For decades, skiing and snowboarding relied on a simple rule: different conditions require different lenses. Brands answered (and most keep answering) with 12 to 15 lens options, complex VLT charts, and frames designed for constant swapping. The brave (with pocket loaded jackets) carried lens cases on the hill and most accepted this as normal.
It made sense in the past because lens technology was limited. Today the mountain changed, weather changed, riding changed, and the science changed. What did not change was the outdated belief that VLT determines how well you see on snow.
SHRED., in collaboration with the MIT Sports Lab, uncovered a fundamental truth: VLT does not reflect the way the human eye perceives light, contrast, depth, or terrain. VLT is a laboratory measurement, not a performance measurement.
This article explains why the VLT era is over, why photochromic and electrochromic lenses fail on snow, and how Contrast Boosting Lens™ 2.0 ICE delivers a true all-conditions solution so effective that one lens finally replaces them all.
VLT Was Built for Machines, Not Humans
VLT%, or Visible Light Transmission percentage, measures how much visible light passes through a lens. It is measured in a controlled laboratory environment by a sensor that only reads brightness.
The problem is simple. Machines read brightness. Humans perceive contrast.
Your brain does not operate on twenty versus forty percent light transmission. It interprets edges in the snow, subtle shadows, depth cues, texture, changes in reflectivity, incoming glare, and movement in your peripheral vision. VLT cannot measure any of this, nor can it capture the optical noise in such an extreme lighting environment as snow.
With Contrast Boosting Lens™ 2.0 ICE the gap becomes even wider. The lens is built from a proprietary contrast-enhancing dye and a specialized polarizing filter that is tuned specifically for snow. These elements change how your eye and brain perceive the scene in front of you, not just how much light passes through.
VLT percent is a measurement performed by a machine that does not reflect the human eye’s perceived brightness when looking through SHRED. Contrast Boosting Lens™ 2.0 lenses. This happens because the polarization filter reduces the value measured by the machine. The sensor is not able to detect glare and noise cutting performance, nor the contrast and definition boosting performance.
As a result a machine can assign a low VLT score even when your eye perceives the lens as bright, clear, and high contrast. This is why traditional VLT charts are now misleading more than they are helpful.
Why We Used to Need 12 to 15 Lenses
Before modern optical engineering, each lens solved only one narrow problem. Every tint was highly specific, and the mountain never stayed the same.
Conditions change throughout the day. Storms build. Clouds move. Shadows shift. The sun angle rotates. Snow texture changes. Tree runs alternate with open slopes. With old lens technology you almost always had the wrong lens at the wrong time.
The old system was based on limitations. It created complexity and forced riders to choose between performance and convenience. In that context, more lenses made sense. With the right technology, they no longer do.
The Scientific Shift: SHRED. and MIT Sports Lab
SHRED. partnered with the MIT Sports Lab to answer a critical question: what does the human eye truly need to see better on snow?
The answer was not more light or less light. It was more contrast.
Research confirmed that the human visual system relies on fine contrast differences to interpret snow texture. Terrain reading depends on definition, shadow perception, and noise removal. When glare floods the eye, contrast disappears. When light scatters in flat light, shadows disappear completely. The brain loses depth cues. Performance drops. Fun disappears.
The Revolution: Contrast Boosting Lens™ 2.0 ICE
Contrast Boosting Lens™ 2.0 ICE is built from the ground up on the real science of perception. It is a performance-enhancing lens developed with MIT to defeat flat light.
Its formulation is based on SHRED. proprietary lens dye combined with a special polarizing filter. Together they boost vision, contrast, and definition in low light and cut glare when it is sunny.
Instead of chasing VLT numbers, CBL™ 2.0 ICE focuses on what your brain needs: clean, high-contrast information about the snow surface.
As Brigid Mander wrote in The Wall Street Journal, it “functions like noise-cancelling headphones for your eyes”. It removes visual noise so the terrain appears sharper and more readable.
The One Lens to Conquer All Winter Conditions
Contrast Boosting Lens™ 2.0 ICE is engineered to expand its usable range so that one lens covers all winter daytime conditions.
Flat light, storm snow, mixed weather, cloudy days, partly cloudy, full sun, bright spring skiing, and transitions between forest and open slopes — it is designed to handle them all.
No more lens swapping. No more guessing. No more breaking your flow.
Why Photochromic Lenses Do Not Work on Snow
Photochromic lenses react to UV light. Snow reflects enormous UV even on cloudy days. This means the lens darkens because of snow glare — not because visibility is too bright.
Result: the lens becomes too dark exactly when you need more contrast.
They also react too slowly. Terrain changes in milliseconds. Photochromics react in seconds. Your vision is always behind the mountain.
Why Electrochromic Lenses Are Not the Answer
Electrochromic lenses change tint based on sensor readings. But the result depends on head angle, sun angle, and transitions in and out of trees.
The lens can brighten or darken unpredictably — the opposite of the stable visual field that skiing requires.
Instead of building trust, electrochromics introduce doubt.
Why Contrast Boosting Lens™ 2.0 ICE Eliminates Multiple Lenses
Contrast, definition, glare control, and noise cancellation across all winter daytime conditions — this is the design brief.
Instead of swapping between twelve or more lenses, you rely on one formulation that expands the performance window as far as possible.
This is not a compromise. It is a performance evolution that makes the old mult-lens model obsolete.
Athletes and Engineers Who Trust What They See
Ted Ligety summarizes it simply: “Confidence comes from trusting your vision. Contrast Boosting Lens 2.0 ICE gives you the consistency you need to ski your best every day.”
World Cup racers and freeskiers report the same effect. One lens. Any light. Always know what the snow is doing.
For the SHRED. engineering team and the MIT Sports Lab, this is the mission: converting complex optical science into clear, predictable vision on snow.
The End of the VLT Era
VLT once defined the lens world. Today it is no longer enough. It was built for machines, not for human eyes — and not for snow.
Photochromic and electrochromic systems cannot solve the core problem: contrast.
Contrast Boosting Lens™ 2.0 ICE defeats flat light and shields glare with one lens for all winter daytime conditions. It behaves like noise-cancelling headphones for your eyes.
The future belongs to one lens that finally does it all.
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