I have had Oakley, Ray-Ban, and Zeals. Then got a pair of Maui Jim's and they were the best sunglasses I have ever had, hands down, really no comparison. i had no idea sunglasses could be this good. I unfortunately had them in my coat pocket and when I bent over they got squished and cracked the lenses (fat guy thing), planned to send them in for new lenses for $75 but somehow lost them in our move. Now have their lower end line called Zeal, although not glass lenses and for sure not quite the same, the optical clarity is still pretty good, if I still had the Maui Jim's I would probably only wear the Zeal's every once in a while.
Have Costas, just got some Smiths and for the money the Smiths are way better. You get real rubber nose pads, frames don't flex as you wear them, and I'm convinced I see better (fishing).
I'm a bit of a weirdo about sun glasses - I have several pair from Costa, Oakley, and Smith. I've kinda been going through a Smith phase for the last couple of years. They have the two most versatile lenses that I have ever used:
ChromaPop Glacier Photochromic Copper Blue Mirror Lens
ChromaPop™ PLUS Polarchromic Ignitor
Both have a bit of transition to them so they lighten and darken a little based on the conditions. The Ignitor is a pink glass lens (with silver mirror) and is a little better for brighter conditions. The copper blue is a copper lens (with blue mirror) in plastic and is a little better for cloudier conditions.
I spent a lot of years with Costa and have no complaints there. Good quality glasses with a variety of good lenses. My favorites are the copper with green mirror for fresh water and the yellow with silver mirror for low light conditions.
Oakley too, but its been a few years since I bought a new pair. They have a amber/brown colored lens with a greenish mirror for fresh water fishing that I like.
This is all fishing. I don't usually wear glasses when hunting because I typically hunt pretty dense woods.
If you find a pair of higher quality frames you like maybe even a decent used pair. Grab them and just go buy a set of Fuse polarized lenses. Much much cheaper than going directly with a brand new set of sunglasses.
From what I understand they are just about all owned by the same company and it’s kind of a wash on quality and any true differences from one brand to the next.
I was wondering about how leupolds compare as well. I’ve had to pair and really like them. Very light weight and made well. But have never had the others to compare to. Leupolds dang sure aren’t scratch proof.
I like the Suncloud brand that a local outdoor shop carries. They are relatively inexpensive and I actually like them better than my Oakley polarized glasses. And they don’t break the bank at around $50 so I don’t cry when I need to replace them periodically.