October 2026 · Urban Surf NW · Sunglasses · Accessories
Somebody sat on Jensen Brehm's sunglasses on a camel safari in India and snapped both arms off. He tied a piece of twine to the two hinges, wrapped it around the back of his head, and carried on wearing them.
That's the whole product. Ombraz is new in the shop: seven frames between $160 and $195, and every one of them is a pair of sunglasses with no arms at all. A cord goes from one side of the frame to the other, around the back of your head, and two little sliders set the tension. Nothing hooks over your ears. Nothing touches the sides of your skull.
I'll be honest, I thought they looked like a gimmick until I had a pair on. Here's what they actually are, and which of the seven I'd point you at.
Why armless, for anyone on the water
Every failure mode a pair of sunglasses has on the water comes from the arms. They snap at the hinge. They pinch when you pull a hood over them. They lever off the side of your head when you put a cap on, or a helmet, or when the cord of a wing leash catches one. They jam in a pocket and come out bent. Take the arms off and most of that stops being a problem.
The cord is Japanese-woven from recycled fishing nets, which sounds like a sustainability line until you realise it's also just the right material: marine grade, so salt doesn't eat it. Two adjusters slide along it and lock against each other, and that's the patented bit. US 10,514,556 B2, filed October 2017, granted December 2019, Jensen Graham Brehm named as the inventor. The claim covers couplers that ride on the opposite cord so they can't pull apart under tension, which is the difference between a cord that holds a frame on your face and a Croakie.
The frames are TR-90, the lenses are Zeiss, and everything except the Azzurro is rated ANSI Z87.1, the same impact standard as safety glasses. They run 22.2 g to 27 g depending on the shape. And the warranty is genuinely a lifetime one on the frames, the cords and the adjusters, with free lens replacement if a lens pops out. Scratch a lens yourself and that's on you, which is fair enough.
One thing that catches everybody: you're meant to wear them loose. Ombraz's own instruction is to set the tension so you can pull the frames about three quarters of an inch off your face before the cord goes taut. Their product page puts it more directly than I would: "For the love of all that is holy, please don't crank these down tight. You should feel absolutely zero pressure from the frames or cord." Everyone's first instinct is to tighten them like a pair of goggles. Don't.
They're from Bellevue, which I didn't expect
Ombraz is, in their own words, "headquartered in a barn loft on a 3-acre farm in Bellevue, WA." The first 3,000 pairs were handmade by the two founders in Seattle before any of it went to Italy. They launched on Indiegogo in spring 2018 with the Classic, and the thing has since picked up north of a hundred best-of gear awards, including a Backpacker Gear Editors' Choice in 2019.
So this is a local brand in the sense that matters, which is not something I get to write very often about something made in Italy. They're also a certified B Corp, and they plant 20 mangrove trees in Madagascar through a non-profit called ARC Restoration for every pair sold.
The polarization is not the same across the range
This is the one thing I'd want to know before buying, and it isn't obvious from the shelf.
The five classic shapes are all polarized. The Refugio is not. Ombraz's own spec line for the Refugio reads "Non-Polarized Carl Zeiss Optics," and none of its lens names carry the word either. The Azzurro, meanwhile, is polarized Zeiss polyamide and gets a coating none of the others do.
That's a strange way round for a range sold partly on water performance, because the Refugio is the one that looks most like a fishing frame. There's a reason for it, to do with contrast and with how mirrored lenses behave, but it's the kind of thing you'd rather find out before you're squinting at a glassy Lake Washington afternoon.
If you want numbers, the Teton page is the only one that publishes light transmission figures: the Grey lens blocks 89%, Brown 86.5%, Blue Mirror 91%, and the Yellow 80%. Those carry across the other classic frames, which all share the same 6-base, 2 mm polycarbonate lens.
And they don't float
Worth saying plainly, since it's the first question anyone in a paddle shop asks.
Ombraz is straight about this on their own site, which I appreciate. The cord means they won't fall off doing normal things, but their words are that if you're "swimming in the surf, diving off a cliff, or dropping past a keeper hole on the river, your Ombraz could (god forbid) slip off." They sell a $25 neoprene Floatie that wraps the cord and locks to itself so the glasses surface instead of sinking. We don't carry the Floatie.
