First of all let me preface this by saying that if this post violates the "diagnosing specific problems" clause, I apologize and won't press the topic. Nonetheless some of this information will likely be useful to quite a few folks so here we go.


Surely most of you are aware of the severe restrictions on high Rx's for prescription sunglass frames + lenses. If you're above a -5 you can pretty much kiss base-8 wrap-arounds goodbye, and if you're above a -6.25 or -6.5, you're essentially out of options. I recently came across this issue when contacting a Maui Jim rep to find out what upper limits their lab supported for their Rx line of frames. It turns out that -6.25 is their *absolute* cutoff for any and all frames.

Now this unfortunate situation will clearly irritate many consumers who are looking for high-end sunglass solutions in high Rx's, but really what other options are there? At best it seems like most retail stores will try to sell you a very small base-6 frame and hope that the Rx will somehow work, but does this mean that those who want a wider area of ocular protection or - dare I say it - a fashionable set of shades are pretty much out of luck if their vision hits a certain cutoff number? Or do we just have to wait until the next innovation allows manufacturers the ability to craft wider solutions for those of us hovering around -6.5 and beyond?

I invite all who have experienced these issues, be they manufacturers themselves, professionals who have been able to fill such orders, or even simply people who are aware of companies that can beat MJ's 6.25 limit, to contribute to this thread.