“Of everything I was lucky enough to test on snow this winter, I don’t think any product gathered quite as much attention or questions as the 4D MAG goggles. They’re really eye-catching. Fortunately, it’s a design that serves a function instead of being an aesthetic gimmick.

The Birdseye Vision deserves all the attention it gets. There’s no doubt they increase your peripheral field of view, and arguably where it matters the most – looking downwards. Whenever you’re spotting you landing in a rotation, or hiking the back of the backside a line in pretty precarious conditions, you’ll definitely notice that extra room to view under your eyes. For the park, this could actually find you more balanced through the air by not needing to tilt your head right down to see what’s happening underneath your feet.

I have to say, they took a bit of getting used to. The first few days of wearing these I was aware of a couple of things: the first is that a lot more light gets into the lens as it bounces off the snow and comes right up through the bottom (a conventional frame would normally limit this). The second is that the curve of the lens doesn’t overly distort the view, but initially, it tricked me into thinking there was a droplet of water pooling at the bottom and warping my vision. Definitely not a deal-breaker, it’s just such a different style of goggle to anything I’d worn before that it took a bit of time to get familiar with.

Once you’re on the move though, the picture starts to make sense. There is no feeling of being “closed in” by the frame, and the field of view is genuinely in a class of its own.

“If you want something properly original, with the best construction available, there are really few others to contend with”

Swapping out the lenses takes a matter of seconds, but I rode the Everyday one, well… every day, and encountered no real issues with visibility even when the clouds rolled in.

There are so many goggles with knock-out performance on the market today, and many of them come a lot cheaper than these. But if you want something properly original, with the best construction available, there are really few others to contend with.”

“We are so proud of the 4D MAG – it started as a crazy idea on how to expand field of view while simplifying the interchangeable lens system. There were some ideas based on anti-fog science, some on magnetic systems, and even a few using electronics. In the end, we followed the classic design principle that ‘less is more’ and pushed our manufacturing teams to develop a never-seen-before lens curvature that opened the field of view without compromising fit.

The benefit of seeing more is immediately appreciated as is the new aesthetic of the lens. When you first see it you notice something is new and different, but you’re not quite sure what. As soon as you pick it up or see it on someone’s face, you appreciate the innovation.”

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