Ski Goggles Buying Guide
Three things decide whether a pair of goggles works for you: the lens for the light you ski in, whether the frame seals against your face and helmet, and whether you can change the lens when the weather changes. This page takes them in that order.
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What matters when you buy ski goggles?
Three things, in this order. The lens category for the light you ski in, because a lens built for bright sun is the wrong one on an overcast afternoon. The seal against your face and under your helmet, because a goggle that leaves a gap fogs and lets cold air in. And whether the lens comes off, because that is what lets one pair of goggles cover a whole season instead of one kind of day. Take them in order
Three decisions, and only three
Buying goggles looks like a long list of features and is really a short list of choices. Get these three right and the rest is color.
The light
Which tint you look through, and it matters more than anything else on this page. It is the difference between reading the surface and guessing at it.
The seal
Whether the frame sits flush on your face and under your helmet. A goggle that leaves a gap lets in cold air and fogs, whatever else it does well.
The lens change
Whether you can swap the tint when the weather turns, or whether one lens has to cover every kind of day it will not cover.
Start with the light you actually ski in
The commonest first-goggle mistake is buying for the photograph: a dark, mirrored lens, because that is what goggles look like in the brochure. Dark lenses are Category 3, which passes 8% to 18% of the light reaching it, and on a blue-sky day above the treeline that is exactly what you want. On the overcast afternoon that follows, it takes light away from a scene that had none to spare.
Every Corlin goggle arrives with a Category 3 lens fitted, so the sunny day is covered before you choose anything. The choice that is left is what you add for the other days: a Category 1 in orange or pink for flat light and falling snow, and a clear lens if you ski under floodlights. Which is which is set out in the lens guide, and the untinted one has its own page at clear ski goggles.
Categories run from 0 to 4 under EN ISO 12312-1:2022 and describe how much light a lens lets through, nothing else. They say nothing about ultraviolet: every lens Corlin makes carries UV400 whatever its tint, the clear one included.
Then the seal, which is what fit means
Both Corlin frames are one size, and one size is not a dodge: a goggle is judged by whether it closes against your face, not by a figure on a box. Run the frame along your brow and look for two things, a gap you can feel air moving through and a pressure point on the nose. Neither should be there.
A helmet is part of that test rather than a complication after it. The interchangeable straps are published with an adjustable fit of 45 to 55 centimetres across standard ski and snowboard helmets, and there is no clip that has to match a bracket, so no helmet is ruled out by a fitting. Set the strap with the helmet on: ski goggles for helmets.
A goggle that seals is also the one that stays clear, because fogging is warm air finding a way in rather than a fault in the lens. Every lens has an Italian anti-fog layer on the inner face, and what makes the difference around it is fit and airflow: why goggles fog, and what stops it. There are fit notes written for women and men, though the frames themselves are unisex.
Last, whether the lens comes off
A bonded lens makes you choose at breakfast for weather you cannot see yet. Corlin lenses are held by magnets, so the swap takes seconds with gloves on and the decision moves to the bottom of the lift, where you have actually seen the sky. Nineteen lenses fit the range, ten on Reuben and nine on Claude, and the two systems do not share: how the magnetic system works.
Reuben and Claude cost the same and differ in shape rather than in what they can do. The frame you pick decides which lens range you are buying into, and it decides whether you can change the strap later, which is a Reuben feature.
The two frames
See all ski goggles
Questions people ask before buying
What should I look for in ski goggles?
The lens for the light you ski in, a frame that seals against your face and helmet, and the ability to change the lens when the weather does. Everything else on a spec sheet is downstream of those three.
Anti-fog treatment and UV protection are worth checking but rarely worth choosing between, because they are standard rather than optional. Every Corlin lens carries UV400 and an anti-fog layer, from the darkest tint to the clear one.
How many lenses do I actually need?
One if you only ski bright weeks, two if you ski a normal season. The lens fitted in the box handles sun, and a Category 1 in orange or pink is what covers overcast days and falling snow, which is why it is the lens most people add.
A third only makes sense if you ski after dark, because the third one is the clear lens and it has no use in daylight.
Are ski goggles for beginners different?
No, and being sold a beginner goggle is worth avoiding. A first-season skier spends more time on flat, overcast pistes than an expert does, which means contrast matters more, not less.
The useful beginner advice is the boring kind: get the fit right, keep the lens seat clean, and add a Category 1 lens before you add anything else.
Can I ski in sunglasses instead of goggles?
On a warm spring afternoon plenty of people do, and ski glasses of that sort are a real category. What they will not do is seal: they let wind and spindrift round the edges, they fog without a vented frame behind them, and they leave your face when you fall.
For anything cold, fast or snowing, a goggle is the thing that stays put and stays clear.
What is the difference between Reuben and Claude?
Shape, color count and lens range. Reuben comes in five colorways and takes ten of the nineteen magnetic lenses; Claude comes in three and takes nine. They are the same price and neither is the sportier or the dressier one.
The one practical difference is the strap. Reuben straps are sold separately and swap out, while a Claude keeps the strap it arrives with.
Do I need to think about the goggle standard?
Only as far as the lens category, which is the part of EN ISO 12312-1:2022 you will actually use. It runs from 0 to 4 and tells you how much visible light a lens transmits, which is the number that decides whether you can see the snow.
It says nothing about ultraviolet, and a light lens is not less protective than a dark one. Category and UV are separate specifications.
Where to go next
Lens categories refer to the classification in EN ISO 12312-1:2022. For specifications and current availability, see the individual product page.