All the jazz with goggle manufacturers in recent years has been integrating a quick-change lens swapping system into their flagship products. We’ve seen it at all the major brands—take Smith, anon, Scott and Spy, just to name a few—but some iterations just work better than others. Now, Boulder, Colorado-based Zeal Optics is taking its first dive into this trend, introducing its patent-pending //Rail Lock System (//RLs) for 2017-18.
Simply line the lenses up with the two built-in channels on the frame of the goggle and push down to slide them into place. Utilizing two magnets on the bottom of the goggle’s frame ensures your lenses stay put and snow, ice and the rest of Mother Nature’s elements stay out of your way while you’re out on the hill. The lens swapping system is notably intuitive and there’s an audible “snap” when your lenses have successfully been put into place—a nice touch when the wind is blowing on the chairlift and you might otherwise be unsure if the exchanged lenses are ready to go. The //RLs system allows for such a clean, quick swap that it also helps avoid man-handling and smudging your lenses, a common and inconvenient side-effect other fast-change technologies.
The Portal//RLs goggle features an oversized, spherical lens, providing one of the most broad ranges of vision on the market, a stylish rimless frame design and is available in Zeal Optics’ Optimum, Optimum Polarized and Optimum Polarized Automatic+ lens collections, so you can get your hands on this brand new tech no matter your price-point. The Portal//RLs earned FREESKIER’s “Best of Show” honor at last year’s SIA conference—the be-all-end-all meeting of outdoor brands sharing their latest innovations—and it’s no wonder: Zeal Optics’ Rail Lock System provides a swift lens-change that works seamlessly on the go without the multi-step learning curve other lens-change systems demand.
