Oakley EVZero Blades review: Perfect for smaller faces, and so light you will forget you’re wearing them

If you’ve browsed my guide to the best cycling glasses lately, watched any cycling on TV, or even just been on any semi-serious group ride you'd be forgiven for thinking all cycling glasses are now absolutely enormous. Most brands’ top-end models are reflective monoliths that can dwarf smaller faces - see the Spatz Shield and POC Devour for examples at the extreme end of the scale, but even the often-seen Oakley Sutro is giant by comparison. 

Not catering to smaller bodies (by which I mean women, let’s be clear) is an industry trend that continues to frustrate, but here at least I have found an excellent set of cycling glasses that will work brilliantly on smaller faces, and for those who simply don’t want a giant mirrored wall on their face.

I’ve been using the EVZero Blades for a while now, with both a Prizm Road lens and the Prizm Sapphire you can see here. They’re not perfect, but they can mix it with the best lightweight options.

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Design and aesthetics 

Of all the glasses I’ve tested, which is well over 50 - I’ve stopped counting at this point - the Oakley EVZero Blades are the lightest at 21.6g. It’s a matter of less than a gram or two between them and other lightweight options like the 100% Hypercraft and the POC Elicit. They are lighter, just, than the insane $400 titanium edition POC Elicits, but those are a money-no-object proof of concept more than a realistic proposition.

In any case, they are the most feathery, thanks to both a smaller form factor and a lack of frames; a feature shared with the Hypercraft and the Elicit. My favourite cycling glasses, the Oakley Encoder, are also frameless, but use a thicker lens and more chunky arms which adds a few grams. 

The form factor is similar in many ways to the POC Propel, but not quite so extreme; gently curved lenses with a heavy wrap and a low height. Like the Hypercraft, the EVZero Blades rely on a pair of thin pair of arms attached only at the temples. Also like the Hypercraft, and the Elicit, the lack of a full frame or a lens stiffening fold like on the Encoder or Oakley Kato, means they don’t grip the sides of your head with quite the same tenacity as even a half-frame set would. 

You are also fated to choose a single lens; there’s no option to swap, either if you want a change of aesthetic or if you want to slap a clear lens in. My advice is to go for the Prizm Road lens if you value optical performance, but there’s no denying that the high-shine blue of the Prizm Sapphire looks cool, you’ll just sacrifice a bit of low light performance. 

It’s also worth noting that, from a safety standpoint, Oakley lenses are impact-rated, a claim not matched by its competitors. It is a small detail, but especially if you’re riding on gravel where the risk of a stone to the face is perhaps slightly higher, it’s something to bear in mind. 

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Performance

I have very much enjoyed using the EVZero Blades. They are perhaps a little small for my tastes - I am in the big glasses camp - but the wrap and the fact they sit close to your eyes means there is actually no real drop in the field of vision. The lenses are, as is basically universal across the Oakley range, exceptional. Totally distortion-free, clear, and in the Prizm Road guise they’re all you could ever need from a one-lens-only set. It remains the benchmark against which I judge all other lenses.

The frameless nature also means that there isn’t anything ever really sitting in your eyeline. This, combined with the really low weight, means you honestly can effectively forget you’re wearing them until they occasionally shift out of place. 

More heavily wrapped, closer fitting lenses tend to be a little more fog-prone in my experience, especially in cold weather. I have tested these almost exclusively in warm weather, primarily as they only come with a sun lens. If fogging ever becomes an issue as the year progresses and gets colder I will update this to reflect, but provided you’re still moving I suspect it won’t trouble you. 

As well as being better for smaller faces, the shorter lens (in the vertical plane) means there’s basically no risk of the lenses ever fouling on the brim of your helmet. The long slender arms will perhaps start sitting on helmet rear cradles, and there is no adjustment to modify this which is always a slight bugbear. This lack of adjustment, combined with the frameless construction, means retention isn’t the best. It’s on a par with the other lightweights I’ve tested but is slightly worse than the Elicits thanks to narrower arm grippers primarily. 

The lightness certainly adds to making the EVZero Blades a very comfortable pair of glasses, and the arms never bit in. If anything it was probably the opposite, feeling a little loose. The Elicits are perhaps a little more comfortable, but they do have a massive lens too. 

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Value

The EVZero Blades have been part of the lineup of Oakley cycling glasses for quite a few years now, and as such they don’t command nearly the same premium as newer models. They can easily come in at a similar price to mid-range options from the likes of SunGod and, having used these I know where I’d be spending my money, and it rhymes with ‘soak knee’.

The added value of smaller glasses like these, in much the same way as something like the perennial Oakley Radars, is that they look far normal when doing non-cycling activities. I don’t think they’ll ever be normal for going to the shops, but when hiking, running etc you’ll look more the part, which definitely make them better value. 

Verdict

An excellent pair of cycling glasses. Lightweight, with brilliant optics and a multisport aesthetic that’ll appeal to those who don’t want a wall of glass. The lack of adjustment and inability to swap lenses is a drawback, but with the right lens, you should be fine. For the price they far outshine many in the mid-range, too, in optical terms at least.