Every few years, the world’s top soccer nations come together for the most anticipated international competition in the sport. Billions of fans tune in from around the globe, watching every match, every save, and every game-changing goal.
For athletes, it represents the pinnacle of competition. For fans, it’s a celebration of passion, national pride, and unforgettable moments.
But while most conversations focus on speed, strategy, and skill, one critical performance factor often goes unnoticed: Vision.
Few sports place greater demands on the visual system than soccer.
Players must constantly:
At the highest levels of competition, fractions of a second can determine the outcome of a match.
Research has demonstrated that enhanced visual clarity, contrast sensitivity, and visual comfort can positively influence athletic performance, especially in sports requiring rapid decision-making and moving target tracking. ALTIUS® Performance-Tinted Contact Lenses were engineered specifically to optimize these visual demands through proprietary Light Architecture™ technology.*
International soccer tournaments are played in a wide range of environments: Bright midday sunshine, overcast conditions, stadium shadows, artificial lighting and reflective playing surfaces
These conditions can create glare, visual stress, and reduced contrast sensitivity, making it more difficult to identify important visual details quickly.
The athletes aren’t the only ones facing challenging lighting conditions. Tens of thousands of fans spend hours in stadiums exposed to bright sunlight, glare, reflections, and changing light conditions before and during the match.
For individuals who experience light sensitivity or visual discomfort, these environments can make it difficult to fully enjoy the experience. ALTIUS® Performance-Tinted Contact Lenses are engineered to filter 100% of harmful UV radiation and over 99% of Blue Light, helping provide visual comfort and clarity so fans can focus on the game.
Because some of the greatest moments in soccer happen both on the field and in the stands.
ALTIUS® for Every Soccer Player & Fan, whether or not they wear contact lenses or even have a vision correction. Find an eye care professional near you and ask about ALTIUS® Performance-Tinted Contact Lenses. Visit altiusvision.com/find-a-provider to get started.
We are honored to be featured in the March 2026 edition of Vision Monday, and we extend our sincere thanks to Sarah McGoldrick for highlighting ALTIUS® and the work behind our mission.
The feature captures a powerful conversation with our CEO, Dr. Alan Reichow, OD, MEd, FAAO, whose decades of research have helped shape the modern field of performance vision.
From early innovations that led to globally recognized sports vision technologies to the development of ALTIUS®, Dr. Reichow’s work has consistently focused on first and foremost optimizing the quality of the visual signal.
As he shared in the article:
“Vision, the guiding sense for most of human performance, is first and foremost dependent upon the quality of the visual signal leaving the eyes to the brain to better enable the most efficient and accurate visual information processing. It all begins with visual clarity and contrast.”
This philosophy continues to guide ALTIUS® today.
There is a growing understanding that managing light is essential not only for protecting the eye, but for optimizing how well the brain processes visual information. This is where ALTIUS® stands apart: delivering a solution that bridges clinical need and performance enhancement through advanced light filtration.
We are proud to contribute to a future where eye care professionals, athletes, and patients alike recognize that visual clarity and contrast are a fundamental driver of how we feel, function, and perform.
Read the article: ALTIUS VisionMonday | Pages 86 and 88
As another baseball season begins, players face one of the most visually demanding environments in sports. Bright midday sun. Low-angle afternoon glare. Stadium shadows cutting across the infield.
In baseball, milliseconds matter and so does visual clarity.
From tracking a 90+ mph fastball to judging spin on a breaking pitch, your visual system must process fine detail in ever-changing light conditions. That’s where ALTIUS® Performance-Tinted Soft Contact Lenses CHANGE THE GAME. Even if you’ve never worn contact lenses, ALTIUS® were designed with every baseball player in mind, including those requiring no vision correction. ALTIUS® for Every Player.
Baseball is an extremely demanding dynamic, reactive sport that requires:
Research spanning over two decades shows that Performance-Tinted Soft Contact Lenses can dramatically improve visual performance in bright outdoor conditions*.
Early-season games create unique visual stress:
Standard sunglasses restrict peripheral vision, can fog, shift, and compromise performance during play. Clear lenses don’t filter harsh wavelengths that reduce visual clarity.
ALTIUS® Lenses were engineered specifically to solve these problems.
ALTIUS® Amber (50% Visible Light Transmission) is engineered for dynamic, reactive target tracking sports like baseball.
