Twenty-eight goggle products are listed on this site. Eight of them are spare lenses. That leaves twenty frames you can actually wear: seventeen for adults, three for children.
That ratio changes the question. You are not picking a pair of goggles. You are picking a frame, and the frame decides whether a different lens can ever be fitted to it later. The lens and the frame arrive together here, but they are two separate decisions, and only one of them is hard to undo.
The adult side of this ski goggle lineup splits three ways. Eight frames open without coming off your face. Seven only swap: the lens comes out and another goes in. Two do neither. The rest of this page fits your habits into those three groups, and names the frames you can cross off before comparing anything.
Put plainly: if you fog up the moment you stop, pick from the eight that open. If your complaint is tint rather than air, pick from the seven that swap. If you will do neither, the two that ask nothing of you are enough.
Twenty-Eight Products, Twenty Frames
Eight of the twenty-eight listings are spare lenses rather than goggles. Remove them and twenty frames remain: seventeen adult, three for children. The spare lenses matter because they turn a frame into more than one goggle, and they are tied to specific frames rather than fitting all of them.
Columns run in decision order, not by preference: they only mean something once you know whether the frame opens at all.
| Model | Family | How the lens comes off | Lens source | Photochromic | OTG | Spare lens | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family A: opens without removing the goggles (8) | |||||||
| NG17 | A / lifts lens | Magnets + clip | ZEISS | - | Yes | Yes | Opens to 45 or 90 degrees |
| NG17pro | A / lifts lens | Magnets + clip | ZEISS | - | Yes | - | Dual lens |
| NG2 | A / lifts lens | Magnets + clip | ZEISS | - | Yes | - | Dual lens |
| NG21 | A / lifts lens | Magnets + clip | Mazzucchelli | - | Yes | Yes | - |
| NG24Pro | A / lifts lens | Magnets + clip | ZEISS | - | Yes | - | Bamboo-pattern strap |
| NG24MAX | A / lifts lens | - | - | Flat to bright light | Yes | - | Lifts to 45 or 90 degrees; smaller frame |
| NG22 | A / vent lid | Side button | NanWave | Some colorways | Yes | Yes | Vent opens; lens separately removable |
| NG22max | A / vent lid | Side clip | NanWave | Every colorway | Yes | - | Vent opens; lens separately removable |
| Family B: the lens comes out, nothing opens in place (7; one method not described) | |||||||
| NG11 | B | Clip-lock | Mazzucchelli | - | - | Yes | Cylindrical |
| NG14s | B | Magnet | - | - | Yes | Yes | 16 magnets, frameless |
| NG14pro | B | Magnet | ZEISS | - | Yes | - | 16 magnets |
| NG19 | B | Magnet | - | - | Yes | Three included | Three lenses in the box |
| N10cs | B | Magnet, side-open | ZEISS | - | - | - | Slides along a rail |
| N1 | B | Magnet, side-open | AXIOPT | - | - | - | 16 magnets |
| NG23Max | B | Not described | - | Yes | Yes | Listed only | Method not described |
| Family C: neither (2) | |||||||
| NG25 | C | Not listed | - | - | Yes | - | Replaceable foam |
| NG20 | C | Not listed | - | - | - | - | Replaceable foam, 10 clips |
| Children's frames (3): fit is a separate problem, not covered below | |||||||
| NG17ks | Kids | Lifts lens | - | - | - | Yes | Children's frame |
| NG14KM | Kids | Magnet | - | - | - | Yes | Children's frame |
| NG14ks | Kids | Magnet | - | - | - | Yes | Children's frame |
If a row says "lifts lens" or "vent lid", the frame opens on the slope; if it says B or C, changing what you see through means taking the goggles off.
The Spare lens column answers a question a lineup usually avoids: whether another lens can be bought for that frame. Eight of the twenty can, five adult frames and all three children's; this page returns to it later. Spare lenses are tied to a frame rather than shared across the lineup, and the range sold for a single frame can run from 7% to 87%. That is why the tint question cannot wait: the tint you want has to exist for the frame you own.
Two attributes cover most of the lineup and say almost nothing about you. OTG appears on 13 of the 17 adult frames. Magnets appear on most frames that can swap at all. Neither is a selection criterion here. Both are defaults, and treating a default as a feature is how a lineup this size starts to look like twenty versions of the same goggle.
Three Filters Before Any Comparison
The criteria for choosing ski goggles are not the hard part. This page assumes you have accepted them and asks what comes after them.
