Dr. Bob and the First Smith Goggle

When you think of SMITH, any number of things might spring to mind. A helmet that helped keep you safe in a crash, your favorite pair of sunglasses, or an old yellow sticker that’s been on your parent’s gearbox since before you were born. Today, SMITH is here to help equip you for any adventure you have on the horizon, but it all started 60 years ago with the first SMITH goggle and the spirit of innovation.

In 1964, Dr. Bob Smith was an orthodontist with a passion for skiing powder with his wife Jean at Alta in Utah. Frustrated with how quickly the goggles at that time would fog up and how snow would get into the vents of the goggles, Dr. Bob and Jean sat down at their kitchen table and set out to make a better goggle. Armed with his dental tools and his firsthand knowledge of what skiers need on the mountain, he invented the first insulated dual-lens goggle. 

The dual-lens or thermal lens goggle, paired with foam-insulated vents, and a new strap that held the goggles tighter against the face, changed the game for visibility on the mountain. Scott Randall, Vice President of Product here at SMITH explains, “Dual lenses create a pocket of air in between the cold conditions outside and the warm air around your face. This air pocket acts as insulation and decreases the temperature difference that would otherwise be between the air outside the goggles and the air that’s inside, and in this way reduces or prevents the occurrence of condensation on the lens.”  

Dr. Bob started small. He sold the goggles to other skiers, sometimes for lift tickets. In 1968, he received the approval for U.S. Patent 3,377,626, and you can still see the dual-lens design in SMITH goggles and in goggles across the industry today. 

SMITH has continued Dr. Bob’s spirit of innovation and problem solving, from easy-to-change magnetic lenses, larger fields of view, and integrating goggle and helmet ventilation, we’re continuing to push the limit and follow his example.