Chasing Sunlight: A Year with Vallon Sunglasses
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Somewhere between artwork and protection gear — feather-light, forget-you're-wearing-them sunglasses that quietly became five of the six pairs by our front door.
- Feather-light — you forget they're on and miss them when they're off
- V52® polarized lenses: sharp, glare-free clarity in bright open-water light
- Understated style that never shouts — until you pick the Heron Ocean, then own it
- Removes 1kg of plastic waste per pair; recycled materials, plastic-free packaging
It's funny how thoroughly we've productized the human body. Heads get hats. Torsos get T-shirts. The nether regions get underwear, legs get trousers, feet get shoes, hands get gloves and rings, wrists get watches. Somewhere along the way we started hanging jewelry off necks and wrapping them in scarves too. Every surface, an opportunity.
Sunglasses are one of the masterpieces in that catalog: two panels of tinted glass balanced on the bridge of the nose and pinned in place by a pair of arms that hook over the ears. Simple. Brilliant.
They began as pure function. The Inuit carved snow goggles from bone and antler with a thin slit to cut the glare off the ice. Roman accounts have Emperor Nero watching gladiators through a polished emerald. Twelfth-century Chinese judges wore lenses of smoky quartz to hide their expressions in court. James Ayscough was experimenting with tinted lenses by the 1750s, and sunglasses only really went mass-market in 1929, when Sam Foster started selling them on the Atlantic City boardwalk. Ray-Ban's aviators followed a few years later, built for pilots squinting into high-altitude glare.
And then, as happens with almost everything we drape on the body, function slid into fashion. Today the sunglass industry is exactly that: form and function, form and fashion, with an almost limitless wall of options to choose from.
Which brings us to Vallon.
Born in the Swiss Alps — in Verbier, in the raw light of the Val de Bagnes — Vallon builds eyewear that lands somewhere between artwork and functional protection gear. Their latest range simply blew us away. Brad fell hard for the Surf Aviators, which quietly became his go-to. And one model earns a genuine shout-out before we go any further: the Heron Ocean.
But first, the thinking — and the tech — underneath it all.
Performance, and the V52 Lens
Vallon's pitch is refreshingly plain: performance technology, at its best-looking. And that, honestly, is what stands out first — clean, classic shapes in colours you'd actually wear, with none of the compromise you usually make between looking good and seeing well.
Under the understated design is genuine tech. The V52® lenses deliver some of the clearest optics we've tested, especially in the harsh, reflective light of open water. Add polarized glare reduction and full UV400 protection and those long, bright sessions get a lot easier on your eyes.
The Standout: Heron Ocean
The Heron Ocean is the one that's genuinely different. Part Mad Max, part quiet innovation — glacier-style side shields that seal off the peripheral glare, spray and wind that most sunglasses let straight in, and a trademark button sitting proud on the bridge, just above the nose.
Brad wasn't sure how they'd look on. Then he put them on. They became his weekend-vibe sunnies — the pair you reach for when you want to own the look rather than disappear behind it. The polarized lenses don't just kill glare; they let you actually read the water. And they're light enough, and tough enough, to survive being flung between the car, the beach and whatever the day turns into.
The Throwback: Surf Aviators
The Surf Aviators are just so stylish. They feel like they've always been in your car and always been on your face. They don't, sadly, come with a VW Kombi to complete the picture — but they are light, comfortable enough to forget you're wearing them, and cut from handmade acetate with the same V52® polarized lenses doing the quiet work. Old-school on the outside, thoroughly modern where it counts.
The All-Rounder: Waylons
The Waylons are the quiet achievers — so light and so easy to wear that they've saved Geniya's eyes through countless midday "surf checks" (the kind of surf check that involves very little surfing and a lot of standing on the sand with a coffee). Clip in the detachable headstrap and they'll happily come hiking or scrambling to a remote break, too. If you didn't want to overthink it, this is the pair you'd grab on the way out the door.
The Everyday One: Daytrippers
The Daytrippers are the perfect everyday shades — as at home heading into an office as jumping on a plane. A touch less retro than the Aviators, a lot more boardroom-friendly than the Heron Ocean. Honestly, if you were only ever going to own one pair — one minimalist, properly stylish, genuinely functional do-everything pair — these might be it. The V52® lenses handle bright light without complaint, the detachable headstrap locks them in when things get active, and the adjustable temples let you dial in the fit.
Worn Lightly: The Sustainability Bit
There's a conscience underneath all of this, too, and — fittingly — it's worn lightly. Vallon removes a kilogram of plastic waste from the environment for every pair sold, builds some models from recycled materials, and skips the plastic packaging entirely. They don't make a song and dance about it. It's just there.
A Year Later
A year in, here's the honest tell. We own a lot of sunglasses. But the Vallons are the ones that matter. Walk past the table by our front door and five of the six pairs sitting there are Vallon.
The sun protection is so good you forget you're wearing them. They're so light they actually feel good — you notice their absence more than their presence. And they look excellent without ever shouting "look at my sunglasses" — understated, exactly as it should be.
Unless, of course, you reach for the Heron. In which case: own the look. The compliments will find you.
