A Legend Called Tombstone: Protective Eyewear, Not the Town

If you’re in law enforcement, or even if you’re just a fan of the legendary old west, you’ve heard of Tombstone.  Tombstone, Arizona is home to perhaps the most famous gunfight on record in “the old west:” the shootout between the Earps and the Clantons – and their various assorted associates.  Virgil Earp, Wyatt Earp and Morgan Earp are legendary lawmen themselves.  Their compatriot, Doc Holliday, not so much.  But we all have “that” friend. I’d like to call your attention to a different Tombstone though; not a place in the old west or one of historic value, but a new product line from Oakley SI that is destined to become a legend itself.

On the Oakley SI (standard issue) website the product description for Tombstone reads as follows:

Oakley SI introduces a revolutionary competitive shooting eyeshield, Tombstone™. We worked with top marksmen to identify the most crucial problems they encountered with conventional eyewear. The response focused on three specific areas: Field of View, Contrast/Clarity, and Lens Interchangeability. Solving these problems was at the forefront of designing all aspects of Tombstone™. Using eye-tracking technology, we identified the key zones in your field of view to allow for 120 degrees of vision. We incorporated PRIZM™ technology to provide contrast enhanced viewing to help lock in your target and decrease eye fatigue/eye strain. Finally, we integrated a single release trigger for rapid lens exchange that is fingerprint free. The end result: Tombstone™, our most advanced shooting eyeshield delivering unprecedented performance for the modern day marksman.

You’ll note their three areas of concerns as they developed the Tombstone^TM eyeshied: Field of View, Contrast/Clarity & Lens Interchangeability.  I have previously reviewed the Oakley Prizm protective eyewear and won’t rehash the technology or obvious benefits here.  To read that article go to Oakley Prizm Protective Eyewear. The bottom line is that Oakley’s Prizm technology offers great advantages in contrast and clarity of vision.  To truly SEE the difference their Prizm technology makes, you need to put a pair on.  It’s not something that can be explained as the difference is as much subjective as it is objective.

For the Field of View and the Lens Interchangeability concerns, Oakley SI has hit two home runs… big ones.  During Media Range day at SHOT Show this year I had the experience of seeing Oakley’s eye-motion tracking technology in use. The question to be answered was: which part(s) of the lens does a shooter actually LOOK through?  And which part of the lens only exists as protection from debris?

While you would think these measurements could be done with one person wearing the eyewear and another person looking at them to mark eye movement directly onto the lenses themselves, it turns out that doesn’t work so well.  The person observing the eye movement and marking the lens can’t actually see what direction the person wearing the lenses IS seeing.  He can only see where the eyeball and pupil are.  Further, there’s no way to take peripheral vision into account.

The eye tracking software that Oakley SI uses tracks the entire range of motion of the wearer WHILE s/he is shooting.  It sees where the shooter is looking and, thanks to the software coding, it can take peripheral vision into consideration.  The end result is data that allows the lens to be contoured specifically to account for field of view while maintaining the mandatory protective coverage.

Now, that lens interchangeability challenge: Protective eyewear with interchangeable lenses is nothing new.  It’s been around for decades.  The reality is that ALL eyewear has interchangeable lenses; it’s just a matter of how long it takes to change them and what tools you need to do it.  Many a time I’ve been on the range and wanted to change out my lenses due to lighting changes.  Almost equal to that are the number of times that I didn’t change the lenses because it was just too much of a pain in the @$$ to do so.

It’s important to understand, as we discuss lens interchangeability, that eyewear is (essentially) made up of several parts.  The lenses, which are arguably the most important part, and then the support structure which includes the nose bridge, lens frames and the arms – those pieces that go from temple back over your ear.  Virtually every lens interchangeability system I had ever previously seen involved changing out the lenses only; separating them from the nose bridge and frames in a series of steps and then putting in a new lens in reverse order of steps.

After the Field of View / Eye Tracking technology I saw in use at SHOT Show on the range, the ease of lens interchangeability was one of the coolest things I saw that same day.  Rather than reusing the same old system of lens exchange requiring several steps and (usually) ending up with LOTS of fingerprints all over the lenses, Oakley SI developed a system that makes the lenses, frame and nose bridge all one piece.  All you do is change out the arms.  To do so you press a small lever near the temple corner of the frame, pull off the arm and put it on the frame of the lens you wish to use.  The lever is just big enough to easily intentionally engage but small enough that it can’t be accidentally bumped, pushed, or engaged and allow the arm to fall off the frame.

Another added benefit of the Tombstone^TM eyewear is that it comes in two sizes.  Let’s be honest: we all have that friend (or are that friend) who has a really big head.  “Regular” sized eyewear squeezes them at the corner of their eyes and along their temples.  Then there are those of us who have regular to small sized heads and if the eyewear is comfortable on the larger headed folks, then it’s not secure on our faces.  The Tombstone^TM is available as the REAP and as the SPOIL. The Tombstone^TM Spoil offers all the same benefits, just in a smaller size.

The Tombstone^TM is available in five different frame/lens color combinations and is reasonably priced to be competitive with other contemporary protective eyewear.  When you take into consideration the differences in function and technology that the Tombstone^TM offers, “reasonable pricing” is a darn good deal.  No other eyewear I’m aware of incorporates the same tech.

For more information, check out the Tombstone^TM page on Oakley SI’s website.

Stay safe!