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Maui Jim has a reputation for excellent lenses, classic styles and functional elegance. It's now on a mission to educate wearers about the dangers of UV, quality lenses and breaking the link between sunwear and heat. Chris Bennett reports
Imagine a world in which the sun spent most of its time at 45 degrees in the sky. A world with clear skies, filled with water, ice and snow reflecting the harsh rays of the sun back at you from all angles.
In northern latitudes these are just the light conditions many experience day to day in a world of low contrast scenery and glare. While unpleasant for those who have to cope with this headache-inducing mix, it demonstrates dramatically the fallacy that sunglasses should be associated with heat and high sun.
A company you might not necessarily associate with snow and ice is Maui Jim. Its heritage is in polarised, colour enhancing lenses hailing from the rich, colourful Hawaiian isles conjuring up overhead sun and heat. It chose the cold, white world of northern Sweden to discuss UV and sunglass choice. It says breaking the link between the idea of sunglasses for heat, summer and overhead sun is the first step in raising awareness and increasing protection among wearers from damaging UV rays.
'Maui Jim is very successful in areas such as Canada and Are (Northern Sweden). When the sun is right above you the rays are coming straight down but in these areas the...