I’ve been excited about the prospect of augmented reality on ski goggles since Oakley first tried it with its short-lived Airwave helmet more than a decade ago. Unfortunately, his foray into AR left a lot to be desired: The Airwave was comically large and required a controller worn on the wrist. In addition, at about 600, they were prohibitively expensive for an experimental product.

But the Display Technology has evolved a lot since then. And I was patiently waiting for another company to bring a superior version that actually works. So I was delighted to discover Rekkie, an independent manufacturer that launched its first glasses with integrated head-up display last year.

At 349, Rekkie’s offer is still expensive, but much closer to what you would pay for high-quality, non-smart ski goggles. More importantly, after a few days of snowboarding with Rekkie’s glasses, I realized that AR was advanced enough for such helmets to finally feel useful.

Safety glasses

At first glance, the Rekkies almost look like Standard ski goggles. The most noticeable difference, however, is a box on the right side of the strap, which contains the power adapter, as well as the Bluetooth and long-distance radios. On the outside of the pack, there is a catch to navigate the user interface of the glasses.

Measuring about 4 inches long and an inch thick, the Pack is extremely bulky and one of the few disadvantages of using the glasses. Weighing 253 grams, the Rekkies are more than twice as heavy as my usual pair, but didn’t seem like much to me when I was wearing a helmet. And if your helmet is black, it can even (somehow) blend in. However, if your headgear is white or light in color, it will stick out. Practically, it doesn’t matter much, but it looks a little silly. This also means that you cannot wear the glasses under your helmet if you prefer. However, none of these were a decisive factor for me, and I found that I could easily hide the battery with a mask on the helmet.

But the aesthetic disadvantages are far outweighed by what Rekkie glasses can do. Their feature is a dashboard that displays your current altitude, speed and a compass. If you are skiing with friends who also have a few, you can see how far away you are and use the accompanying app to see your position on the set upain. The glasses can also control the music and display your notifications and daily statistics.

The actual screen is a small panel of about 1 inch located in the center of the frames, near the bridge of the nose. This configuration means that you can replace the lenses for different lighting conditions (a silver set is included and the company sells additional colors). However, Rekkie’s lenses are slightly different from those of other eyewear companies. The upper third of each lens is covered with a reflective coating on the inside to make the screen more visible.

This means that when you look towards the screen, the lenses are darker than when you look straight ahead. The difference didn’t bother me, but some people might find it disturbing. Rekkie said he is considering adjustments that will make the effect more subtle.