P R O T E K T 
Premium Safety Eyewear
P R O T E K T Premium Safety Eyewear
PROTEKT Premium Safety Eyewear, 50/50 semi mirrored
There’s a new player in the eye protection safety glasses ring. Introducing PROTEKT Premium Safety Eyewear. Having been on the market for 3 years now, they have been only distributed to a certain number of clients. PROTEKT is not the run-of-the-mill safety glasses you’ll find on a construction site. This particular PPE eyewear is exactly what they say they are. These are PREMIUM protection for your eyes. With standard safety glasses only costing $3 to $5 a pair and for the most part disposable, PROTEKT is not in that class. In fact, they have just redefined the classes altogether.
Styles
Three different styles have been designed by 2020 Ac. The standard Clear Lens, the Tinted Lens, and my personal favorite style, The 50/50s. These three styles are common in construction and other industries. Each has its proper place and task-specific needs for when they need to be worn. The difference in style however between traditional safety glasses that most contactors buy boxes of and the new PROTEKT glasses are very noticeable. When you donn a pair of PROTEKT glasses you’ll understand in full why the cost is relatively higher.
Design
Designed by 2020 Accessory Source Ltd in Maple Ridge BC, the PROTEKT Premium Safety Eyewear wraps around your eyes and gently hugs your face. By doing this, they do not allow the traditional gaps most other glasses have. Lightweight with a black frame, the comfort is even more increased by a strip of soft foam circling each lens. A design that makes these glasses perfect for high hazard conditions such as extreme winds with blowing sand much like in the oil patch of Alberta. Another logical application would be when operating any type of vehicle at high speeds without a windshield. Equipment such as motorcycles and off-road bikes, ATVs, Jeeps, or even boats.
Protection
As illustrated above, this design offers better protection than other traditional safety glasses. There are no gaps for debris or dust to enter, removing the need for a side shield. A low-profile sleek style produces an encompassing fit around your eyes. In turn, this ensures non-interference with other PPE that must be donned during certain tasks. Full-face shields, hard hats with ear muff protection, or mesh screens when using chain saws, respirators, and masks, all can be utilized without the concern of your eye protection causing additional bulk to your face. During a test scenario, I was using a circular saw on a 5/8 sheet of plywood making full-length cuts. Expelling as much sawdust as I could I faced the direction of a 30km wind, and not one speck of wood sawdust was able to penetrate around the frames and enter my eye area.
Standards
CSA Z94.3-15 Certified
ANSI Z87.1=2015 (High Impact Compliant)
UV
Filters out 99.9% UVA, UVB, UVC radian
Lens Fogging
One big issue when wearing any glasses is that under the new COVID-19 regulations you’re required to wear a mask most of the time in public. This causes glasses to fog up resulting in a point where all vision is blocked. Our exhaust breath contains water aerosols and is on average 7.5 deg. Celsius. On most days fog is produced in our glasses. This is NOT the case with PROTEKT. Developed with an anti-fog coating directly applied to the lenses creates a barrier against fogging. However, the lens coating is in addition to the foam liner that surrounds each lens. Working much like a gasket, a sealed barrier prevents the warm moist air from our exhaust breath from entering our glasses.
Moisture
Another situation that can occur is safety glasses with foam around the eyes causes perspiration to be trapped within, creating fogged lenses. Once again, this is NOT the case with PROTEKT. Fixing an issue before it results in a problem, the design team removed several little pieces of foam, 2mm wide. This allows airflow to travel through the glasses expelling any moisture yet not so big as to allow dirt or dust in.
Other Glasses
In my 30 plus years of working in various occupations, I personally have worn probably close to 50 different types and styles of safety eye protection. Some were good, some were bad, most did not last a week due to cheap manufacturing, materials used or they sustained enough damage so they weren’t effective any longer.
Overall Strength and Flex
The PROTEKT Premium Safety Eyewear on the first appearance does not seem to have those characteristics. As it’s been said numerous times, “You get what you pay for”. Cheap glasses are mostly rigged and breakable. PROTEKT has some flexibility which will increase the lifespan. As far as overall strength is concerned, I received these glasses only a few days prior to the review. So, in the future, an update will be added. As for now, I am extremely optimistic they will outperform a large majority of what’s on the market today.
