Watching Winter Olympians speeding through the snow, hurtling around the rink or flying through the air has become a temporary obsession in the UK.
Perhaps it’s the cold weather that has enabled us to relate to these normally alien sports or perhaps the competitive interest. The UK has a fighting chance in a number of adrenaline-fuelled disciplines, a far cry from the days of Eddie the Eagle or hoping that big bit of granite wouldn’t slide too far down the ‘sheet’ and through the ‘house’ (curling lingo).
The Winter Olympics is something else, it’s cool, and I don’t mean the sub-zero temperatures in Pyeongchang. A good number of those snowboarders are teenagers, many of the sports are aspirational and the kit is fashionable. It may seem a million miles from optical practice but there’s a great opportunity for lifestyle marketing.
Virtually every single competitor in the Winter Olympics wears sports eyewear and it’s not always a full-on skiing goggle. Oakley, Rudy Project and Cébé are just a few of the names on display and that doesn’t even start to demonstrate the labels being worn by spectators.
This week provides a snapshot the sports eyewear on show at the recent Opti Munich show and it provides a neat insight into the styles and colours that the public need for competition but also the styles they crave for fashion.
Much of this sports eyewear has a range of prescription options opening up great opportunities for retail optics serving new converts to winter sports.
Elise Christie may have crashed out of the 500m speed skating final but we still have a few medal chasers out there.