Cablz – Eyewear Retention System

Every now and then a little piece of gear surprises me, and that’s the case of Cablz. Cablz calls their product an “eyewear retention system”, and although I find the phrasing awkward, it’s hard to find a better way to describe this amazingly comfortable, subtle and effective way of keeping your glasses on your head.

Ok, I know what you’re thinking. You’ve probably cast your mind back to the David Hasselhoff era and the obnoxious fluorescent shoelace glasses straps that held on people’s obnoxious glasses. Cablz is NOT that.

What are Cablz?

Cablz is a line of very high quality, highly functional and very discrete way of keeping your glasses on when engaging in action sports, or anywhere you’re at risk of losing them.

Cablz sent me two version of their adjustable Cablz: The Monoz and the Zips. One has amonofilament, adjustable strap and the other has a coated stainless steel strap. Both are of high quality materials and construction.

Let’s look at the features and get down to my thoughts.

Zips Features:

• Available in Regular and XL rubber ends
• Available in lengths of 12″ and 14″ cable
• Adjustable
• Coated stainless Steel strap
• MSRP: $14.99

Monoz features:

• Available in Regular and XL rubber ends
• Adjustable
• Monofilament strap
• Colors: fluorescent yellow, fluorescent orange, fluorescent green or white
• MSRP: $14.99

What do I think?

I’ll admit that I was reluctant when asked to take a look at these, but since I tried them, I haven’t taken them off my glasses. I wear the black, stainless ones on my regular glasses and the monofilament ones on my prescription polarized sunglasses. As you can guess, I can’t really afford to lose either pairs of glasses.

First off, these are very comfortable. The sleeve connectors (my words) slide over the end of my glasses arms and are very comfortable. They don’t rub, chafe or cause pressure points on or behind my ears. I honestly don’t remember I’m wearing them until I go to take off my glasses (and have to loosen the strap).

Secondly, they are discreet. My wife was discussing glasses straps with someone that I work with and talk with regularly, and they didn’t even know that I wore them. I do my share of public speaking, and work at a desk job and they are only noticed if take off my glasses to clean them.

Most importantly, they work. I’ve trained for and run a 10k race wearing these, dove into lakes, cycled, backpacked, paddled, you name it and have never lost my glasses, or had them come off. The closest I came to losing them was diving (not jumping, but diving) into a lake. The water pulled them down onto my neck, but the cablz stayed on and connected, despite my absentmindedness.

Conclusion

If you’re going to engage in action sports, and spend good money on a pair of sunglasses or prescription lenses, drop the X dollars on a pair of Cablz. I don’t expect I’ll ever have to replace these. But if my wife ever needs a pair, I’ll definite pick up a pair of these.

Do you have a pair of cablz or other eye retention system? What do you think? Do you remember the fluorescent 90s? I’d love to see a photo down below.