I was an early adopter of the WileyX SG-1 ballistic glasses/goggles hybrid and wore them on my first embed to Afghanistan back in 2002.
I didn't like them very much.
Basically they were too much like googles, not enough like sunglasses. And I've always been an adherent to the maxim that "an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance" -- in short, looks matter.
Over the intervening years -- and with the increased influence from security contractors who don't have to adhere to military uniform standards but still need versatile eyewear that looks at home at a State Department receiving line as well as leaning out the window of an armored SUV slinging lead from a 240 Golf running from haji.
WileyX had the good nature to send me a pair of their XL-1 Advanced shades and I gotta say, they hit it full on with these. They meld the dust mitigating properties of their SG-1 "no tears" system with interchangable lenses. But most important, they look bad ass and could pass as day-to-day shades anytime.
I had the chance to do some shooting with these as well, and while I'd always been a Revision Sawfly guy when (barely) punching paper, now I'm sold on the XL-1s for both pounding the pavement and the popups.