Same honesty on surfing: Ombraz say they can be worn on calmer days and that they can come off inside what they call the proverbial washing machine of a wave. Kai Sallas wears them. I wouldn't take a pair out at Westport on a head-high day and expect to come home with them.
For everything else, the reports are good. Tim Romano at Flylab, who tests fishing gear for a living, confirms they stay put through swimming, rafting and boating. And the single most useful thing I found was from a sailor on r/sailing, Windhorse730, who's had a pair offshore and in a dinghy and wrote that they're "even while kiteboarding, including a bunch of wipeouts" his favourite sailing sunglasses he's owned. Kiteboarding wipeouts is a fairly specific test.
So: flat-water paddling on Lake Union, sitting on a dock, rigging at Jetty Island, running a boat, downwinders on the Sound. Those are all sessions where a normal pair is a coin flip and these are not.
One bit of history worth knowing, because it was aimed directly at people like us. The early Ombraz frames were a biodegradable acetate, and a 2021 review in Believe in the Run flagged that Ombraz had told customers the material degrades in marine environments, adding that if you live in Seattle or spend a lot of time on a boat you might want to hold off. Ombraz changed material in spring 2022. Everything on our wall is TR-90, so this is settled history rather than a live problem, but if you went looking and found that review, that's what it was about.
The five classic shapes
These five share a spec sheet. 6-base, 2 mm polarized Zeiss polycarbonate, TR-90 frame, Z87.1 rated, neoprene case with a microfiber lining built in. What changes is the shape of your face and what you want to look like. All five take $45 side shields and a $30 nose pad riser from Ombraz if you want to turn them into glacier glasses or lift them off your brow, though we don't stock those accessories.
1. Classics — $160
Aviator · 22.4 g · Regular and Narrow · Charcoal/Grey, Tortoise/Brown
The original. This is the frame that launched the brand in 2018 and it's still their best seller, which usually tells you something. A straightforward aviator, 22.4 g, and the shape most people's faces get on with.
If you've never worn armless sunglasses and you want to find out whether you like the idea, start here. It's the cheapest way in, it's the most conservative shape of the seven, and the tortoise and brown version is the one I'd grab off the wall myself.
2. Viale — $160, or $175 in blue mirror
Round, keyhole bridge · 22.3 g · Regular and Narrow · Tortoise/Grey, Charcoal/Blue Mirror
Round lenses, a vintage keyhole nose bridge, and small integrated visors at the outer edge of each lens that cut the light coming in from the side. Ombraz say it suits every face shape and gender, and for once that isn't marketing air; it's the most neutral frame of the seven.
22.3 g. It and the Classic are the two that come in a Narrow, which matters if you've got a smaller face and you've spent your life in sunglasses that sit too wide.
3. Teton — $160, or $170 in blue mirror
Square, keyhole bridge · 23.6 g · Tortoise/Brown, Honey/Grey, Charcoal/Blue Mirror
The square one. Keyhole bridge again, mini visors again, and the broadest frame of the classic five at 23.6 g. If the Classic's aviator taper doesn't suit your face, this is usually the fix.
It's also the only Ombraz page that publishes real lens transmission numbers, so if you care about picking a tint rather than a colour, the Teton is where the data lives. Grey at 89% for general bright days, Brown at 86.5% for contrast, Blue Mirror at 91% if you're on glare all day.
4. Leggero — $160, or $175 in blue mirror
Rectangular · 22.2 g · Regular and XL · Tortoise/Brown, Charcoal/Blue Mirror
Leggero means light in Italian, and at 22.2 g this is the lightest thing Ombraz build. Straighter lines than the Classic and a more rectangular, vintage shape. Ombraz describe it as a Big Lebowski frame, which is about right if you picture the bowling alley rather than the rug.
It's one of the four that comes in an XL, so if the Regular in anything has ever sat tight across your temples, look here first.
5. Dolomite — $175
Circular, double keyhole bridge · 23 g · Slate frame, olive-brown lens
A proper circular frame with a double keyhole bridge and integrated mini visors, and the one that turns into a real pair of glacier glasses when you put the side shields on. Ombraz call it a top seller and it's the most distinctive-looking of the five.
