Opinions on sunglasses Maui Jim vs Costa

Corton93

Corton93

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Mar 17, 2020
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Just looking for opinions on which yall prefer.

After losing many pairs of Oakley's when I was younger, I swore off buying expensive shades. Now that I'm older and a little more responsible with my stuff, I've decided to get me some nice shades once again after 10 years of wearing $10 glasses from Lowe's.

Specifically looking at glass lenses (not poly), and opinions on overall build quality, clarity, and durability. Not necessarily concerned with the clarity on the water, as I rarely have time to do any fishing nowadays. Just gonna be driving and around the town shades.

What's yall's experience and opinion?
 
I've had several pairs of costas. My dad has two pairs of Maui Jim's.

Both are very nice. Both pretty clear. Maui Jim's glass are a tiny bit clearer sharper than Costas poly lenses. My Costa glass lenses are the clearest of all.

Im a part time professional fushing guide. From a pure fishing standpoint, being able to see into the water, see fish etc....my dad and I both agree Costas win hands down.

Costas are well made and hold up well. I had an older pair that started to degrade in the bows/frames. Their warranty service was fantastic and prompt. Got a no questions asked complete replacement.
 
I buy and sell eyeglasses for a living. I currently sell Maui Jim in our office and sold Costa years ago. At one point, they were both great companies with very good products. Maui has always had an edge lens wise in most materials. Costa had the edge in it's glass lens offerings.

With that said, I would avoid Costa at all costs. They were purchased about 3 years ago by a HUGE company, Luxottica. Like most big companies when purchasing up brands, quality has all but disappeared. They slashed jobs (200+?), shut down the main operations center, and folded the brand into their huge portfolio.

I have heard nothing but horror stories about quality, turn times, warranty issues, etc.
 
Check out Zeal optics, they make some great glasses and are a subsidiary of Maui Jim if I'm not mistaken.
 
Been in the optical business for 30 years, Maui Jim hands down. Better materials, quality and company all around. If I didn’t have a complex RX, I would be in Maui’s. MJ is owned by the parent company of Gucci and other luxury brands Kering. Costa is just another LUX brand. Google EssilorLuxottica.
 
I can't speak for Costa Del Mar, but I own a number of Maui Jims. All with glass lenses and metal frames. Some are titanium, some are monel, a nickel alloy commonly used in eyewear. I can't speak for MJ's plastic frames, but I can't imagine they're anything but high quality. I'd personally avoid frameless, which is moot since you want glass, since the durability is always an issue where the lenses are held to the frames by screws.

As mentioned, Costa is owned by Luxottica, which sucks. I haven't had to contact MJ for serious warranty/repair, but I've used their online form a couple times to request replacement nose pieces (which they give for free), and I received them each time extremely quickly. Like they were sent the day of or the after submitting the form. The fact they do this so quickly for something they provide for free gives me confidence in the brand if I have a real issue, like a broken frame or replacement lenses. If you search for feedback stories about MJ you'll read lots of similar praise.

My one "complaint" with Maui Jim is that they don't offer a proper grey green/G15 tint. They have their "Maui HT" (high transmission), which has a green tint, but it doesn't block as much light as their other lenses. The only grey they offer is a neutral grey, which may or may not be your thing, and it's a very dark tint, I think 10% or at most 12% light transmission (the typical is 15%, ie: "G15"), which might be a bit too dark if you live in a typically cloudy area, or you go from outside to inside a lot. Being dark and neutral, it's also very dull with essentially no contrast enhancement.

If you're familiar at all with Serengeti's "driver lens" rose-ish tint, you might expect Maui Jim's rose tint to be similar, but it's really not. Serengeti is well known for high contrast enhancement, especially with their "driver lens", but I also find that their grey green is the best out there (that I've tried) for contrast enhancement as well. MJ's rose however is a very strong rose tint, and I'm not particularly fond of it, nor do I find the contrast enhancement that good - it has some, just not a lot, and the strength of the rose tint I find distracting and ugly.

