For marathoners, sunglasses are the new super-shoes
Wearing edgy performance eyewear for your run is the latest way to peacock on race day
“What are you wearing?” So goes the pre-marathon patter, where nervous runners unite in gossip around race day outfits. Typically, chat used to centre around fluorescent race day sneakers. But this year, many are likely to dissect what’s on their face as well as on their feet. The newest running status symbol is not a super shoe, but rather super sunglasses.
These days, marathons are also fashion shows, and the latest opportunity to peacock is via a futuristic sports lens in bright pink, yellow or even Brat green. Some versions are as obnoxious as a ski goggle, with mirrored lenses in a rainbow gradient, while more refined pairs are found at LA brand District Vision.
Just ask Harry Styles: he wore District Vision’s Junya Racers to run the Tokyo and the Berlin marathons last year. Running’s newfound fashionability has created a typecast outfit I call “runcore”: a slinky tank top (usually black) with black fitted shorts, black or white compression sleeves, a hydration vest, socks to match your shoes plus a pair of super status sunglasses. So prolific is “runcore” that scores of millennials and Gen Zs wear this race day look for their Saturday morning five-kilometre jog.
“Sunglasses are an easy way to inject some of your personality into a running outfit,” says Jenna Litner, a New York-based content creator. Her profile grew last year after she started a series for women on how to style running outfits.
Josh Kerr, the British Olympian track runner, agrees. In March, he wore a pair of ocean blue reflective Oakleys to win the 3,000 metres at the world championships . . . indoors. “Track can be very uniform with the same kits and routines. Sunglasses are a way of standing out,” he says. They also put him in race mode: “It’s like a trigger . . . everything sharpens.”
The global sports eyewear sector was worth $17.4bn in 2024, projected to reach $24.61bn by the end of 2030, according to Grand View Research; independent brands, not Nike or Adidas, appear to be leading the charge — albeit with a nod to an original purveyor of these types of shades: Oakley.
Satisfy began a multiyear collaboration with Oakley in 2023 with a bright pink frameless lens; Soar launched an ultralight lens last year. After runners began snapping up vintage Oakleys, Vladyslav Husakivskyi, a 23-year-old runner in Paris, started @ovvergg, an Oakley “collectors store” for followers who buy via direct message. Oakley itself has also newfound intent. Givenchy alumni Matthew M Williams was hired in March as its creative director; he’ll work alongside the rapper Travis Scott, who was hired by Oakley last June as a chief visionary officer.
“Ten years ago, running was something we did at night because we didn’t want to be seen and you didn’t tell anyone about it,” says Tom Daly, co-founder of District Vision. “Now, your gear is a signal to communicate a lifestyle.” Sunglasses are, he says, runners’ jewellery for their face. Given that sports watches such as Garmin and Coros are quite ugly, “for men, they’re the new watch”.
District Vision launched the first hyper-technical silhouettes a decade ago, and its handcrafted eyewear for sport resonated, given runners already obsess over product technicality, like shoe stack and carbon plates.
“We were consumers of luxury, eyewear fans, and runners, and we noticed something was missing,” says co-founder Max Vallot. “We began with some “crazy, crazy” sketches. “Our friends and early advisers kept asking us how and where we were going to sell them.”
Today, its eyewear is stocked at fashion retailers such as Mr Porter and Dover Street Market, alongside independent running stores like Renegade Running in LA, Metta Running House in Mexico City, and Knees Up in London. They’re also sold in optical stores globally and eyewear is 40 per cent of the brand’s sales.
In luxury fashion, eyewear is an entry-level price point, made and sold on licence. In running, it almost flips the script by generally being the most expensive category. District Vision recently launched its highest-priced silhouettes yet. Costing £550, the Mami and Miho frames took more than two and a half years to develop, then sold out within a day — twice. Smaller and sleeker than the rest of the collection, they’re also very easy to wear with normal clothes.
Like super shoes, super sunglasses serve a very specific technical function so it’s perhaps easier to justify the splurge. “Runners need protection from the elements; there are flies, branches, sand and stones,” says Nicola Strange, a co-founder of an insights and strategy company who runs ultra-marathons in the trails.
Soar’s Cirrus lens is made from titanium and weigh just 20 grams. District Vision’s lenses offer 100 per cent UVA/B protection; they are also shatterproof, water and oil repellent, and finished with anti-reflective coating. Designed to fit under helmets for cycling, some even come with anti-fog ventilation systems in the nose pad. Represent 247, a brand popular with runners in endurance events such as Hyrox, are made in Italy with rubberised, grip-enhanced frames that, according to the product description, “keep you locked in”.
Super shoes costing £220-£280 wear out after one or two races, but super sunglasses last for ever. Max Manavi-Huber, co-founder of sportswear boutique Supplies Supplies in Vienna, says he’s owned two pairs of District Vision shades for eight-plus years. For people who run six times per week like me, the girl math on a £550 frame suddenly seems favourable.
Are you ready for the restock to drop? On your marks, get set, shop.