Al Buczkowski: Welcome everybody to Radio Free Tenacity, The Voice of Worker Safety. Here today with Tim Gallant, a key member of the Ergodyne Innovation Team. Tim, thank you for joining us today.
Tim Gallant: Happy to be here.
Al Buczkowski: I understand we have some exciting new developments in the world of eyewear. First and foremost, Fog-Off+, tell me about that.
Tim Gallant: Oh yeah, so Fog-Off+ is new to our line, we're just rolling it out this Spring. We've had anti-fog technology in our line since its inception we call it Fog-Off. With Fog-Off+, we're making a couple of really important improvements above and beyond what we did with Fog-Off, which is already a pretty stellar technology. Fog-Off+ improves the anti-fog performance by about 30%.
Al Buczkowski: Hence the plus.
Tim Gallant: That's the plus part of it, but actually, there's more. There's double plus in this case. Yeah.
Al Buczkowski: Please finish!
Tim Gallant: The second plus is scratch resistance, which is incredibly important because, you know, everybody thinks about fog right away when they're talking about safety glasses. But, you know, the close follower that isn't talked about is just durability of safety eyewear and scratching is a very real thing.
Tim Gallant: And we're trying to avoid that with these.
Al Buczkowski: So we have enhanced anti-fog + scratch resistance. Awesome. Right on. So with everything we do in the Tenacious Work Gear line, obviously it's being created with end user feedback, with end user testing before it even hits the market. And I know this was really front of mind when we were developing the newest additions to the Skullerz® eyewear line.
Al Buczkowski: We'll kind of get into some of the models here in a little bit, but I know one of the guiding lights of the development of these solutions was, you know, how are workers really treating eyewear on the worksite, right? What's the reality? And tell me a little bit about that process and how you folded that mentality into ultimately the creation of these solutions that we're talking about today.
Tim Gallant: Yeah. So we touched on the anti-scratch there and, you know, there's a lot of talk in safety glasses about lens technology. Everybody has some variation of it. We're hanging our hats on Fog-Off and Fog-Off+ here. But there are also actual design considerations in the frames themselves that can make a difference because this is something nobody really talks about.
Tim Gallant: But if you talk to users and look at model reviews. When people talk about like scratching on lenses frequently, like unexpectedly, a lot of the scratching happens on the back side of the lens from the glasses being in storage and the temples actually rubbing on the inside of the lenses.
Al Buczkowski: I would not think that.
Tim Gallant: So if you look at all of the models that we have here, they’re actually, it's not possible for the temples to be rubbing against the back of the lenses. So you know how it goes. People take off their safety glasses, they throw them in their hard hat, they throw them in the back of the truck and they drive to the next job site. Right?
Al Buczkowski: For sure.
Tim Gallant: That whole time, those things are just jiggling around in there. And that leads to the unfortunate consequence of scratches on the interior of your lens. So that's something to look for.
Al Buczkowski: Right on. These are the things you guys are thinking about all the time. That's a small little detail that, you know, kind of makes a big difference. As you pointed out, that's interesting. So when you're talking to workers and I'm talking to you here in the office about eyewear, you know, generally three considerations kind of bubble up to the top.
Al Buczkowski: That being is general performance, which, you know, we were just talking about exactly that with Fog-Off+. Scratch resistance. But there's also the fit factor, right? In addition to style. Let's touch on fit for a minute, let's linger on that. And with you've got quite a slew of new eyewear solutions here. Tell me a little bit about you know, what sort of fit considerations are going into these new solutions.
Tim Gallant: Yeah, so I'll start with one of the more obvious things first. So DELLENGER is one of the new models that we released just last Fall, and it's our first model that has adjustable angle temples on it. Adjustable angled temples, the too long didn’t read sort of answer about these is, that you know they help you fit better to your face.
Tim Gallant: But there's also an important note about anti-fog technology so Fog-Off+ we've been talking about, that's a lens treatment that avoids condensation buildup on the lenses, right? But another thing that can help avoid condensation build up on the lenses is actually having some space between your brow and the frame of your glasses, which with something like this where you can sort of tip the lenses forward and create that space makes a big difference.
Al Buczkowski: Okay. Again, another seemingly small detail that could make a huge difference. And so again, that is the DELLENGER with the adjustable temples?
Tim Gallant: Yep. And you know we accomplished something similar in a little different way with some of our other models here, the AEGIR and this is the OSMIN which is another OTG pair of glasses. If you wear spectacles, you know, it can be hard to find a good pair of glasses to slide over the top. With these new models, we have what we call our bend-to-fit temples here as well, which you can bend any way you so choose to make them fit you, either to make them grip more tightly to your head or again, to adjust that angle of the lenses themselves.
Al Buczkowski: Okay.
Al Buczkowski: All right. And for those not privy OTG.
Tim Gallant: Over-the-glasses.