Their HCL Bronze is, IMO (and their opinion as well), their best every day use tint. The bronze tint isn't too strong, and is absolutely nothing like the tan or brown you see in lots of brands. The contrast enhancement is amazing, maybe on-par with Serengeti. The colors of nature look beautiful through these lenses, like bright flowers against green, and especially those summer sunsets. If I'm not wearing Serengeti, I'm wearing MJ's HCL Bronze.

Speaking of Serengeti, I definitely recommend checking them out as well. If you're not a fan of colored tints, like their "drivers" or MJ's HCL Bronze, their GG is a very good choice. The green isn't so strong as to alter the colors of the world around you, but it lets in a lot of green and provides great contrast enhancement, making the world look brightly colored rather than dully muted like a neutral grey or some other brands GG do. All their lenses adjust to brightness, which they're famous for, but don't expect an instant transition like "Transition" eyeglasses - it's a lot more subtle. Serengeti is owned by Bolle, which has nothing to do with Luxottica.

Finally, I don't know if the $10 Lowes sunglasses you've been buying are polarized or not, or if you have experience with them, but there are definite plusses and minuses to polarized lenses in "every day" use. The advantages for wearing polarized lenses around water are well known, and they also help with road glare which you might not even be aware of until you compare unpolarized sunglasses or your normal vision with polarized ones. Especially if the road is wet with rain, but even dry roads can have a glare that polarized lenses eliminate. The biggest disadvantage for every day use is with electronics like your phone, the console screen in your car (if you have one), and other LCD screens, like the self-checkout at stores. They can also do weird things with clear plastics, including your car's tinted windows (ie: you'll see a lot of rainbow colored distortion). Maui Jim and Costa Del Mar only produce polarized sunglasses (as far as I know), but Serengeti makes both non and polarized sunglasses.
 
I'll add that another good thing about Maui Jim is that, depending on style, their temples aren't all the same length. If you look at many brands, such as Ray-ban, pretty much all of their sunglasses have 145mm temples. That's too long for me. All of my Maui Jims and Serengetis are older, discontinued styles, and all have 135mm temple length which fit me perfectly.

It really behooves you to try them on in a store rather than simply ordering online because you like the way they look. Base curve is also important, referring to the degree of curve of the lenses. 6 base curve is perhaps the most typical, with 8 base curve being more dramatic, like you'd see with sporty, wrap-around glasses. 4 base is flatter, like you might get with round "Lennon" styles. A more dramatic curve will necessitate a shorter temple length. If it looks like Maui Jim has a lot of different models that look very similar, it's because they're of different sizes. Not just the lens size, but temple length as well. Definitely more of a "something for everybody" brand compared to the brands now owned by Luxottica.

Again, try them on and only buy if they're very comfortable. If they don't feel quite perfectly comfortable, they'll likely feel very uncomfortable after extended periods. If your cheapo Lowes sunglasses are comfortable, figure out what temple length they are (I wouldn't be surprised if it's not marked), or at least bring them to compare with others you're looking at when you're at the store.
 
Well thanks for all the replies. I was already leaning more towards MJ to begin with, definitely more so now.

Wife just said she needs to go to the mall later anyways, so I'll probably check some out while I'm there and try to get an idea of what lens tint I'm gonna go with..
 
,Maui-Jim’s: Plastic , heavily curved , wide arm at eye to prevent side-light entry, plastic progressive lenses, in black. Had them for years . Light ,comfortable, cool looking, but cost me $700 due to progressive lenses.
 
Maui Jims are awesome fishing glasses Great customer service as well. My Cane Corso as a pup decided to chew on a pair. I sent them in and the sent me a ‘hybrid’ as the model was no longer made, but the pieced it back as close as possible.

On recommendation of a flyfishing guide I tried Native polarized and they are nice for great price.

I also like Oakleys.

People scoff at prices of good glasses, but seeing fish others are missing, not getting eye fatigue, and a good fit is worth it.
 
Very happy my Costa's are few decades old...😉....Top shelf glasses back then.......
 
I wear Maui Jim. Had a pair of amber Costa's stolen - like them both. Glass only. Was recently gifted a pair of Goodr sunglasses - surprisingly good and scratch resistant. They fit too, which with my pumpkin sized head is often an issue.
 
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