By reducing visual noise and filtering specific wavelengths, ALTIUS® enhances edge definition and contrast helping players with pitch recognition and seeing the ball’s seams, spin, and trajectory with greater precision. Outcome: University research with Collegiate baseball players demonstrated dramatic improvements in batting statistics.*
Trip Hannah
Tripp Hannah, a shortstop and pitcher from Yulee, Florida, is a top-ranked Class of 2026 prospect with a Perfect Game Grade of 10, placing him in the top 1% nationally. Signed with Oklahoma State for 2026–2027, he relentlessly pursues every competitive edge.
After adding ALTIUS® Amber to his game, Tripp shared:
"I have really good vision (but) I got the the point where I was struggling really bad, I couldn't see, especially during the daytime...I put them (ALTIUS) on and I walked outside and I instantly knew... the contrast was so easy to see. I wore them in a game and it was so much better right away."
In football, every position demands split-second reaction time and precise vision. Whether you’re a quarterback reading coverage, a receiver tracking the ball in glare and shadow, or a lineman reacting off the snap, comfortable and clear vision can be the difference between success or failure.
That’s where ALTIUS® AMBER Performance-Tinted Single-Use Soft Contact Lenses come in. Engineered to sharpen visual clarity, cut glare, and improve target tracking, they deliver an edge that athletes can feel immediately. ALTIUS® gives athletes the freedom to perform without distraction because they don’t fog, don’t distort, and don’t interfere with peripheral vision as sunglasses or visors do.
The American football, nicknamed the “Pigskin” dating back to its origins in the 1850’s, still retains the same low-contrast brown color, especially the pro-level ball that lacks the white stripes used in college and youth play, is arguably one of the hardest objects in sports to visually track. When seen against complex, ever-changing backgrounds like stadium seating, spectators, the turf, player uniforms, and bright sky or stadium lights, the ball can almost disappear. The improved contrast and clarity created by ALTIUS® helps the ball “pop” from the background, making it easier to locate, track, and catch.
At every level, athletes are realizing that Vision, the guiding sense to most of performance, can be protected, optimized, and trained. ALTIUS® is leading that shift. So if you’re noticing more athletes with that signature amber-red tint in their eyes, it’s not just a trend. It’s a sign of athletes protecting their vision, enhancing their performance, and gaining an edge that could change the game.
You might have just heard about ALTIUS® performance tinted contact lenses, but we’ve been in the making for a long time! Perhaps you’ve heard of a product called Nike MaxSight? MaxSight found success in athlete performance vision in the early 2000’s.
Remember seeing these lenses on your favorite athletes? Well, they’re back and better than ever! Let’s dive into the history of ALTIUS and how we went from MaxSight to where we are today.
It all started back in 1990 when ALTIUS Founder, CEO, and Chief Science Officer Dr. Alan Reichow, OD, MEd, FAAO, and colleagues at Pacific University College of Optometry began research on eye glare black. That’s the smear of black you’ll find athletes wear under or around their eyes. Their research showed Eye Glare Black can help to improve an athlete’s vision by reducing the sun’s glare reflected off skin. Turns out, there is an even better option.
Dr. Al and colleagues continued research on sports performance vision for another 8 years before embarking on creating performance tinted contact lenses, a potential solution for the ultimate in performance eyewear. Dr. Al, with his partners at Paragon Vision Sciences, determined the ideal tints to include in a contact lens which absorbed harmful UV, virtually all harsh Blue Light, and transmitted right Quantity (Visible Light Transmission) and Quality (Spectral Transmission Curves) for maximal visual comfort, clarity and quickness.
All that means is that they think they engineered the right tints for athletes to see the game better AND protect their eyes. Over the next several years, they started testing the tints on athletes at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.
In 2000, longtime Pacific University baseball coach, Greg Bradley, became the first coach to try the lenses that were called SportsSight. His immediate reaction…
“I’ve never seen the ball and seams that distinctly before. You can put those lenses on all my players.” And they did!
Over the next few years, the team continued to study the lenses and the experience of the Pacific University baseball team using them. This garnered some local media attention… which sparked the interest of a very large local company.
This began a partnership between the team at SportsSight, Nike, and Bausch + Lomb. SportsSight became MaxSight… a vision performance solution for anyone, even those not needing any vision correction.