Scratch-Resistant Lens
The lenses are scratch-resistant. Treating them just like the cheaper safety glasses on the market, they have already outperformed most. Within 2 days I’ve NOT seen a scratch or blemish whatsoever on the lens. A $5 pair would have already been scratched in my care, just from putting them into my pocket. The PROTEKT are not and I’ve even increased the challenge by placing them in a jacket pocket with my keyring, a few pens, and even a couple of drill bits. Stay tuned for an update in 30 days.
Comfort on the Face
As previously described, these safety glasses wrap around your eye reasonably tight but not so confining that they would cause irritation or worse. In fact, the PROTEKT Premium Safety Eyewear I have been wearing are the 50/50 semi mirrored glasses. They are so comfortable that since I’ve started wearing them, I regularly forget I have them on. This is what occurred the day I received them and discovered they do not fog up while wearing a mask. I forget the glasses were on my face due to the comfort level, I donned a mask and walked into a gas station. As stated, they didn't fog up, not even a little. Later that day I fell asleep for 30 minutes. When I woke up the glasses were still on my face.
Harness Clips 
One aspect on the 50/50s is a specially designed clip at the end of the Temples ( arms that go over the ears holding the glasses on). These clips and in place for what appears to be where a cord or harness can be attached to secure the PROTEKT Premium Safety Eyewear, Safety Glasses to the workers head. Or even to tie a loose cord so they may hand around the neck and down your chest when not wearing them. Another application these clips could be utilized for is a place to secure corded earbuds for the music from your phone. This way keeps the wires away from the front of your face and directs them down via the back of your ear.
PROTEKT Premium Safety Eyewear
Safety Glasses Cons
There are only 2 things about these Safety Glasses that I can think of at the moment which could be considered a negative aspect
1.
These Safety Glasses, the PROTEKT Premium Safety Eyewear, are not sold in stores, nor do any of the safety products distributors that I know of in the Occupational Health and Safety world have access to these glasses. AS far as I know, right now, only a select few distributors are carrying these and are more associated with the medical community. The reason thing is, the designers and owners are from that community as well. They are not part of the Construction world, Industry, Mines, or Oil and Gas. However, when last I spoke to them, I did mention the players who distribute safety products for the aforementioned industries. Hopefully, in the near future, others can try these glasses on for size.
2.
Like all other things for sale, there are 2 types of people who purchase. Those who want quality no matter the cost, to a certain point as far as money goes. Then there are those who want the best deal, lowest price, and highest quantity for the bucks. Quality not being too much of a concern, to a point of quality not meeting the basic safety requirement needed for the worker.
2.1
With that being said, if the PROTEKT Premium Safety Eyewear is at a $10 to $20 a pair price point, it could be too much for some or possibly even most. Yet some would pay that and possibly even more for such high-quality Safety Glasses. Those types of workers would have a case for their glasses protection, and they would take great care of their PPE. Most in the trades rank and file usually by the cheap 3 to 5 dollar a pair Safety Glasses and they buy them by the box. Why? Because safety glasses are just one of those items that always get misplaced, completely lost, or accidentally broken.
PROTEKT Premium Safety Eyewear: Supplemental
Since I first reviewed the PROTEKT Premium Safety Eyewear, I have been using the 50/50 style on a consistent basis. I can tell you this, I was not handling them with kit gloves. I tossed them across my truck, jammed them into a pocket full of pens and keys, allowed them to tumble around in a cab-mounted truck console full of items you would find in any work truck. Pens and pencils, paper with alligator clips, a few screw driver’s coffee cups, and probably even a French fry or two. These glasses did not sustain any damage to the lenses. Oh, they were dirty, however, no parts of these glasses sustained any damage or scratches to the lenses.
Final Statement
In addition, they continue to surprise me with their anti-fog system while wearing a mask. I’ve never been more impressed with a pair of eye protection than I am with the PROTEKT Premium Safety Eyewear. FreeBird Safety Services fully endorses this product.