Three things remove candidates before any of that can matter: glasses, a narrow face, and a child's fit.
If you wear glasses, OTG stops being a preference. Thirteen adult frames list it and four do not (NG11, N10cs, N1, NG20). Those four leave the discussion here, and what actual clearance requires is covered in goggles that leave room for glasses.
If your face is small, or you are buying a women's fit, three frames are built around that: NG24MAX, NG25 and NG20. The other fourteen are not. No strap adjustment changes the internal width of a frame.
If you are buying for a child, the three children's frames sit in the lineup but not in this decision. Fit at that size is its own problem, and it is handled at the end of this page.
None of these three filters produces a shortlist; they only take frames away. That matters, because a filter is the one part of this page you cannot argue with.
Does the Lens Need to Open on the Slope?
Start from the symptom, not the feature: you are moving and everything is clear, then you stop to talk and the inside of the lens goes white. If that has never happened, spend the least attention here.
Eight frames let you open something without taking the goggles off, and they do it in two different ways.
Six of them lift the lens. NG17 opens to 45 or 90 degrees. NG17pro, NG2, NG21 and NG24Pro lift as well, and NG24MAX pairs the hinge with a frame built for a smaller face. These are the frames people mean when they say flip-up. Two of the six are dual-lens builds, NG17pro and NG2, while NG21 takes a Mazzucchelli inner lens instead of ZEISS. If lens brand is your tie-break, that settles three of them; the rest differ in lens angle and strap, which the product page compares directly.
The other two, NG22 and NG22max, open a vent lid and leave the lens where it is. This is the mechanism most skiers do not know exists, and it solves a narrower one: heat and moisture leave the frame while your view stays behind tinted material. You get airflow without handling a lens.
This is the wrong branch for you if you never stop mid-run and never lift the goggles to read a map or talk to someone, because a hinge you do not use is a moving part with no job.
This is also the wrong branch for you if what you want is to look at the mountain without tint over your eyes. A vent lid moves air, not your view, so it will not show you a color the lens is filtering out.
The two vent-lid frames read like two directions and are not. They share a frame family and nearly the same structure; the difference is the photochromic spec, which NG22max carries on every colorway and NG22 on some. Both release the lens from the side. One family, two lens specs.
The second family is the seven frames where the lens comes off and goes back on. Nothing opens in place. That is the whole difference between the families, and it is why family two fits when your complaint is tint rather than airflow.
The last two frames, NG25 and NG20, do neither. Their answer to a long day is weight and maintenance instead of a second lens, and the replaceable part on both is the foam, not the lens.
This is the wrong branch for you if you expect to fit a different tint later, since neither page describes how a lens would come off.
If It Swaps, How Does It Come Off?
Seven adult frames take a lens out. The question inside that group is not whether they are magnetic, because most of them are. In the opening family, five of the six lens-lifting frames run magnets plus a mechanical clip. Magnet is the default across this lineup, which makes "do you want magnetic goggles" a question that eliminates almost nothing.
What separates the seven is the release your hands perform.
Three are straight magnet: NG14s, NG14pro and NG19. NG14s and N1 both list 16 magnets, and NG19 arrives as a three-lens set rather than one lens with spares.
Two release from the side: N10cs and N1. The lens slides along a track instead of lifting off the front.
One is neither. NG11 uses a clip-lock release and is the only frame here without magnets as the primary method, which matters because "swaps lenses" and "magnetic" get used as though they were the same word, and on this lineup they are not.
NG23Max is the seventh and it sits at the edge of the group: its page lists spare lens options but does not describe how a lens is changed. That is all the page supports, so it is all this article will claim.
Two cases look like gaps in that column and are not. NG19 ships with three lenses, so nothing needs adding. NG22max detaches its lens and still has no spare sold for it, which is the difference between a lens that comes off and a lens you can buy.
If you have already settled on family B and want the mechanism explained rather than assigned, how magnetic lens swap systems work is the read for that. It is a different question from this one.
This is the wrong branch for you if you want the lens to stay put all season, since a swappable frame asks you to check the seal every time you reseat it.
Where the Lens Comes From
Six frames use ZEISS. N1 uses AXIOPT, and the inner lens on NG21 and NG11 is Mazzucchelli.
The cross fact: four of the six lens-lifting frames are ZEISS. Choosing the opening family is very close to choosing ZEISS, so lens source is not an independent option you can shop separately. If you want a hinge and a ZEISS lens, that is easy to find. If you want a hinge and some other lens, this lineup does not offer it.
