YOUZEE CLIP-IN RX GOGGLE INSERT REVIEW

Review by Jason Ekman

Three out of every ten people in the world suffer from some sort of vision-related issue that necessitates corrective lenses. I also suffer the affliction of wearing glasses and have tried lots of things over the years. Wearing glasses and participating in a sport that requires or is improved by using wearing goggles throws salt in the blurry wound. For years moto and bicycle riders have had only a few options for wearing goggles with corrective lenses. The YouZee Clip-in RX goggle inserts are a welcome addition to the two options I had grown to accept in life.

Traditionally, Option 1 has been, the cheaper, more practical route – OTG goggles or Over the Glasses Goggles. These goggles tend to be wide enough to fit over standard or smaller glasses but have several drawbacks. First, they tend to be a pain to get on. You have to slide your glasses forward on your face and kind of slip them in as you put the goggles on. Second, you get to spend the rest of your day with your glasses smashed up against your face. I have had left over red marks on my nose after a long enduro race that lasted for hours. The last problem is that your glasses are smashed to your face inside a pair of goggles and tend to fog up very easily. Another issue is the OTG’s tend to be wider and do not sit flush in helmets with smaller openings.

Option 2 is just embracing it and running a full-face helmet with glasses. This is far from ideal for a number of reasons, however. Using goggles will actually help stabilize the helmet on your head, add more protection and helps keep your eyes from watering when traveling at Mach chicken speeds.

And now, for my latest and favorite, Option 3. RX Inserts are the ideal way to solve this problem in my opinion. There are a few RX insert companies out there and between my time in the Military and time on mountain bikes I have used a few different ones. My biggest complaint is that they are expensive, costing well over 250$ for the most basic options. Beyond the cost is the issue of them not being well designed. Often the inserts would not center properly in my goggles and tended to shift, others would not work in certain goggles. For instance, the ones I got while in the Army only fit Oakley goggles, leaving no options for shopping around.

Enter YouZee from northern Sweden. Founded by Optometrist brothers Janne and Peder Larsson, YouZee bring Swedish ingenuity to RX goggle inserts that work well in many goggle brands for MTB, MX, snowmobile, paintball etc. Even better they come in at a fair price and are custom made to the customer’s prescription with a fast turnaround time from order to front door.

THE LAB
The lenses of the inserts are made from Japanese manufacturer Hoya. YouZee has over 2,000 lenses in stock and that covers 90 percent of all prescriptions which means these can be custom made and sent the same day with UPS Express.

Equally important to the function is the Octalock carrier. The Clip-In design gives the Octalock 8 points of contact that allows the carrier to fit and stay in place in any goggle. Octalock also provides a very wide field of vision compared to other inserts on the market. The Octalock arms are made from a transparent thermoplastic called TR90 that is extremely durable and allows the arms to flex, even in cold weather.

On top of all the tech YouZee also offers a money back guarantee if not satisfied.

THE DIRT
I have had my Youzee inserts since December of 2019, before that I had been using 100% OTGs with Oakley glasses and was tired of the terrible fog and the general hassle of it all. The order process was incredibly simple: figure out what my pupil spacing is, hit the upload your prescription button and made my payment. The next day I got a notice that they had been made and shipped out to the US. A few days later I had my new inserts.

The inserts only took only a few tries to master popping them into the goggles and I have yet to find any goggles that they do not work with. They snap into place with ease, even with the PNW goggle mod (cutting the upper and lower foam out to reduce fogging). I have used 100% Enduro goggles (the biggest overall size I have tried) as well as the Fox Mains and Giro Taz MTB goggles. All of them worked with zero issues.

I have noticed a few things worth mentioning that are not so much a fault of the inserts, but it is something I did not foresee. Living in the PNW, I rarely get to use tinted lenses as our trails are mostly in the shadows and dark woods. Sometimes, when facing the sunlight, the glare of the clear goggle lens coupled with the inserts can make it tough to see. Despite my deepest hopes, they still fog, I have tried about 10 different ways to combat winter PNW fogging, from letting dish soap dry on the lenses to the 14$ tiny bottle of Muc Off Anti Fog, nothing works completely but I did find a little relief. Changing to the inserts made the fogging a lot better as once you start moving, they clear up quickly unlike having my glasses and goggles on.

The Wolf’s Last Word

If you wear goggles and glasses, you know the little annoyances that accompany them when participating in certain sports. YouZee set out to eliminate a lot of those issues and I believe they have. The Youzee Octalock inserts are the next best thing to not having to need corrective lenses at all and I don’t think I’ll ever ride in a pair of goggles without them again.

Price: $159.20
Website: Youzeeshop.com