Click here to download a PDF of Eye on the Ball.
Who: The Minions, the baby in that viral video who gets her first pair of glasses, Glasses for Noah on Facebook, and any kid who wears glasses and plays a sport in New Jersey thanks to a 2006 law.

What: Kids participate in a lot of activities and sitting in a classroom is just one of them. Making sure they can do their best in all the areas of their lives often requires different kinds of eyewear and a few companies are out there making specialized ophthalmic and sun styles to ensure they are operating at peak performance.

Wear: Last year, Bushnell Eyewear introduced Bollé Sport Protective, the first full line of athletic eyewear for kids to be certified to ATSM and ANSI standards. But in addition to those frames, Bollé continues to offers a line of kid’s sun styles with many performance features, like rubberized temples and nose pads to keep frames from slipping, here the Jenny (top). For the smallest of children just learning to walk and navigating their surroundings is a contact sport, so both Safilo and ClearVision have designed collections specifically for children that includes pediatric eyewear options. The SA0001 from the Kids by Safilo (second down) is part of a collection resulting from rigorous research. Lightweight and stable, the frames were specifically designed with a lower bridge and temples with a horizontal bend to accommodate the facio-cranial structure of infants’ faces, as well including lenses that cover children’s entire field of vision, ensuring an effective correction. The Dilli Dalli Tutti Frutti frame from ClearVision (last) offers IntelliFlex Soft Touch, a thermoplastic co-polyester elastomer, which provides the strength, flexibility and high performance of rubber with a “soft touch” feel. The one piece, lightweight design has a unique multi action, flexible temple design that rotates 360° and acts like a spring hinge. Both collections offer optional head wraps to make sure the frames stay put when the child does not. The most aggressively styled frame included, the Under Armour Dynamo from Eyeking (third down) truly puts the performance in performance sunwear. Part of the brand’s 2015 Youth collection, the Dynamo is specifically engineered to fit a young athlete’s face with an impact resistant shield and the same level of frame and lens design as Under Armour’s adult collections.

Why: Kids are sponges, they are constantly learning, absorbing and growing. That’s kind of their job. As adults, it’s our job to give them the best tools to facilitate growth and that includes making sure they can see clearly, effectively and safely. Ensuring kids get their eyes checked is half the battle, making sure they have the best frame or frames to perform their best in every activity in which they participate—be that learning to walk or learning to hit a fastball—is the other half.

dcarroll@jobson.com