Adidas – The Offical Sponsor for The Virgin London Marathon 2011
Adidas is one of the official sponsors of this year’s Virgin London Marathon – taking place on the 17th April. The London Marathon will see thousands of participants pound the streets of the city all in aid of great causes. Having trained for the best part of a year it’s important that everything goes well on the day and runners need to take extra care that they’ve selected all the right equipment and sports gear for the race.
As an official sponsor Adidas are best placed to advise on what to wear and what accessories are key. As such they’ve posted some useful guides to equipment and preparing for the race on The Virgin London Marathon website. In addition to the right clothing it’s important to wear eye protection and also have some method of telling the time on you! All runners will have a time in mind that they aim to cross the finishing line in and it’s important to be able to keep pace and be able to monitor their speed. Adidas watches have all sorts of functionality and importantly combine comfort, style and accurate time-telling. They enable the runner to run their own race whilst being confident that they can keep an eye on their pace and adjust if necessary. Adidas watches offer a massive range of styles and colours, and they all look sporty and cool, whilst being durable and very practical.
It’s not often the sun shines in London in April, but on the rare occasion it’s important to be prepared! The marathon on average takes runners between 4 and 5 hours to complete and in bright conditions sunglasses are vital. With the glare reflecting off the road and the sun’s damaging UV rays directly in the eyes, it’s not only uncomfortable, but extremely harmful too. Adidas sunglasses are designed specifically for sports and are therefore packed full of technology and detailed finesse. Constructed with lightweight material, all Adidas sunglasses boast a sleek design with auto fit technology, a double-snap nose bridge, and an inbuilt ventilation system. The Adizero Adidas sunglasses style is designed specifically for runners and as such the lenses protect the eyes from not only UV light but insects, dust and wind too. They are also produced to enhance the runners vision on uneven surfaces!
For marathon runners it is critical they are equipped with the very best equipment to minimise damage to their bodies and with Adidas they can be confident they’ve come prepared with the very best.
Oakley Sunglasses – A Sporting Great
There’s no mistaking the famous Oakley logo; it’s been part of the sports landscape for the past 30 years. Found on the arm of Oakley sunglasses, it is a subtle logo yet coveys a punchy reminder of just how big and well-respected the brand has become.
There’s also no mistaking a pair of Oakley sunglasses. The classic sleek, sporty design has been imitated over and over again – to such an extent that it’s important to make sure you buy your Oakley sunglasses from an official dealer, like Shade Station.
Oakley was designed and developed for sportsmen, so it’s not surprising they’re the brand of choice for a lot of active people in both traditional and freesports. As well as fielding their own Oakley teams in a number of competitive sports, they have some high profile athletes on their books representing the brand. These include: cyclists Victoria Pendleton and Bradley Wigan, cricketer Kevin Pieterson, and golfer Ian Poulter.
Oakley have earned an enviable reputation over the years through the production of high quality, innovative, performance enhancing eyewear for men and women. The company work hard for their money and reputation, continually developing new technology and specialist features, which they incorporate into the design of their sunglasses. For instance all lenses are produced with Oakley’s pioneering ‘High Definition Optics’ which was developed to give the wearer ultimate visual clarity. Other examples of innovation are Oakley’s ‘Thump’ and ‘O Rokr’ styles which feature both bluetooth and MP3 facilities built into the arm.
Although sport is Oakley’s main draw, plenty of people choose to wear Oakley sunglasses as a fashion statement or simply because they like the quality of the glasses. So in addition to high-performance sports sunglasses, Oakley have a number of collections including ‘Design your own Oakleys’, ‘Fashion’ and ‘Collector’s Items’. The highly collectable Oakley ‘Frogskin’ is an example which displays the diversity of sunglass styles that can be found within the Oakley portfolio.
Oakley Sunglasses built for Sport
With all eyes on the tennis at Wimbledon this week we wanted to highlight the importance of wearing the correct sunglasses to play sport in. Although many tennis players like the Venus and Serena Williams, Andy Murray and Roger Federer are seen without eye protection and often opt for visors and caps instead, they could be doing irreversible damage to their eyes whilst playing. Simply wearing sunglasses designed for sport would act as a preventative measure towards cataracts and muscular degeneration and could also improve their game!
Sports sunglasses differ from regular shades because they are designed with the active sportsman in mind;
Sports sunglasses are ergonomically designed to ensure a closer fit, so no flapping up and down whilst you’re running to the net and they are also comfortable enough to to wear whilst exerting yourself!
On-court glare is reduced by polarised lenses which reduce light and reflection from the surface of the court (and protect from UVA, UVB and UVC light) enabling you to read the game better and prevent squinting.
Most sports sunglasses are equipped with high impact lenses, meaning you won’t be caught between the eyes with a tennis ball flying at 100mph!
Although there are a handful of good brands that specialise in sunglasses for Tennis, Shade Station recommends Oakley sunglasses for all round protection and the all important ‘cool factor’. With a rich heritage of specialist sports technology and innovation, Oakley is the eyewear brand of choice worn by the majority of serious sportsmen and women.
Various tennis players on the tour circuit are aware of the significance of wearing sunglasses, including Aussie Samantha Stosur, ranked World No 18 who wears Oakley’s ‘Enduring’ style to reduce the sun’s glare. She says of the sunglasses ” I notice after matches, my eyes aren’t tired at the end of the day, unlike a lot of people who don’t wear them.”
Take it from a pro, your vision is precious so do all you can to protect it!
Check out next week’s blog where we’ll be bringing you all the celebrity sunglasses action at Wimbledon 2009!
Click here to visit our Oakley Sunglasses section
Get Sporty!
Summer is almost here and the popularity of outdoor sports activities such as mountain biking, rock climbing, skiing, golfing and in-line skating has also increased the boom of sports and performance-oriented sunglasses. In fact, sports specific sunwear have become quite the fashion trend to hit the eyewear market. Frames and lenses are now available that are targeted specifically to the sportsman effectively combining fashion with function.
If you prefer to be the man or woman of all sports, there is also a variety of multipurpose sports sunglasses on the market. Changeable lens systems are now offered by many sunwear companies and offer the wearer options when it comes to usefulness for different sports and conditions.
Another trend in sports eyewear that has made the public increasingly aware of the brands and the products out there are the many product endorsements and sponsorships by famous professional athletes. Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, John McEnroe of pro tennis fame, and PGA golfer David Ledbetter for example.
Oakley is probably the most renowned and top sports orientated sunglasses brand around. Oakley makes sunglasses for every sport, weather condition, light condition and style. The lightweight frames provide maximum durability and the brand offer a wide range of style alternatives according to how heavy or tame your sport is!
It is vital to remember that when selecting a pair of sunglasses, you buy the right pair according to the conditions in which you use them as this will give you maximum protection and performance.
