adidas Sport Sunglasses SP0063
About Himarë
This small coastal town faces the Ionian Sea between the Llogara Pass and Sarandë. Its municipality includes villages with both Albanian- and Greek-speaking communities, and its history has been shaped by seafaring, Orthodox churches, and long periods of Ottoman rule.
THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
The adidas Sport SP0063 is a single-lens shield frame — one continuous lens across both eyes rather than two lenses bridged at the nose. A shield gives an uninterrupted field of view with no frame edge in the peripheral vision, which is why the shape dominates in cycling and running and has moved across into tennis.
The frame is a light thermoplastic with an adjustable nose piece and grippy temple tips, so the fit is set to the wearer rather than the wearer adapting to the frame.
Ventilation ports are cut through the upper frame and the lens to move air across the inner surface and reduce fogging during hard work.
The lens is mirrored and carries full UVA and UVB protection.
Sport lenses in this class also meet impact standards, which is the practical reason a purpose-built sport frame belongs on court rather than a fashion one: a ball to the face should not put fragments near the eye.
Himarë sits on the Albanian Riviera, a coastal town on the Ionian where the summer sun is direct and reflects hard off both the sea and the pale stone.
Specifications
| Construction | Single-lens shield |
|---|---|
| Frame | Matte white thermoplastic |
| Lens | Blue mirrored, full UVA/UVB |
| Adjustment | Nose piece and temple tips |
| Ventilation | Ported frame and lens |
| Use | Tennis, running, cycling |
| Included | Case and cleaning cloth |
adidas numbers its sport eyewear rather than naming it, so the SP number is the model — a detail worth keeping straight, since several SP frames share a silhouette and differ only in size and lens.
LET adidas Sport Sunglasses SP0063 SHOW YOU Himarë
Sunglasses: adidas Sport Mirror Sunglasses: TWO HUNDRED METRES. Two hundred! TWO HUNDRED METRES up off the Ionian Sea and THAT is where they built it! This is the ancient acropolis Himarë grew around, fortified as early as the 4th century BC by the Chaonians, the Epirote tribe running this whole coast — and then the Byzantines made it a serious stronghold guarding a district that told the Ottomans no for CENTURIES. Walls, towers, the stone houses of the old upper village, Byzantine churches with frescoes still on them, and people still LIVING up here. Views straight down the Riviera. Put your hands together for the hilltop!
Sunglasses: adidas Sport Mirror Sunglasses: Okay okay okay — rocky peninsula, narrow causeway, a few kilometres south of Himarë, are you seeing this? Ali Pasha of Tepelena, the powerful and ruthless Ottoman ruler of Ioannina, threw this up in the early 19th century to own the best natural anchorage on the Ionian coast. Thick low walls! Rounded bastions! Vaulted chambers that stay COLD in high summer — that is the air conditioning of 1810, baby! And in the communist era this bay was a secret naval installation with a submarine tunnel bored into the headland. A SUBMARINE TUNNEL. Best-preserved monument on the Riviera and it is OPEN.
Sunglasses: adidas Sport Mirror Sunglasses: Inside the castle walls, up in the old hilltop quarter — this was THE church, the principal one, for a community that has been strongly Orthodox Christian through its entire recorded history. Post-Byzantine stone, vaulted nave, traces of fresco still holding on. Still holding on! And it is one of SEVERAL historic churches scattered through these lanes and ruins, because religious life up here was packed in tight. Through the Ottoman centuries this region kept its ties to the Greek Orthodox world and these churches were centres of learning as well as worship. Feast days, this place fills. It STILL fills.
Sunglasses: adidas Sport Mirror Sunglasses: Spile! SPILE! Spilia is the Greek word for cave, the beach took the name, then the whole shorefront quarter took the name — one hole in the limestone named the neighbourhood! It is a karst cavern right at the edge of modern Himarë, and archaeological investigation here turned up evidence of ancient habitation, which on a coast famous for its classical and Byzantine remains means somebody was home WAY earlier. Caves along this limestone shore served as shelters, storerooms and refuges for centuries. Hotels and tavernas on one side, deep prehistory on the other. Same beach. SAME BEACH.
Jackson Phillips here. Owner of TTT. We are working hard every day to bring you the most useful product reviews in the business. Our goal is putting the right product in every hand. If you have time, shoot me an email at jacksonphillips@thetennistactician.com and tell me exactly what you think of your purchase. The more feedback we get, the better we can serve. Thank you for your patronage. And Burn, Laugh, and Learn.