SHRED. announced it will debut its lens technology—Contrast Boosting Lens 2.0—and provide its athletes with its latest innovation for competition in the Beijing Olympics.
“This lens technology has been five years in the making, and we are extremely proud and excited for the launch to happen when it counts the most,” explained SHRED Co-founder, Chairman and two-time Olympic champion skier Ted Ligety. “Thanks to the findings of the research performed by students and researchers at the MIT Sports Lab, we were able to push the boundaries of our lens innovation and develop our Contrast Boosting Lens 2.0. We are confident we will set a new standard by enhancing the safety, performance and fun of world-class athletes and recreationalists in a way that has never been seen before.”
Founded in 2015 by MIT Lecturer Christina Chase and Professor of Mechanical Engineering Anette (Peko) Hosoi, the MIT Sports Lab pushes the boundaries of science and engineering. Students and researchers at MIT have been working with Shred since 2016 to enhance how ski and snowboard goggle lenses perform in flat light conditions.
SHRED. Contrast Boosting Lens (CBL) technology uses a dye in the lenses to create specific tints that enhance image definition, contrast and the vividness of color. SHRED. Co-founder, CEO, materials engineer, and MIT Sloan MBA Carlo Salmini explained, “The students and research team at the MIT Sports Lab found that the vision under flat light conditions was significantly improved by using a polarizing filter, information which played a crucial role in the development of this new technology.” Salmini added, “With our brand new Contrast Boosting Lens 2.0 we are launching a new formulation, and we are pairing it with a partially polarizing filter to maximize further vision performance in all terrain, weather and light conditions by cutting adverse glare while still allowing the vision of ice surfaces on the slopes.”
The goggle line will be worn by SHRED. athletes in the 2022 Olympic Winter Games featuring a strap made of recycled plastic bottles.* “We were the first to launch this kind of innovation in the fall of 2021, and we have already sold out of all the goggles we made with this innovative approach,” explained Ligety. “We then decided to take this another step further and give the line the best visibility one can have, which is to have our team wear it in the Olympics. The goal is to inspire other industries and product categories to do the same. If a small and independent brand can do it, everyone else can too.”
*The strap is made of “84 percent recycled plastic bottles, which allows SHRED. to recycle about 170 plastic bottles for every 100 pairs of goggles produced.”
