About Shade & Temple
An independent sunglasses guide that compares lenses on the specs that matter — and tells you plainly when a pair doesn't hold up.
Why this site exists
Sunglasses are sold on logos and lifestyle photos, while the specs that actually decide what you see — whether a lens is polarized, what its tint does to contrast, whether it blocks 100% of UV — get buried or left off entirely. Half the “we tested 30 pairs” roundups online didn’t test anything you could verify. Shade & Templeexists to do the honest version of that job: read what the lens actually is, compare it against the published specs and the eye-health standards, and say which pairs earn their place — and which to skip.
Our whole editorial stance fits in one sentence: we tell you what we know, how we know it, and where we don’t.When a brand won’t state a lens’s polarization or UV rating, we print “Not published” rather than guessing. When a $25 pair does the same job as a $250 one, we say so, even though the expensive one would pay us more. And we have never invented a review, a rating, or a before-and-after — there are none anywhere on this site.
Who writes it
Shade & Temple is written by Stephen V.. Stephen is an enthusiast who is genuinely into eyewear and lens tech. He is not an optometrist, and Shade & Temple has no lab — so instead of claiming to have field-tested twenty pairs, he reads the manufacturer spec sheets, compares the numbers that decide a lens (UV rating, polarization, VLT, frame weight and coverage), checks them against the published standards, and does the math. When a brand won't publish a figure, the page says so rather than guessing.
That is a deliberate limit, and we’d rather be straight about it than borrow authority we haven’t earned. We are not an optical practice and we run no test lab, so we don’t claim clinical results or hands-on field testing. The one number we’re proud of is zero pairs we claim to have field-tested. What we do instead is spelled out in full on our how we choosepage: spec-by-spec comparison, every eye-health claim cited to a published authority, and honest verdicts that commission can’t buy.
How we’re funded
The site is free to read because some product links are affiliate links: if you buy through one, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. It never changes which pair we recommend. The full details — and how to spot the links — are on our affiliate disclosure page.
A standing offer
If you spot a factual error — a spec, a polarization claim, a figure that doesn’t match the source — tell us. We check it against the listing, and if you’re right we fix it and say that we did. That’s the deal: get in touch and hold us to it.