The new SPY+ Happy Boost sunglasses promise to boost color, transform how you see the world, and make you happy. Do the new lenses work?
To get us a closer look, SPY+ sent Man Makes Fire a SPY+ Logan review unit. After wearing the Logan version sunglasses at the beach, as well as while fly fishing and stand-up paddleboarding during the testing process, this is what we learned:
SPY+ Happy Boost Lens Tech
To understand the SPY+ Happy Boost, we should start with the SPY+ ‘Happy Lens‘ technology. SPY Optics is a relatively small and independent southern-California company that has been making sunglasses and ski goggles for nearly three decades. Happy Lens tech is designed to let good long-wave blue light pass through while filtering out bad UV and short-wave blue light.
SPY+ says the long-wave blue light can create a psychological uplift in your mood, making you happy. I previously tested the SPY+ Legacy Snow Goggles, which are excellent. Did those goggles make me happy? I couldn’t tell — partially because I only tested them outdoors while skiing, which already makes me very happy.
Meanwhile, what is Happy Boost?
The short answer is that Happy Boost starts with a Happy Lens design and then adds color and contrast by 30%.
Does ‘Happy Boost’ Work?
The first thing you notice when you try on the SPY+ Happy Boost sunglasses is an infusion of color. Everything pops with a extra color. Evergreen trees are richer, greener. The sky is bluer. Flowers take on a wild vibrancy. The colors of outdoor gear, like lifejackets, take on brighter hues.
The world almost looks over-saturated, as if you edited a photo and added saturation . . . except, and this is the magic, your new extra-colorful world still seems natural.
If you want vibrant, richer color in your world, SPY+ Happy Boost sunglasses deliver.
Obviously, what you get with your own naked eye would be, most technically, the most natural representation to your particular eyes. In short, the SPY+ achievement makes colors seem richer and brighter yet also completely natural. It makes you feel like you’re seeing better.
Again, this is a mostly psychological effect — lots of smartphones and some cameras and lenses are characterized by technically over saturating images . . . but people seem to like brighter, richer colors. It’s a bit of a catch-22 in that, in person, the outdoor world already seems bigger and brighter and more awesome than photos and videos represent on screens. Even extra saturated photos never quite capture what it’s like to really be outside.
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Does SPY+ Make Colors Seem Unnatural?
SPY+ says that most competing sunglasses boost some colors over other colors to around 15% greater than the naked eye while also increasing contrast to help you see better. The best optics manufacturers tweak lens materials and design to adjust color, clarity and contrast all the time: Smith does it in its Smith 4D MAG Goggles and Maven does it with its B1.2 binoculars. The effects are usually only noticeable when you pay close attention, though.
SPY+ says it boosts all colors by 30% while also tweaking contrast and maintaining white balance. When white balance is off, for example, your image can have a pinkish hue.
As you might guess, the more you amplify one characteristic the easier it is to veer off course into something bad. SPY+ says it designed its Happy Boost formula by using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to test more than 10 million unique lens combinations.
Clarity & Polarization
What about overall lens quality? The SPY+ Logan lenses are made from a SPY+ ARC polycarbonate material. Polycarbonate lenses are good because they tend to be strong but very lightweight. We appreciate lightweight sunglasses when we’re wearing them all day long.
The lenses are also scratch-resistant. While I haven’t had the SPY+ Logan Sunglasses in hand long enough for a long-term review, the SPY+ Legacy Snow Goggles I reviewed previously have seen a couple of seasons of use — and I haven’t been particularly careful with them. They’re surprisingly scratch-free for the current usage level.
Back to the sunglasses: SPY+ covers the lenses with a hydro-oleophobic coating that repels both water and oil. While testing the Logan sunglasses, I could easily clean off sweat and sweaty/sunscreen smudges.
After a dunking while paddleboarding, the Logan lenses also seemed to shed water fast, leaving few drops to impede my view during water play.
The polarization blocks sunlight reflections from the surface of the water, which reduces glare. Better yet, for fishers and nature lovers, polarized glasses let you see into the water better than with your naked eye in high-glare situations. For example, while stand-up paddleboarding, I could easily see fish swimming 15 feet down in clear lake water. I would say the polarization works as well as other quality polarized sunglasses I’ve used fly fishing.
Style Options
Right now, SPY+ offers 12 sunglass style options with Happy Boost lens tech. Each of the 12 base styles are available in multiple lenses colors, along with different frame color options.
If you need to dial in the fit, use the fit guides, which show you measurements in millimeters, to find sunglasses that fit your face. To get you close, just measure the width and height in millimeters of any pair of sunglasses that fit you well or fit just a bit tight or big. If you only have a ruler with inches, no problem: Measure in inches and multiply by 25.4 to get an inches-to-millimeters conversion calculation.
Once you know the width that fits your head, stow the number somewhere in your phone — and it’ll make online ordering easier in the future.
Shop Happy Boost Sunglasses at SPY Optic and get FREE Shipping on U.S. orders over $50!
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is this: If you want vibrant, richer color in your world, SPY+ Happy Boost sunglasses deliver. Again, I’m not positive that the blue light filtering Happy Lens tech works in a measurable way, but Happy Boost? It definitely increases color saturation as your eyes perceive it, and surprisingly, does it in a way that looks and feels natural. Very highly recommended.
