Ep.30 - Suit Your Shades I started thinking about USAF issued sunglasses.  A less expensive and in my view cooler option than the Wayfarer is to get genuine USAF aviator sunglasses in black or steel.

These shades run around $50 on ebay.  Search for AO sunglasses or American Optical sunglasses.  The key is to get the correct width.  Measure your forehead from temple to temple using a ruler.

5" = 52mm
5.25" = 55mm
5.75" = 58mm

These sunglasses are the real deal.  It's what real pilots in the USAF wear when they fly F-17 jet aircraft.  They also remind me of NASA astronauts in the 1960's.  Classic Americana.  Always appropriate.

The J. Peterman Company calls these sunglass Fort Knox Sunglasses.  They have a great description on their website:

"For combat pilots there are moments when distance and depth-of-field judgments, undistorted color-value relationships, UV (a & b) and infrared filtration, glare and haze suppression, and other factors, can be a matter of life and death.

Strolling along Rodeo Drive in your $250 “designer” sunglasses, these factors are not, perhaps, a matter of life and death.

Good thing they're not. Disturbing instances of expensive, supposedly reputable sunglasses failing to adequately filter harmful UV radiation are not rare; nor the converse; $5 sunglasses that test far better than the $250 kind. The problem is, how do you know which is which?

You don't. That's what we like about these: they were developed by American Optical to meet the exacting specifications of the U.S. Air Force (MIL-S-25948J). They don't cost $250, or $175, or $95. They cost $60. Buy them at the Fort Knox PX or from us. Either way, you can stop worrying. You've got the best."

Another good place to buy these sunglasses is US Wings