23 g. The one on our wall is the slate frame with the olive-brown lens, which is a polyamide lens rather than the polycarbonate the grey and brown use, and that's where the extra fifteen dollars goes.
The two sport wraps
Both $195, both full-wrap, both with integrated rubber nose pads instead of the flat bridge the classic frames use. These are the ones built for moving fast and sweating. They're also where the range gets interesting, because they went in two different directions.
6. Refugio — $195
Wraparound · 27 g · Regular · Non-polarized · Charcoal/silver mirror, Tortoise/bronze mirror
Retro wraparound, the shape endurance athletes have worn for thirty years. It was the first Ombraz frame with a real sport profile and it's the heaviest at 27 g, which is still less than almost anything with arms.
The engineering that matters is the nose pads. They're fully integrated rubber and they lift the frame slightly off your brow, which gets air moving behind the lens. Ombraz say that cuts fogging and stops the lens picking up sweat and oil off your cheeks, and if you've ever run or paddled hard in a close-fitting wrap you know exactly which problem that solves. It's also got a different lens geometry from everything else they make, a 5.2 cylinder base at 1.8 mm.
Remember this is the non-polarized one. Mirrored, yes, and 100% UVA/UVB, but no polarizing filter, and Spencer Harding at The Radavist listed exactly that as a con when he rode in them. For glare off open chop it's a real difference.
It isn't only a downside, though, and this is the bit that changed my mind on it. A kayaker on r/whitewater put it better than I could: "get the non polarized so you can still read water." Polarizing kills surface reflection, which is wonderful on a flat bay and genuinely unhelpful when the reflection is the information, like picking a line through a rapid or reading a seam. If you're on moving water rather than squinting across a lake, the Refugio's lens is the right one and not the compromise it looks like on the spec sheet.
7. Azzurro — $195
Full wrap, 8-base · 25 g · Regular only · Polarized · Charcoal/blue mirror, Tortoise/rose with copper mirror
This is the water frame, and Ombraz don't hedge about it. Their words: "our first full-wrap performance frame designed for guides and professionals in harsh water environments." The framing on their own page is a list of everything that goes wrong on a boat, which reads like it was written by somebody who has actually had a day like that.
Three things separate it. The lens is an 8-base curve, the most wrap of anything in the range, so there's no gap of unfiltered light at the outside corner of your eye where chop glare comes from. It's polarized Zeiss polyamide rather than polycarbonate. And it's the only frame that gets Zeiss Tri-Pel coating, which is hydrophobic and oleophobic and is there to shed water, sunscreen, sweat and salt rather than smear them.
25 g, Regular only, and no side shields or nose pad risers are made for it. If you're buying one pair of these to go in the boat bag and stay there, this is the one.
Side by side
If you only read one thing: get the Classics if you're trying armless for the first time, and get the Azzurro if it's going in a boat bag.
| Frame | Shape | Lens | Weight | Sizes | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classics | Aviator | Polarized | 22.4 g | Reg, Narrow | $160 |
| Viale | Round, keyhole | Polarized | 22.3 g | Reg, Narrow | $160–175 |
| Teton | Square, keyhole | Polarized | 23.6 g | Reg, XL | $160–170 |
| Leggero | Rectangular | Polarized | 22.2 g | Reg, XL | $160–175 |
| Dolomite | Circular, dbl bridge | Polarized | 23 g | Reg, XL | $175 |
| Refugio | Sport wrap | Non-polarized | 27 g | Reg, XL | $195 |
| Azzurro | Full wrap, 8-base | Polarized, Tri-Pel | 25 g | Reg only | $195 |
Sizes listed are what Ombraz builds the frame in, not a stock claim. Ombraz publishes no millimetre measurements for Narrow, Regular or XL; they say 80% of people wear Regular.
What people who own them actually complain about
There are eight years of reviews on these now, and the criticism is consistent enough that it's worth laying out rather than letting you find it later. None of it is "this thing doesn't work." All of it is worth knowing before you spend $160.
