Oakley Flight Deck Ski Goggles Review

When I saw Oakley Flight Deck Ski Goggles for the first time, I was so impressed. It’s probably the goggle in the world with the biggest lens for the rimless design. As we know, snow goggles are mainly designed to protect our eyes from UV, cold, snowflakes, and ice.

In the review, we will take a closer look at this Oakley goggle with Prizm lens. Our goal is to help you know the product better and answer any questions or confusion you might have, for example, how clearly can I see with this goggle during skiing? Who is it best for? Any other good alternatives to consider? I’ll also show you what I like and dislike about this product.

Key Takeaways

For those of you who don’t have time to read the entire article, here’s a quick recap for you:

• If you are looking for an anti-fog goggle that allows you to have an exceptional wide visual experience, and spot details in the snow, Oakley Flight Deck Goggles is a great choice.
• If you are looking for smaller and cheaper ski goggles, but still with features of anti-fog, Prizm lens, and helmet fit. I recommend Oakley Line Miner and Oakley Canopy.
• For women skiers, you may also like Oakley Flight Deck Prizm XM.

Quick Info about Oakley

When it comes to sunglasses, you should have heard about this brand. Oakley ski goggles are one of the world’s top brands as well. Oakley customers are always proud to see the “O” shape on the strap. Starting as a sports eyewear provider since 1975, Oakley is a trustworthy brand and one of the leaders in this industry.

Oakley is famous for offering a series of quality snow goggles with different styles. I’m not saying that they make the best goggles on the market, but getting a pair of Oakley goggles is always on a wish list for many skiers and snowboarders.

What is Oakley Flight Deck Prizm Goggles?

If you ask me to use one word to describe the Oakley Flight Deck Prizm goggles, I’d say: brave. Oakley Flight Deck Prizm features a rimless design and a spherical lens, which enables you to have an extraordinary visual field. With Prizm lens technology, you will not miss any details on the snow. It’s designed to give you a wider view and equip you to ski confidently in the snow.

The lens of Flight Deck is anti-fog, they are also HDO (High Definition Optics). HDO gives you extreme clarity and 100% UV filtering. Plus, they have Oakley Plutonite lens material, which helps you block 100% harmful blue light and VA, UVB, UVC. It also protects you away from snow blindness. Besides, Oakley provides many different kinds of Prizm lenses and standard lenses for you to choose from, this definitely helps when you’re facing different weather conditions.

Flight Deck is very comfortable. The soft fleece face foam will perfectly fit your face, and with an adjustable strap, the big goggles will not add much pressure to your nose or face. The face foam keeps the tight seal and works well at moisture management. It’s a pair of snow goggles perfect for all-day use.

What is Prizm Lens?

One of the main reasons we buy goggles is to have a better view. Otherwise, you’ll face reduced depth perception and feel lost in the snow. Prizm is a technology developed by Oakley to solve this problem. The company has spent 15 years developing this technology and finally launched it in 2014. In the snow environment, our eyes are extremely sensitive to two colors, Cyan and Red. Prizm can enhance and accentuate one color and filter the other “noisy” color. Simply put, this technology allows good light to go through and takes away the bad light to restore every detail on the snow.

The better you see, the fast you can react. The exceptional Prizm lens can help you quickly spot the bumps, every little ripple you need to pay attention to.

Prizm brings out the contrast when there seems like there isn’t contrast.

Oakley Flight Deck Prizm: Detailed Review

Anti-Fog

Clear vision is very important for skiing, and the anti-fog feature can help increase visual clarity. Fog is one deciding factor for you to choose which goggles you will have. One of the consequences of goggles fogging up during skiing or snowboarding is that you can’t see anything clear. No matter how cool your goggles look and how awesome you look with them, fogging up will put you in danger, seriously. There are many reasons that can cause fogging. Is the lens on your goggles anti-fog? Do the goggles fit your face and helmet well? What’s the temperature and humidity in your ski area? All these matters. The lesson? Choose a pair of snow goggles that have better anti-fog capability.

Oakley Flight Deck Prizm is one of the best anti-fog snow goggles on the market. The inside of the lens is equipped with an F3 anti-fog coating, the anti-fog technology developed by Oakley. Also, with the rimless design, the goggles have a good ventilation system with a double layers lens to enable you to see more clearly. Just a quick note that it’s better not to use clothes with sprays to clean the inside of the lens because of the coating, in case of any unexpected damage.

Fit & Comfort

The helmet is a gear that you must wear during skiing, and the compatibility between your helmet and goggles is important. We also mentioned above that the better it fits, the more comfortable it is, the better it would help anti-fog.

