Ekoi Perso Evo 9 glasses

Ekoi's Perso Evo 9 sunglasses are comfortable, highly customisable and offer very good optics. They're not the most secure on my face, but they are very good value for money, especially given the customisation options.

• Pros: Great customisation options, very good optics
• Cons: Not the most secure

Sunglasses provide two main purposes: they protect your eyes from debris/insects and they shield your eyes from the sun. After that, they can add some style to your outfit and relieve you of quite a chunk of money, especially if you want a custom combination of colours. The market has been dominated by Oakley for quite a few years, but with the Perso Evo 9, Ekoi has a properly good contender with some great features.

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The Perso Evo line also includes the 5 and 6, but the 9 is the priciest option and it's no surprise that this is the one the Ekoi-sponsored riders have opted for. The sunglasses come in six parts which can be customised on Ekoi's website. This gives you a huge eight changeable options, each with different colours to choose from. This means you can create custom sunglasses for your club kit, or something truly horrendous!

Ekoi sent us the Deceuninck–Quick-Step themed sunglasses with white and blue frames and a Zeiss Cat 3 blue mirrored lens. They're a smart looking pair of sunnies that, at around £85 (£110 for the photochromic lens), come in quite a bit cheaper than an equivalent pair of Oakleys. If you add the optional lens holder for prescription lenses, this bumps up to around £90. They're delivered in a posh box that'll be handy for travelling.

The biggest appeal of these sunglasses over others is that level of customisation. If you want to customise Oakley Jawbreakers, for example, you'll be spending over £200, a huge difference. I have a pair of Jawbreakers and I love them, so how do they compare?

In their full-frame setup, the Perso Evo 9 are very similar with great coverage and the frames only just visible in my peripheral vision. The beauty of this design, though, is the ability to remove both the upper and lower parts of the frame should you find that one or both is touching your face or compromising your vision. The pieces are relatively easy to snap on and off, though it's not the slickest removal system and you'll definitely need to clean the lens afterwards.

I set mine up with the lower part of the frame removed, and on my test rides I've forgotten that I'm wearing them. The Zeiss lens provides a very nice tint for road riding in overcast to sunny conditions, and it coped well when the sun quickly appeared from behind the clouds.

To help prevent the lens from fogging up, there are plenty of vents and they seem to do a good job. We've not had properly warm weather yet this year, but when the sun has provided some heat, the lens has remained clear, despite my best efforts to cause fogging when giving it the beans up some hills. If you drip sweat onto them, they'll clear pretty well but they're no better than any other sunglasses I've used.

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For me, one issue that I've had with these has been security on the face. These are about the same as my Jawbreakers in that they'll slip forward if I dip my head and they're not at all secure in my Lazer Z1 helmet vents. Compared with the security of my Oakley Radar EVs, which hug the sides of my head much better and won't budge from helmet vents, the Perso Evo 9s come up short.

My Radar EVs also have comfier nose pads. They're slightly fatter and a bit softer, though the pads on the Perso Evo 9 are adjustable, making them better if you've got a slightly wonky nose.

Those are the only two negatives I've got for what are otherwise very good sunglasses. Lens quality is great, and the number of customisation options available means these offer very good value for money. The nose-piece could be slightly more comfortable and the security on the face could be better, but for the money these are great.

Verdict

Loads of customisation options with great lenses – the price is pretty good too