Quote Originally Posted by smallworld View Post
I only interjected that I've sold Antiglare on both sides of sunglasses because the coating has benefits on the front also.

The added scratch warranty /protection is a benefit. If you are hard on your sunglasses like I am, yet want polycarbonate for eye protection during outdoors activities, the extra scratch resistant coatings are great.

Antireflection coatings help reduce glare spots on the front and back of sunglasses, which also make the lenses look nice. Some of the coatings add a color sheen that looks like a light mirror coat. For people who want sunglasses to look expensive, the antiglare coating can add a little style. Just my opinion.

Some anti glare coatings even make the lenses more hydrophobic, which can be nice on a sunglass if you are wearing them for activities that are in or near the water. Especially if you are doing an activity where you may want to wipe them on your shirt (even if you shouldn't).

The backside glare spots are very distracting for me , especially driving.

So this is why I sell antiglare on sunglasses both sides sometimes.
There are plenty of scratch-resistant, hydrophobic coatings without anti-reflective properties that may be more appropriate for the frontside of sunglasses. I'm a huge fan of Crizal SunShield, which is essentially Crizal Avance on the back and the Avance top-coat on the front. Xperio lenses have, as I understand it, the same AR/SRC properties as SunShield.

I'm very leery of putting an AR coating on the front side of sunglass lenses. Isn't the whole point of a sunglass lens, to oversimplify things, to increase a lens's opacity from the outside in? Doesn't putting an AR coating on the front negate some of that benefit? Isn't that why we put mirror coatings, essentially an anti-anti-reflective treatment, on the front? And, if it was optically beneficial to put an AR coating on the front side of sunglass lenses, don't you imagine sunglass specialist companies such as Maui Jim, Serengeti, Costa del Mar, Rudy Project, and Oakley, who pride themselves in marketing the optics of their lenses, would be all over it as a way to make more money?