Getting them on and off takes two hands. This is the complaint, the one that turns up in nearly every review. Graham Averill wrote a whole piece for Outside called "I Have a Love-Hate Relationship with These Sunglasses" and his summary was that "putting these glasses on and taking them off is a pain in the ass," mostly because it needs two hands and most of what he does in sunglasses also needs two hands. Tim Romano at Flylab says the same thing more usefully: if you take your glasses on and off a lot during the day, these might not be for you. You also usually have to take your hat off first. If you're the kind of person who pushes sunglasses up onto your forehead forty times a session, think hard.
They fog more than a frame with arms. Several reviewers and a lot of paddlers report it. Michael Hughes at Whitewater Guidebook got fogging mostly while kayaking. The mechanism is obvious once you think about it: the cord holds the frame closer to your face and you can't slide them down your nose to vent. The Refugio and Azzurro exist partly to fix this, with nose pads that lift the frame off your brow for airflow. If you run hot, buy one of those two.
The cord catches hair, and it soaks up sweat. Both confirmed repeatedly. Longer hair down means the cord pulls as you adjust. And the cord stays damp after a hard effort or a rinse, which is a nylon cord doing what nylon cords do.
Lenses scratch. A few owners say theirs scratched faster than expected, though Owen Clarke got four years of daily wear before his did. Worth remembering that the lifetime warranty covers frames, cords and adjusters, and lens scratches are explicitly not covered. Use the case.
And some people just think they look ridiculous. My favourite review of these came from a pilot on r/flying who has posted some version of the same sentence for three years running: "No arms. Ugly as sin. Great shades for flying." That's roughly the shape of it. People who love them mostly admit they look odd and keep wearing them anyway.
The fair counter-argument, which I'll give properly because somebody's thinking it: a cheap pair of sunglasses and a pair of Croakies does most of this for thirty dollars. A kayaker on r/whitewater with fifteen years of rolling and swimming out of boats said he's never lost a pair off his face without any cord at all and called these a solution looking for a problem. If that's been your experience, he's probably right about you.
Our Take
The Good. Nothing to snap, nothing to pinch under a hood or a cap, and the cord genuinely holds; one sailor has had them through kiteboarding wipeouts. Zeiss lenses, Italian build and a real lifetime warranty on frame, cord and adjusters at $160. Twenty-two grams.
The Bad. Getting them on and off takes two hands and usually your hat off, which Outside's Graham Averill called a pain in the ass and Flylab's Tim Romano says is reason enough to skip them if you're on and off all day. They also don't float, which is why Ombraz sells a cord float.
Who it's for. Anyone who's lost or broken a pair on the water. Hooded sessions, helmets, and anything where sunglasses get stuffed into a dry bag and forgotten.
Questions we actually get
Do they actually stay on?
Yes, in normal use, and more securely than anything with arms. The limit is water that's actively trying to take them: surf, a cliff jump, a hole on a river. Ombraz says so themselves rather than pretending otherwise.
Do they float?
No. Ombraz sells a $25 neoprene Floatie that wraps the cord so a dropped pair comes back to the surface. We don't stock it.
Which size am I?
Probably Regular; Ombraz says that's 80% of people. Narrow exists on the Classics and Viale for smaller faces, XL on the Teton, Leggero, Dolomite and Refugio. There are no published measurements, so the only honest answer is to come try a pair on.
Doesn't the cord get caught in your hair?
Yes, and reviewers say so consistently. Nancy East put it well: with shoulder-length hair down, getting the cord draped and the tension set without pulling hair into it is a fiddle. Hair up and it stops being a problem.
Do they fog?
More than sunglasses with arms, because the cord holds them closer to your face and you can't slide them down your nose to vent. If you run hot or work hard in them, get the Refugio or the Azzurro — the lifted rubber nose pads on both are specifically there to move air behind the lens.
Are they comfortable with a hat or a hood on?
This is the part that converts people. With no arms there's nothing under a cap brim or a helmet strap and nothing to lever the frame off your face when you pull a hood up. It's the single clearest advantage over a normal pair.
What if I break them?
Frames, cords and adjusters are warrantied for life, and a lens that pops out gets replaced free. Scratched lenses aren't covered, and neither is leaving them where the dog can get at them.
Or come by the shop at 2100 N Northlake Way and put a pair on. That's really the only way to tell.
(206) 545-9463
