In my lifetime, I have owned approximately 1,473 pairs of sunglasses. Ok, that may be a SLIGHT exaggeration, but still not TOO far off. When I think back to the sunglasses I have owned, it is a blur of cheap plastic, “chrome” frames, and lenses made of who knows what that seemed to scratch every time my eyelashes brush against them. I have had lenses mysteriously just pop out of their frames and ear pieces break at the slightest gust of wind. I have witnessed sunglasses mysteriously disappearing after falling beneath the seat of my car, and felt guilt ridden at the realization that I left them sitting in a bathroom somewhere I will undoubtedly never visit again.
All of these experiences are the both the cause and result of purchasing very poor sunglasses over the years of my life. My thinking was that if my sunglasses were just going to break or get lost, why would I want to invest any real money in them? And since I didn’t have any real money invested in them, I didn’t care enough about them to take the actions necessary to keep them from getting broken or lost. I was stuck in an endless cycle of terrible sunglasses.
Growing up, I was always enamored with my father’s sunglasses. I still remember sneaking into his bedroom to put on his gold-rimmed aviators that he kept in a leather pouch complete with a cleaning clothe. Of course, the lenses completely covered my round, chubby face, but I thought I looked like one of the Blue Angels Pilots every time I looked in the mirror.
Even now as an adult, I have struggled with the idea of spending more than $25 on any pair of sunglasses. The fear of losing or breaking them was still fresh in my mind, so I tended to stick with buying my sunglasses at places like gas stations and Walmart.
If you are a regular reader of this site, you know what comes next. I make a comment about the importance of quality and not quantity. I may make mention about the fact that I have probably spent at least $200 over the past couple years on multiple pairs of sunglasses that were lost or broken because of my own oversight and lack of concern because I only see them as a $15 pair of sunglasses that aren’t going to cause me to go into financial ruin if they were to somehow become unwearable.
But that’s not what you are reading this for. You are reading this article because I promised to talk about Randolph Engineering Sunglasses, so let’s get on to that.
Randolph Engineering probably has one of the greatest mission statements I have seen. It states their mission as:
- To define, produce and deliver the world’s finest eyeware
- To stand as the example by which others are considered.
- To value our human resource, our community, our clients and our customers as equals.
- To exemplify world-class service, integrity and quality in every aspect of our business.
Through the process of reviewing their products, I can say that Randolph has upheld their mission with great diligence. They were kind enough to send me a pair of their P3 Sunglasses that I have grown to love in a way I didn’t know a man could love sunglasses. Matt feels the same way about the pair of Concorde Aviators he received.
Concorde
P3
Upon first receiving them, we both had apprehensions about wearing them often because of our past experiences with cheap sunglasses. We were terrified of breaking or losing these awesome shades because that’s all we have ever known. But as we got over that fear, we realized something: These bad boys were not going to break. Everything about these sunglasses scream quality. After consistent wearing for over 1 month, there has been zero sign of any type of wear or tear on either pair of glasses.