Al Buczkowski: Okay, right on. And then so we've got kind of your traditional, quote unquote, safety glasses in the DELLENGER with the adjustable temples. We've got the OTG, OSMIN. It looks like we have some goggle options here too.
Tim Gallant: Right. So we just released two different goggle options. These are our first offerings in true, fully functional goggles rather than convertible spectacles. We have the ARKYN over here, which is a nice low profile pair of safety goggles for those who don't wear spectacles. Nice soft gasket, easily removable replaceable lens. And then we have the MODI, which we're super proud of.
Tim Gallant: This is, you know, just about the most comfortable pair of goggles on the market due to the depth of the nice soft gasket on the rear of it. And they'll fit over, you know, even some fairly large prescription frames as well. So we've had really positive feedback about these as well.
Al Buczkowski: So specifically fit considerations for, we’ll linger on MODI here the goggles, so super soft gasket kind of where it's creating that contact point with the face. What other fit considerations or comfort considerations are built into MODI?
Tim Gallant: Into MODI, really, you know, with most goggles, you have an adjustable strap. We do offer a strap in two different materials, depending on the application. A neoprene for, I'll say, a grimier environment and make it easier to clean or a standard elastic which is adjustable. Really outside of the gasket here, and some of the features that we've designed into the gasket, that's where you find your fit.
Tim Gallant: You know, I mentioned the depth of it and the softness of it. And really those two things work together to adapt to different face shapes. And we have some strategically placed reliefs or cutouts in the interior of the gasket as well to fit around your temples and to reduce the pressure on your nose bridge as well.
Al Buczkowski: Got it. And so let's track back a little bit to the performance consideration with the MODI. I noticed a difference between the ARKYN goggles and the MODI goggles. What do we have going on the top of MODI?
Tim Gallant: Sure. So MODI is actually a vented goggle as opposed to ARKYN which is unvented. An unvented goggle works better in really like fine particle dust environments. It keeps the fine dust out of your eyes, whereas a vented goggle like MODI, it still protects you from liquid droplets, chemical splash, that type of thing, and large particles, obviously.
Tim Gallant: But the real benefit of having vents in the frame of a goggle is they do allow for airflow. And that frankly, makes your eyes feel a little bit better when you're wearing them for a long period of time. But it also improves the anti-fog performance because anything you can do to keep air moving through the interior of a goggle like this, that's just removing the moisture that you're radiating from your face.
Al Buczkowski: Got it. No that all makes perfect sense. So, you know, we've kind of touched on performance. We've touched on fit. Style is always going to be an important consideration, right? If it doesn't look good, I’m probably less apt to wear it. And I think the king style right now in the line is this bad boy that you're picking up right now.
Al Buczkowski: What do we got here?
Tim Gallant: This is the AEGIR. The AEGIR, as you can see, is a really stylish pair of safety glasses. This is a multicolor mirror lens option. We do offer these in a standard clear, indoor/outdoor and smoke. But if you want to win the style game, you do the multicolor mirror and we've got some great colors as well. These are obviously a riff on, say, Oakley Blades in the 1980s,
Tim Gallant: and that kind of classic style that's going to come back into vogue in the last few years. But, you know, when we develop these, we really move beyond style and build some important functionality and comfort into these things as well.
Al Buczkowski: Yeah, tell me a little bit about that.
Tim Gallant: So as I touched on with the OSMIN, these also have the nice bend-to-fit temples that you know, you just bend them to where you need them to be. They'll stay in place and improve your comfort and retention on your head. The other thing that we've done is we spent a lot of time on the soft rubber nose bridge for this as well, which has made them you know, we've had a number of people try these things on and just say these are great.
Tim Gallant: I mean, I've not had a pair of safety glasses fit me like this before, which is fantastic. Obviously, with the big blade style lens, you have a lot of coverage area and a really wide field of vision. No frame along the bottom means nothing in your field of view. And lastly, this is a little thing, but I was just touching on this with MODI here.
Tim Gallant: We also have some venting built into the brow as well. So that again, allows air to flow behind the lens and out above your brow.
Al Buczkowski: Yeah. And I got to say, I've told you this before, but I've worn the AEGIR out on the snowboarding hill. I've gotten plenty of compliments. And I will say I'm not a big goggles guy, ski goggles guy, because they generally do fog up for me. I've had zero issue with AEGIR fogging up on me in a pretty high intensity situation.
Al Buczkowski: But you know, furthermore, like you were talking about, if you want a little style, you want a little flash, you can get the multi-colored mirror. But when you transition over to just a standard lens, it kind of transitions from, you know, kind of style play to like just a really great pair of safety glasses. Like you were talking, you get the coverage, you get the fit and comfort.
Al Buczkowski: So really well done on this entire new lineup of eyewear solutions. If anyone listening or watching is interested in learning more, head over to Ergodyne.com and search eyewear. Tim, I can't thank you enough for joining us. Really great work on all the new additions and hope to see these out on worksites everywhere.
Al Buczkowski: Stay safe out there people.