Ombraz builds sunglasses with no arms. A woven cord, braided in Japan from recycled fishing nets, runs from each side of the frame around the back of your head, and two sliders set the tension. Snug the sliders and the frame sits flat against your face. Loosen them and the glasses drop to your chest and hang there. No hinges, no screws, no temple pressure. Prescription lenses are cut by Lens & Frame Co., the exclusive Rx partner, starting at $520. I have fished the Ombraz Leggero Rx with the Brown Emerald Mirror lens for the past five weeks, all of it freshwater sight-fishing for trout, carp, and bass.
The first thing you notice is what you stop noticing. The Leggero weighs less than any other pair in my truck, including the Island Optics Crane, which held the lightweight title until this frame showed up. With the load spread across a cord instead of clamped behind your ears, nothing pinches. When I lean over to net a client’s fish, tie on a new fly, or scramble down the bank, the frame does not slide down my nose. Sweat does not change that. On a 96-degree carp flat in July, it removes one more friction point from the day.
The lens itself is impressive for a company that is not solely focused on fishing optics. The Brown Emerald Mirror is one of the sharpest polycarbonate Rx lenses I have owned, and it passes more light than the other brown and copper green mirror pairs in my rotation. That makes it useful earlier in the morning, later in the evening, and under cloud cover, the windows when most copper lenses go muddy. I have walked into the grocery store wearing them and read shelf tags without lifting the frame. That trick ends when the sun drops below the horizon. Five weeks in, the lenses have zero scratches. Most polycarbonate Rx lenses I own picked up their first mark in the first few weeks.
The included case is another upgrade from the status quo. It is light, thin, and has a lens cloth sewn into the interior, which I now use on every pair of glasses I own. Because the Leggero has no arms, the whole package lies nearly flat. It disappears into the boat’s center console and into a sling pack pocket that would fight a standard clamshell case.
Fit and coverage up front are good on my average to large face. The rectangular vintage shape looks good enough that my wife said so unprompted. Side coverage is the compromise. Under a hoodie, no issue. In a T-shirt with the sun off my shoulder instead of overhead, light sneaks in behind the lens and bounces off the back surface, and there are no arms to shade it. Ombraz sells frame-specific side shields for $45, snap-on louvered panels that block peripheral light. Mine are on order for future testing.
The cord is also the one real operating cost. With a ball cap on, taking the glasses off means reaching behind your head, finding the sliders, and loosening the cord before it clears the brim. Wearing the hat backward, the hat comes off first. There is no one-handed flip to the hat brim, and no quick-release clip, which is the single change I would ask Ombraz to make. Dropping them to hang at your chest works for short tasks like tying on a fly, and the cord means they cannot hit the water without you. On a boat, that trade-off runs in your favor. Stand in a hoodie with nowhere to set anything down and it can be a hassle. That same cord gives me pause. It is a fixed loop around your neck with no breakaway point. I would be extra careful wearing them around your neck, since they could catch a branch or an oar.
The Azzurro, the full-wrap frame Ombraz released for fishing, is not yet available in prescription. If you wear corrective lenses and want more wrap, the Leggero, and other fashion focused styles with side shields is currently the only path. My testing so far has been on trout, carp, and bass water. I have not run this lens against flats glare or harsh blue water sun, but the light transmission that makes it versatile inland should translate well to the salt.
The Leggero Rx has been a pleasant surprise from a company not yet a household name in fishing. Light frame, cord that holds through sweat and full days, and some of the crispest Rx polycarbonate optics I have tried.
