Review: Tifosi Eyewear SHWAE Aviators

My mailman wears a pair of bright orange Tifosis. My mailman is legit. He’s always smiling , even though his leg was wrapped up in KT tape. I asked him what was up and he told me on one of his routes, a female pitbull that just had pups, sunk its teeth into his leg and tore up some ligaments until he punched her square in the face. Just once. Connected solidly enough to send the bitch back to her pups. So naturally, when I got the press release from Tifosi I wanted to check out what I was missing.

Design/Aesthetics – ★★★★★
On first sight, these look slick. I looked in the mirror and felt like I should be flying a jet, not sitting in front a monitor. But whatever. I’m a badass in front of a computer too. The blue lenses are a change of pace for aviators but the classic tortoiseshell pattern temple tips keep them from getting too weird. Overall, the tan on light blue with gold colored temples have a very beach-y look. Maybe I should wear these while flying a jet by the beach.

Durability – ★★★★
The SHWAE’s actually feel pretty sturdy for aviators. I did notice that the website mentioned they’re shatterproof which is pretty typical for sunglasses these days. That said they don’t have spring hinges (that allow the temples to extend past 90 degrees) and the warranty doesn’t include drops shatters, scratches or any damage that is caused by normal use which is also pretty typical for sunglasses manufacturers. I’ve already dropped them once which scratched the metal and it looks like the lenses scratch pretty easily as well but hey – they’re $35 bucks. And they’re aviators. They’re not exactly intended for extreme outdoor activity.

Functionality – ★
They’re missing the three things in aviators that I was looking forward to – the spring hinges, the adjustable pads, and polarized lenses. The pads are an extension of the rims (the thing that holds the lenses) and they don’t adjust, which is fine if they fit you perfect out of the box. But in my case, they need maybe a half millimeter adjustment making it just about a half millimeter of frustration. Those are really the only functions that I care about in this style of shades so the fact that they don’t have any of them gets these a 2. But again, they’re $35 bucks so maybe my expectations shouldn’t be so high.

Value – ★★★★★
Again, these feel premium out of the box. They have some weight, they feel sturdy, the finishes are nice and polished – the only complaint I had out of the box was the amount of plastic wrapping I had to go through (I’m a big anti-single use plastic guy and all that plastic just seemed unnecessary). But that doesn’t impact the value for this rubric. For a high-end pair of aviators at $35, these definitely get five stars for value.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with these sunglasses but honestly, probably won’t wear them for very long because I can’t adjust them. I know there are folks who these will fit perfectly straight out of the box and if that’s you, and you have $35 bucks to spend on a pair of tropical-looking aviators, these are the sunglasses for you.