Lens source sets the ceiling on what you can see through. It does not raise the floor. A frame that fogs when you stop, or that leaves a gap against your helmet, never reaches its optical ceiling, which is why this decision sits behind the structural ones rather than in front of them.
This is the wrong branch for you if the frame itself is still an open question, because lens brand only matters once the frame fits and seals.
One Lens or Two
There are two ways to handle a day where the light swings from bright to flat. Either the lens changes on its own, or you change the lens.
Photochromic appears on NG24MAX, which covers flat light to bright sun, on NG22max across every colorway, on some NG22 colorways, and on NG23Max. Everything else relies on a second lens. The near-exclusion is real: inside the seven-frame swap family, photochromic shows up once, on NG23Max, and that frame is the exception rather than a category of its own.
Neither route is the advanced one. They fail differently. A photochromic lens fails by being slower than the light or by not reaching far enough at either end of the day. A second lens fails by being in a pocket at the bottom of the lift, or by needing fingers that still work in the cold. Choose the failure you can live with.
NG24MAX is the only frame that darkens and still has a hinge, and it is also one of the twelve with no spare lens listed, so if the auto tint lags behind the light there is no second lens to fall back on.
This is the wrong branch for you if your light stays narrow and predictable, in which case both routes are extra parts and a single lens covers the season.
What You Can Cross Off Today
This section removes frames rather than matching them.
| Your situation | Read first | Lands in | You can skip |
|---|---|---|---|
| You fog up when you stop, but hate taking the goggles off | Does the Lens Need to Open | Family A, 8 frames | NG23Max, which lists no opening vent |
| Light swings all day and you will carry a lens | If It Swaps, How Does It Come Off | Family B, 7 frames | The photochromic frames, if you will swap anyway |
| One frame for the season, no lens handling | Does the Lens Need to Open | Family C, 2 frames | Families A and B, plus every spare lens |
| You wear glasses | Three Filters Before Any Comparison | 13 frames remain | NG11, N10cs, N1, NG20 |
| Small or women's fit | Three Filters Before Any Comparison | NG24MAX, NG25, NG20 | The other fourteen frames |
| Buying for a child | Common Questions (last answer) | Not covered here | All seventeen adult frames |
Five frames you can rule out today, one sentence each:
- NG23Max is the frame to skip if you fog up the moment you stop, since its page lists no opening vent.
- NG25 and NG20 are the frames to skip if you plan to change lenses, because replaceable on both means foam.
- NG11 is the frame to skip unless pressing a clip each time is acceptable, as the only non-magnet in that family.
- NG19 is the frame to skip if you already carry spare lenses for another frame, since it arrives with three.
- N10cs is the frame to skip for gloved, no-look lens changes unless you can find a sliding rail by feel.
What remains is which mechanism fits your hands and your season, and the table above is the index for it, not a shelf. The frame settles one thing no branch can fix: only eight of the twenty list a spare lens you can order, and NG19 is the exception that arrives with three.
Common Questions
Which tint do I actually need, and does my frame come in it?
Match the tint to the light you ski most, then check it exists for the frame. A single mid-range tint covers a resort season; a second lens earns its place when a day moves between flat light and full sun. The tint has to exist for your frame, not just somewhere in the lineup.
Is a photochromic lens better than swapping lenses?
They solve the same problem from opposite ends, so the useful comparison is failure modes. A photochromic lens can lag behind a fast change in light or stop short at one extreme. A second lens can be sitting in a bag when you need it, or be hard to handle with cold hands. Only one frame in this lineup offers both a lens that changes on its own and a hinge.
Do flip-up goggles make sense if I do not wear glasses?
Yes. The confusion is common. The hinge exists so you can clear the inside of the lens and see the person in front of you without removing the goggles. It has nothing to do with prescription eyewear. The vent-lid frames solve a narrower slice of the same problem by moving air while the lens stays put.
How do I choose goggles for a child?
Different problem, different page: a child's frame is decided by face width and helmet gap long before any of the features above matter. The three children's frames in the table are a fit question rather than a mechanism question, and kids goggle fit covers it properly. All seventeen adult frames are the wrong starting point.
The three families are not three quality levels, and the two frames at the end are not a lesser version of the eight at the start. Once you can name which group describes your day, the NANEND goggle lineup stops being twenty frames and becomes three or four. The snow goggles collection lists all twenty with the same columns used in the table above, so nothing here has to be re-derived there.
