Wiley X Eyewear | Sunglasses - ICAST 2015

Glenn: Hey folks. Glenn May here with BassResource.com at the 2015 ICAST show. I'm here in the Wiley X booth with Ray Hill to show you a few new products that are coming out for you guys. Ray, what do you got for us?

Ray: Well, this year we've got a lot of new stuff from us. We've got over 17 new polarized models this year with 4 new polarized lenses, too. But before we get into that, I wanted to show you the impact resistance that all of Wiley X offers across the board A to Z. Every style that you see in our case is ANC safety rated across the board. And part of that safety rating is the high-mass missile testing. What this is is a 1.1 pound projectile and it's dropped from a level of 50 inches. As you can see, the glasses are on the head form here and I'm going to go ahead and drop this down. As you can see, there's no penetration, the lens didn't crack, the frame didn't crack, there's no dislodgement from the frame or the lens and those pieces are still intact, and this is across every style that you get at Wiley X. So, we offer a level of protection that in the premium sunglass category, we're the only ones that do that across the board.

Glenn: So, it's not just eye protection from the sun, but eye protection for your eyes.

Ray: Exactly, for impact. If you have a lure, or hook, a jig comes back, which we've all had. You get snagged, you yank up on it. You have one set of eyes: you got to protect them against those types of elements.

And another thing that we offer across the board that's our patent is our removable facial cavity seal. I'll show you that in our new WX Tide. What that is is you'll see this foam gasket on the end here and what that does is it eliminates backlit glare. When you have glasses on that don't seal out your eye, all that ambient light that impairs your vision here is going to take away from the polarization and the performance of the lens. So that seals your eye out and actually enhances your polarization so you can see in the water better.

The other thing that we did with it, our patent, is we made it removable.

Glenn: Nice.

Ray: This pops right off so if you don't have the foam, and you're not in those elements, you just take it off and you got your nice pair of shades. You're going downtown with your wife, you got your sunglasses, you're out on the boat and you need this protection scooting across the water, put your gasket in, you don't tear up, don't fog up. It keeps the elements out.

Glenn: Nice.

Ray: So, in addition to that, we have the new Venice Gold mirror which I have here on the tide. It's a nice gold mirror on top of an amber-based lens. So that amber is going to filter out blue light and allow you to see into the water nicely so you can see what you're casting at. We also have a new polarized Crimson Red mirror with a gray base. We have a polarized gel too that we introduced as well. This is really great for those early morning launches or late in the evening when it gets low light or if it's overcast outside and you need a little bit of brightness. This isn't going to . . . when you put it on with a true yellow lens where your eyes get beat up. It's a nice 30% light transmission. I've had anglers tell me on an overcast day that they wear it across an entire day: It still offers that high-level, that filter 8 polarization that's known for Wiley X across the board as well.

Glenn: So it actually brightens it up a little bit, adds a little more contrast, so it's easier to see instead of when you put on shades and some things are dark when it's cloudy out, you actually see better.

Ray: Absolutely. Absolutely. The other one that we did this year is in our peak, it's a nice traditional glass, nice style, thin temples. Everything's very lightweight. You're out on the water, you don't go out on the water for a half hour and come in. It's usually a full-day experience, right? So you don't want anything that's going to create pressure points on your ears or on your nose. Everything we do is extremely lightweight nylon frames, celunite polycarbonite. We did a nice polarized amber lens without a mirror if you don't like that reflection to the mirror.

So, again, 17 new polarized models this year and 4 new polarized lens tints.

Glenn: Nice, so what kind of a price range are we looking at here?

Ray: All of our polarized models are $130 to $150 at retail.

Glenn: Fantastic. If I want to go buy these somewhere, where would I look?

Ray: You can go to WileyX.com obviously. Our big box retailers got a nice full assortment too at Bass Pro, Cabela's, Gander Mountain, Academy, etc.

Glenn: Fantastic. Awesome new stuff. Thank you so much, Ray. I appreciate it. You gotta check it out. Wiley X. Go to your local retail store. They're great glasses.