Last February I was contacted by Eye Safety Systems (ESS) out of Sun Valley Idaho. They make high end eye protection glasses. They wanted to participate in Boomershoot and to make a long story short that is how Boomershoot ended up with 30 Cal Gal and Shelley Rae signed up for Boomershoot this year.
ESS also sent me three pair of their glasses. They are very nice glasses. One thing that I despise about nearly all safety glasses is something that isn’t that hard to do right and ESS did it right. When most glasses are folded up the tip of the ear piece touches the inside of the lens. This scuffs the plastic and you end up with a partially blind spot in one or both eyes. The ESS glasses I have been using don’t do that. The ear piece will not touch the inside of the lens. I have been carrying a pair around in my coat pocket (inside the cloth pouch provided) for almost two months now and the glasses are still scuff free. They are comfortable to wear and give me a great field of view and wrap around protection.
Here is more of what ESS has to say about their glasses and their attendance at Boomershoot:
Idaho-based company ESS (Eye Safety Systems) will be present at this weekend’s Boomershoot events. ESS manufactures the sole issued eyewear of the United States Marine Corps and is a leading supplier to the U.S. Army & all branches of the U.S. Department of Defense. Their military-grade eye protection is gaining in popularity and is highly-regarded amongst those in the know in the commercial shooting market.
ESS will be offering free demos of select shooting-specific models of its MIL-SPEC, ANSI Z87.1+ protective eyewear, including the Crossbow Suppressor which is the only eyewear completely engineered for optimal function under ear cup style hearing protection. Inquire at the ESS tent on site and/or with ESS employees regarding their demos and event specials. Visit www.esseyepro.com to learn more.
I love my ESS ICE. Next pair of shooting glasses will also be ESS.
Do they make anything that fits over regular (prescription) glasses? Preferably something that doesn’t ride up when you get a good cheek weld?
Seriously, this is great! I really wanted a set of CrossBows or, even better, Suppressors, but no one locally carries them, and I am REALLY picky. Didn’t want to drop the money and not like them.
The idea for Suppressors is outstanding.
I had spent quite a bit of time reading reviews online, and comparing them to my Oakley M frames, my all time favorite pair of sunglasses. They really resembled a shooter friendly set of Oakleys. Then down at the bottom of the first page I open with your link, “Subsidiary of Oakley”, now it all makes sense!
That’s one of the things that bothers me too. The Gargoyles I over spent on when I started shooting (still can’t believe I haven’t lost them yet) have a mark because of this. But, another pet peeve for me is protective eyewear with thick bows (or whatever the part that extneds behind your ear is). Yeah, my ear muffs can flex around the tube that many makers insist on running there but why would I pay for that? That part needs to be thin, only strong enough to hold the protection stable in front of my eyes imho
On a related note about eye protection, in all sincerity, I’m still looking for excellent eye and ear protection for a dog. — Not a hunting dog, just a dog who might be present in the presence of explosives.
I’m always open to suggestions.
Some interesting info. re: explosives eye/ear protection for dogs I found in my searches, from the Marine Corps Times:
Dogs becoming essential in fight against IEDs
“The Corps also has experimented with other equipment for dogs, including eye protection nicknamed “doggles” and ear protection known as “dog muffs,” Childress said. Neither is widely used, however.”
I wish Eye Safety Systems would expand their product line. Only dreaming…