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Ski goggles have come a long way since the days of neon onesies and straight skis. Today’s goggles are high-tech masterpieces designed to not just protect your eyes, but actually greatly increase what you can see on snow. Turns out that being outside surrounded by highly-reflective surfaces (snow) can play tricks with the light, so goggle makers have developed ways to help skiers see better, no matter the conditions. Here’s a look at eight of our favorite ski goggles our testers loved from last season, tested in all conditions, from the resort to the backcountry. The list includes everything from oversized fits to small, low-profile looks, and should cover the bases for anyone looking for a new pair of high-performance ski goggles.
Whether it’s MAG, VIVID, RIG, CBL, Clarity, HD, Prizm, Infrared, or AMP, goggle manufacturers have all named their proprietary contrast-boosting lens technology. While they all work slightly differently, the on-snow performance of all these is pretty similar, greatly boosting contrast and clarity to make it much easier to see in flat light on a cloudy day, high-glare situations in full sun, or in low light at the end of a mid-winter day.
The important thing to think about when buying goggles isn’t necessarily the lens technology, but finding a good pair that fits both your face and your helmet. You’re looking for a clean, comfortable seal around your cheeks and nose to prevent the elements from coming in. Most brands design their goggles to integrate cleanly with their own helmets, but that doesn’t mean they won’t work with other brands. We’ve included some notes on which integration worked best for our testers.
Photo: Hanne Lundin
Common Ski Goggle Shapes and Lens Types:
There are three types of lens shapes typically found in ski goggles, all offering some different pros and cons. Here’s a quick guide on which might be best for you.
Cylindrical: These are a traditional lens with a flat surface that wraps cylindrically around your face. They offer a stylish low-profile fit, but some lower-end goggles may be optically distorted and prone to glare.
Spherical: Spherical lens bulge out in the middle with a rounded, bubble-like appearance. The lens surface has no flat spots, reducing glare. These tend to work best for large faces, or for skiers looking for the most peripheral vision.
Toric: A hybrid between cylindrical and spherical lenses, toric lenses have a more aggressive curve on the vertical axis than the horizontal axis, offering a better fit for wide faces, great optics and similar peripheral vision to spherical lenses. Toric=torus=donut-shaped.
OTG: This isn’t a lens shape as much as a designation that OTG (Over-The-Glasses) goggles will fit over prescription eyewear, so you can ski with your prescription glasses on and not worry about contacts.
A note on goggle care: Goggles are expensive, so we highly recommend keeping them clean and protected when not in use to have them last season after season. That will keep any sensitive anti-fog and other lens coatings from getting scratched off the lens. While most modern goggles aren’t prone to this anymore, if you’re skiing on a super wet day and your goggles fog up, don’t wipe the inside of the lens! It’s worth going into the lodge to give them a few minutes to dry off. Also, we highly recommend keeping them protected in their case or at least covered with a lens cover when not in use.
About Powder’s Best Ofs
Our Best Of lists are collections of the skis, boots, outerwear, and other gear that stood out to us while testing. If you want to learn more about how reviews work at Powder, we’re very transparent about our process. These lists are constantly growing and evolving as we try new gear. If you’ve got a favorite piece of equipment that you think we should write about, let us know here. And, if you represent a brand or company and think your gear deserves a writeup, we’d love to get in touch.
Oakley Line Miner Pro
Eyewear specialists Oakley have been in the goggle game longer than most, and the Oakley Line Miner Pro is a testament to that expertise. It’s Oakley’s largest goggle, offering the widest field of view paired with their easy-to-use and very secure Switchlock lens interchange system. We love the simple, understated style of the strap and framed, mixed with the extremely sharp optics of the Prizm lenses. The goggle comes with both a hi-light and a low-light lens, which testers found adequately covered their bases no matter the conditions.
Flylow Perform Photochromic
Flylow has been making gear for skiers since 2005, and since then they’ve become a cult favorite among testers (and POWDER readers) for their dependable, durable apparel and accessories. This year, Flylow enters to optics game with the Perform Photochromic, a pair of goggles that testers agreed lived up to the brand’s reputation of high-quality goods. The polarized photochromic lens automatically adjusts to the lighting conditions, getting darker or lighter depending on how much sun hits it. That means you won’t have to adjust lenses to suit the day. The cylindrical goggles are OTG compatible with prescription glasses, and not to mention, these are a steal at $130!
Atomic Four Pro Signature
Best known for the skis and boots, Atomic also offers a whole line of excellent eyewear (and helmets). We’re huge fans of the athlete signature series Four Pro Signature Goggles that feature HD photochromic lenses and colorways designed by Atomic athletes like Nick McNutt, Amie Engerbretson, Aymar Navarro, and more. Though they have a large frame and oversized straps, testers with both narrow and wide faces found they fit well. The goggles come with an included clear lens in the case.
