“Whilst there’s been an explosion of magnets, clips and latches in goggle tech over the last few years, seeing ZEAL’s fresh take on lens swapping – Rail Lock – in action wowed me with its ease. It’s more guided than any other clip system – a good thing because playing around with stuff on your face whilst wearing mitts is deceptively hard – and also feels more secure than anything using magnetic fastening.

“It’s possible to simply crack the lens upwards a tiny bit to let more air flow into the frame. This allowed me to keep wearing the goggles when hiking without them steaming up to fuck”

The best bit though – and I’m not sure if this is a purposeful design element or a happy accident – is that it’s possible to simply crack the lens upwards a tiny bit to let more air flow into the frame. This allowed me to keep wearing the goggles when hiking without them steaming up to fuck. Simply a revelation.

Unfortunately, the pair I had gave me a little distortion that oddly warped the piste in front of me whilst riding, making them far from an ideal choice. To be fair, I passed them on to a friend to verify it, and he had no complaints. In fact, he loved them, so it could just have been me, though I’ve not experienced the same with any other lens.

All in all, a mixed bag of great and not-so-great from my perspective, but if you love hiking and can try on a pair in store then you should definitely give them a go!”

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