Accessories Reviews

Goggle Review: Spy Apollo

It’s 2nd year on the market, the Spy Apollo gives you a dual radius lens for improved peripheral vision, minimal materials, optimum comfort and a full range of vision on the mountain.

Intended Purpose: Improved peripheral vision

Color: The apollo’s are white in the center and black on the brackets. Very minimal in design but classy.

Location: I received the goggles after SIA and since then have rode with them mostly in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Conditions: I’ve worn the goggles on bluebird days, overcast and snowing days.

Visibility: The apollo follows the shape of the face to provide for more peripheral vision (1/3 more visiblity). I definitely noticed the visibility and wide range that I had while riding. It’s supposed to be a perfect, no distortion visibility and I didn’t notice any distortion. To me visibility is needed across all snow conditions, being able to see what’s coming up and what the conditions are. I spent this day with the apollo’s where I needed to see the varying snow, while riding.

Features: The biggest feature on the apollo is the dual radius lens which combines multiple angles to improve the visibility on the goggle. The hinge system turns 360 degrees making it compatible with any helmet and adjustment how you like it. It’s not difficult to remove to lenses, the black bracket comes off and helps exchange out lenses. The apollo also features anti-fog and anti-scratch lens, triple layer isotron face foam with moisture wicking dri force. I didn’t encounter any fogging when I did ride with them, but I noticed the fit was off with my face.

Durability: The Apollo’s are pretty lightweight but the construction seemed durable and built to last. The lens are supposed to be anti-scratch but definitely take any anti-wording with a grain of salt. I left them in my pack as my own fault and found the lens scratched, so it’s still possible. With any goggle if you want it to last, put it in a protective goggle case.

Thoughts: I have a really hard face to fit goggles to, because I don’t have much of a bridge on my nose it’s tough to find goggles that fit without creating a gap there. The spy apollo’s fit me everywhere but on the bridge of the nose where I had enough of a gap that would let in air when I was riding and my eyes would tear up. To remove that gap I needed to wear the goggles low over my nose. Because of that, it was hard to judge the goggle on if it would fog or not because the fit wasn’t there. During the time I did ride with it, I didn’t have it fog up so that’s good to note.

One thing I noticed when I first got the goggles was how small they looked, the frame didn’t seem big but when I tried them on, the goggle cupped my face and the vision didn’t feel like a small goggle.

The features on the goggles speak for themselves, you get a better peripheral range of vision, lightweight, easy compatibility to goggles and a new lens system to help the vision be more natural. For me, since the fit wasn’t there I couldn’t fully enjoy the goggles as much as I’d have liked. The foam that worked to create better fit was comfortable around my nose and I like the idea of moisture wicking fleece on it.

apollo_0

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  • JoeCool79
    May 5, 2009 at 1:58 am

    Great Review! Liked the picture of the goggle in action. Maybe another shot of the goggle by itself? Keep up the great work!

  • Shay
    July 25, 2009 at 7:06 pm

    Thanks Joe! That’s the only shot of the goggle but I did link to a video I made from riding that day that shows the conditions and might give a better idea for you.

  • Colin
    February 26, 2010 at 2:28 pm

    Spy goggles are are pretty decent in my experience. But it doesn’t suprise me that they came out with a goggle that features exceptional peripheral vision, because I own a pair of 07/08 Spy Orbit goggles and my ONLY complaint with them is that you have almost no peripheral vision wearing them. Spy probably got some feedback about it. The quality and durability are killer though. My Orbit’s have a mirrored lens and I’ve knocked a quite a few low branches out of my way with my face from time to time while riding tight trees and was sure I’d find the mirrored coating would be wasted when I get down to the car and take them off. Never a scratch. I’d buy the Apollo’s