Dragon Alliance NFX MAG
Dragon’s newest goggles, the NFX MAG are loaded with features including magnetic lenses and Dragon’s new Infrared lenses, designed to reduce eye fatigue on bright days. The included Solace IR Lens is capable of blocking 99 percent of infrared rays. Tested and endorsed by Dragon’s world class roster of athletes, the NFX MAG also features Dragon’s signature frameless design, armored venting, and OTG compatibility.
Smith Squad XL Goggles
The classic cylindrical lens option from Smith now comes in both an XL size for large faces, and with Smith’s MAG magnetic lens interchange system. The frame has remained largely unchanged for years now, but Smith continues to upgrade the lens technology. For 2025, they are available in various lens tints, from completely clear to blacked-out hi-light lenses, all with Smith’s color and contrast-boosting ChromaPop tech. The oversized strap stays put on your helmet or hat, and these integrate perfectly with Smith helmets (as well as POC and Giro helmets).With lots of venting, no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t get these to fog up.
Smith 4D MAG Goggles
If you’re not a fan of cylindrical goggles, Smith’s 4D MAG is an excellent option that features a unique lens shape that Smith calls Birds Eye Vision. This is essentially a cylindrical lens that tapers into a toric lens at the bottom, vastly increasing peripheral vision towards the snow. These come standard with Smith’s MAG interchangeable lens technology, multiple ChromaPop lens tint options and are available in S, Standard, and XL sizing, as well as a low-bridge fit for skiers with wide or higher cheekbones.
Giro Comp Goggles
As Giro’s new flagship snow goggle, the Comp really pulls out all the stops. With a frameless toric shape, these offer an absolutely massive field of view in all directions, and offer lightning-fast lens changes with Giro’s Snapshot technology. The magic however lies in the optical quality of Giro’s VIVID lenses, which are designed to block out the part of the light spectrum that creates flat light conditions, while letting in more lower-frequency blue light to boost contrast. In other words, these make irregularities in the snow super visible, making it much easier to see on the mountain, especially when the sun is nowhere to be seen. The Comp best fits medium to large faces.
Shred Gratify Goggles
Flat light while skiing is no fun, but unfortunately it’s a reality for anyone who likes to ski when it’s not sunny out, something that Shred Optics co-founder and American Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety knows all too well about from his days racing the clock. The Gratify Goggles and Shred’s CBL2.0 lens were specifically designed to combat flat light, boosting clarity, contrast, and giving you one of the widest fields of view on the market with a single all-conditions lens. The larger frame and strap works well and looks stylish with any size helmet. These are compatible with most prescription glasses as OTG goggles.
Scott React AMP Pro Goggles
Scott makes just about everything for skiing, from skis, to boots, to packs, outerwear, helmets and goggles. They also make all these things exceptionally well, and the new Scott React AMP Pro Goggles are a hallmark of this, with a comfortable cylindrical fit and perhaps the most versatile lens we tested this year. Check out Cy Whitling’s thoughts on the goggles from last season. Even though Scott’s Amp Pro lens works exceptionally well in just about any lighting condition, from dark storm days to bluebird pow days, it’s still easily swappable using one hand if you do want to change it out. These offer a medium to wide fit.
POC Nexal Clarity Goggles
As a leading force in goggle and helmet design, Swedish brand POC strives to integrate protection into their products whenever possible. The Nexal Clarity isn’t just a goggle that protects your eyes, it’s a piece of protection for your face, with small wings that cover and protect the top of your zygomatic bones (cheekbones) in the event of a faceplant. Available in small, regular, and wide fit options, POC’s Nexal offers a comfortable low-profile fit, and the cylindrical Clarity lens boosts contrast and vision on-snow. These integrate perfectly with POC helmets and most Giro helmets we tried. While the lenses are interchangeable, they aren’t as quick a change as others, luckily the Clarity lens is designed to cover most conditions you’ll encounter.
POC Vitrea Goggles
If you’re a fan of huge astronaut-like goggles, POC’s absolutely massive Vitrea goggles offer the largest coverage in POC’s line. The toric lens shape extends low over your cheeks to offer better protection from the elements–testers especially loved these for backcountry powder skiing and stormy resort skiing. With soft foam padding, a malleable frame, and a quick lens interchange system that utilizes a unique motocross tear-off-inspired tab on the side of the lens, these are super comfortable and easy to dial in to the conditions at hand. The oversized fit works well with any larger helmet from most brands.
Sweet Protection Boondock RIG Goggles
Our favorite goggle that’s designed for small faces, our female testers loved the comfortable low-profile fit of Sweet Protection’s Boondock RIG goggles. The semi-frameless cylindrical lens shape offers great vision, and Sweet Protection coats all their lenses with a hydro- and oleophobic treatment to keep water, grime, and fingerprints off the lens.
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