Judge's comments:

Alien, reptilian, or just intimidating the thoughtfully refined aesthetic and build quality of these paintball goggles grabbed the judge’s attention. It’s detailed resolution of comfort, breathability and protection confirmed its status as a gold winner.

Description:

The SLR paintball goggle system builds on the industry-wide success of the previous generation goggle system, by improving in the key areas of comfort, protection, and breathability, to continue the product's position as the best performing goggle in the industry.

A unique problem to overcome when designing products for paintball is that a compromise needs to be found between offering ventilation for breathing, with protection from incoming paintball impacts. By default the safest option is to focus on protection first, and this is what competitor products do, but this goggle uses angled 3D geometry on all of the vents to ensure a large volume or air can get through, while also deflecting debris to ensure it does not impact the users mouth/jaw. Airflow testing was done with CAD software and impacts were simulated on prototypes to ensure both of these criteria were successfully achieved at a higher standard than competitor products.

As an added bonus to this improved airflow for breathability, this now allows for much clearer communication by the goggle user. In paintball being able to communicate to your teammates is a key component, and this mask has been carefully designed both on the inside and outside of the mouth area to ensure your voice carries through without muffling, and also reduce the amount of echo heard when wearing the mask.

The lens is designed to offer the widest possible field of view with no obstructions, and is made from optical grade polycarbonate which has been tested and certified to withstand impacts of up to 330kph. As is common in ski goggles, the lens is dual-pane with a thermal insulator to ensure they never fog up.