Fortunately, Oakley Flight Deck goggles fit most helmets (with or without brim) in the market. However, it’s always a good practice that you try them on before you buy. Also, it comes with flexible outriggers at the strap, to conform perfectly to your face with or without a helmet. The silicone-backed strap is also a highlight, it keeps your goggles not slip even on slippery helmet surfaces.

Since Oakley Flight Deck is big in size and it’s OTG (Over The Glasses), there is triple-layer foam under the lens, from the hard base layer to the soft top layer. The top layer which touches your face is a very soft fleece foam, It can fit your face perfectly, even when you wear glasses. This provides all-day comfort and ensures a tight seal and good moisture management.

Style & Size

With the popularity of smartphones, people are excited about the frameless phone. If you are seeking cool frameless goggles, Oakley Flight Deck is one of the best options. If you have a chance to compare the frameless phone and the traditional one, you’ll notice how brave and amazing the frameless looks!

Flight Deck Snow Goggles are the largest goggles I have ever seen. I wore Oakley Airbrake, it feels big already but the size of Flight Deck is even bigger. Even though they look big, the good news is they both fit women skiers.

There are two sizes for the Flight Deck series. One is Flight Deck, the other is Flight Deck XM. I recommend Flight Deck to those who have a bigger face, and Flight Deck XM to women or those with a smaller face. Fortunately, they both have an Asian fit. If you are an Asian girl like me, I highly suggest considering Oakley Flight Deck XM Asian Fit. If you have the bigger size need, then go for Oakley Flight Deck Asian Fit.

Field of View

When it comes to the field of view, it’s where snow goggles shine. I would say you can get the wildest visual experience by using Oakley Flight Deck Prizm among all Oakley snow goggles. With the rimless design and Spherical lens, you’ll have an unrivaled peripheral field of view. No matter whether you look up or down, left or right, you will have a wider vision than you thought before putting on the goggles. It definitely upgrades your experience of skiing or snowboarding.

Oakley Flight Deck Prizm Lens Guide

As the light changes from day to night, from sunny to cloudy, wearing a goggle with the right lens is very important as it’ll help make your skiing more brave and more confident. Oakley Flight Deck Prizm comes with one lens only, thus it won’t meet the needs of most people in all-day skiing. The good thing is Oakley offers many different kinds of replacement lenses.

We will go through all Prizm lenses with their VLT (Visible Light Transmission, the percentage of light allowed to pass through a lens) to help you pick the right one.

When the weather is Sunny with bright light, it’s better to consider:

• Prizm Black Iridium (VLT: 5 – 10% )

When the weather is Partly Cloudy to sunny with medium to bright light, it’s better to consider:

• Prizm Torch Iridium (VLT: 11 – 20%)
• Prizm Jade Iridium (VLT: 11 – 20%)
• Prizm Sapphire Iridium (VLT: 11 – 20%)

Note: These VLT of 3 colors are the same, just choose the color you think is the coolest.

When it’s Whiteout or Overcast with flat to medium light, it’s better to consider:

• Prizm Rose (VLT: 21+%)

When it’s Whiteout, Snow, or Overcast with low to medium light, it’s better to consider:

• Prizm Hi Pink (VLT: around 30%)

Note: Prizm Rose is similar to High Pink, Rose is without Iridium coating. For lower light, choose Hi Pink.

If you want to try non-Prizm lens, you can check the guide for Oakley goggle lens color from EVO.

What I like about Oakley Flight Deck

I hear lots of people say they are using Oakley Flight Deck and are reluctant to switch to other brands. There should be a reason for that. Flight Deck is truly an outstanding snow goggle compared to other goggles within the same price range. With all these being said, here are a few features I really like.

• The rimless design hooks my heart. It looks really amazing.
• Incredible field of vision, the Prizm lens helps me have exceptional visual experience in the snow.
• OTG fit. It allows me to have another choice if I don’t want to wear a contact lens.

What I dislike about Oakley Flight Deck

Flight Deck is awesome, but in my opinion, Oakley still has some room to improve its user experience.

• The goggles come with only one lens. As light changes during the day with different weather, one lens is not enough for the whole day. Most people will need a replacement lens which means extra cost.
• Changing lens is not so convenient. I like Airbrake more on this as it has a switch lock. Also, with Flight Deck, it’s easy to leave your fingerprint on the surface of the lens…not cool. It’s better to have a better design of lens changing to prevent fingerprint pollution.

Conclusion

Snow goggle is must-have gear to protect our eyes while skiing. Also, it makes us look cooler and feel more confident in a ski resort. There are tons of goggles on the market provided by different brands. Oakley Flight Deck Prizm is one of the outstanding options. Prizm lens and rimless design are worth the price.

If this one is not for you, two amazing alternatives are Oakley Line Miner Snow Goggles and Oakley Canopy Snow Goggles. For women skiers, you may also like Oakley Flight Deck Prizm XM.