Gunnar Optiks: Poker Software for Your Eyes

My pal Rizen recently started wearing eyewear from a new company called Gunnar Optiks, which sells high-end computer glasses that are perfect for online poker players spending countless hours staring at their computer screen. They claim to treat eye strain, Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS), Digital Eye Fatigue (DEF), headaches resulting from too much time in front of a computer, and if I remember right from the promotional material, they also cure jaundice and make you more attractive to the opposite sex. The big question is - Do they work?

Let me start off by saying that the promotional materials and marketing campaign are fantastic. If you want to learn how to promote a product to computer users, study the way Gunnar Optiks does it and you'll make a mint. These guys were with Oakley in the past and you can see it in the styles and the way the glasses are presented. The glasses are light and come in a beautiful metal box. I almost wonder if the packaging made me doubt the product. How could these things come in $20 worth of packaging, have $20 in promotion and advertising behind them, only cost $100, and still be a high-tech product that functions well?

The basic idea behind the glasses is that they block glare. In addition, the yellow lenses and their shape help to "pre-focus" light, relax your eye muscles, and "create a micro-climate" around your eyes. In plain English, the yellow lenses filter out bad light, the coating blocks UV, the slight magnification makes things look better, and having glass in front of your eyes reduces air flow, which helps keep them moist and prevents redness. Here is a shot of my colleague Dan sporting his pair:



How well do they work?

I actually like the lenses and will continue to wear them. Once I have them on for a few minutes, I forget that I'm wearing them. When I take them off, my computer screen looks small, bright, and unclear. They seem to improve visual acuity, although any magnifying glasses will have this effect. They also seem to make my eyes hurt less after long periods of time in front of a screen, but many people say that any yellow computer glasses from your local pharmacy will have the same effect.

In doing some research on the subject, I found eye doctors who said these were unnecessary and others who said they were quite useful, although not as good as a prescription pair might be (the estimated cost for prescription tinted computer glasses is $500). Some users rave about them, while others say they do very little. I'm not exactly where I fit, but I will keep wearing them for awhile and see what I think in a few more weeks. These glasses are available for sale online and in 300 retail outlets. If you need a prescription, head to your local vendor. Use their handy Gunnar retail locator.

Rizen says he wears them whenever he is on the computer and loves them. I know him to be a man of integrity, so they clearly work well for some people. If these glasses work for you, they will be hugely helpful for online poker players who spend hours upon hours concentrating on the monitors in front of them.

I recommend Gunnars with one caveat: Try them on before you buy them. The pair I have is fairly thin from top to bottom, so they don't cover my whole field of vision and I have strips above and below the glass that distract me. Buying shades without trying them on is always tough and I have spent hours in the past just to find something that was perfect to wear at the tables. At between $100 and $200, Gunnars are not cheap, but they aren't prohibitively expensive. After all, your eyes are worth protecting.