In 2005, MaxSight was officially launched at the American Optometry Association Annual Convention in Dallas, Texas. MaxSight was a monthly replacement lens, which meant that it required proper cleaning, disinfection and storage between uses. It didn’t take long for eye care professionals to see the value in this product.
In fact, MaxSight made such a big splash that it was recognized by TIME magazine as “One of the Most Amazing Inventions of 2005.”
Interestingly, in spite of the “Hassle Factors” of Maxsight, over 60% of MaxSight users were those that did not require vision correction, and had never worn contact lenses before.
Despite great success, outstanding testimonies, and media coverage, MaxSight came to an early end. Due to a contact lens solution contamination issue at Bausch + Lomb, completely unrelated to MaxSight, Nike didn’t feel comfortable continuing the product. There was too much risk in the endeavor to continue.
But that didn’t stop the team that would become ALTIUS, which means “Higher” in Latin.
With continued demand for performance tinted contact lenses, and all the science behind it, the team knew this product could stay alive… and get better! So, the team embarked on a new mission to create a single-use disposable lens that would be far easier and safer for users.
After almost a decade of research and development, the new and improved ALTIUS brand was created, with a product that would provide all the amazing benefits of MaxSight with even more convenience, protection, and visual clarity. It was designed with a much improved lens material and with parameters that provided improved ease of handling and comfort when applied to the eye, especially important with all the first time contact lens users who had no vision correction need.
Today, we’re proud to continue the mission of providing the best in vision performance for athletes and anyone that wants to See Better, Feel Better, and Play Better!
The ALTIUS team continues to conduct research on the lenses, including how they can support relief from photosensitivity often associated with migraines, concussions, and traumatic brain injuries. With a growing focus by eye care practitioners on these conditions, ALTIUS is gaining use as a new and improved solution to light sensitivity symptoms.
Stay connected with us as we continue to evolve and try ALTIUS for yourself!
Check out our provider page to find an eye care professional close to you, or contact us for more information on how you can benefit from using ALTIUS.
We hope you saw Von Miller from the Buffalo Bills wearing ALTIUS Performance-Tinted Contact Lenses during an interview on the Pat McAfee show.
The Super Bowl MVP linebacker was interviewed in the renowned show on May 23, 2023. Von was wearing ALTIUS Amber lenses while talking to Pat. The host, who has 2.2 million subscribers on his YouTube channel was amazed by the tinted contacts. In less than 18 hours the video had more than 35 thousand views!
Do you have red contacts? Was McAfee's first question to the NFL star. Von’s immediate response was to lean closer to the camera so the host could have a better look at the ALTIUS contacts. "We were outside today, these are like shades but they are contacts" he said.
The linebacker explained that these lenses block the sun light and blue light, enhancing his vision on the field. He also mentioned they are more comfortable to wear than sunglasses when running or warming up as they don't fog up or have light leakage, which is distracting to the NFL player (and to anyone who wears glassess). "You can work as hard as you want, sweat and don't have any problems" adds the player. Von Miller said he started wearing ALTIUS when he was in Los Angeles playing for the Rams and he has continued to use them: "I really love these a lot, specially while I'm out there and it's sunny, specially in the golf course", he said. To this response McAfee could only reply, "So these are performance enhancing contacts.”
So why does Von wear ALTIUS?
ALTIUS Performance-Tinted Contact Lenses are engineered to enhance your visual performance by eliminating visual noise, primarily from harsh blue light. This improves the rest of the light spectrum you see, which provides greater visual clarity and comfort while playing sports. They provide 100% UV protection and over 99% protection against blue light. As they are contacts you will have a full immersive visual experience. For anyone challenged with light sensitivity or photosensitivity of any kind, ALTIUS is a great solution.
We currently offer two tints. ALTIUS Amber, which are a perfect fit for dynamic sports, such as Football, Tennis, Soccer or Baseball, among other sports played outdoor and in bright indoor conditions. ALTIUS Grey-Green, which enable you to see better for outdoor activities, such as Golf, Surfing, Running, Triathlon, among other outdoor activities. No matter the sport you play, we've got you covered!
Are you looking to increase your performance? ALTIUS is here to make that happen.
Click here now and find a provider near you! Or get in contact with us by clicking here!
