Buy goodr if you run, walk fast, or sweat in your sunglasses — the no-slip coating is the single feature that separates these two brands, and it is worth the small premium. Buy Knockaround if the pair lives in a glovebox, a beach bag or a toolbox, where impact resistance and a huge colorway range matter more than grip. Both are genuinely polarized, both are UV400, and both cost less than a tank of gas. The rest of this page is the reasoning.
These two brands are the default answer to "what cheap polarized sunglasses should I buy," and they got there by solving slightly different problems. goodr started from a running problem: a lightweight frame that does not migrate down your nose when your face gets hot and wet. Knockaround started from a beach-and-skate problem: a frame you could sit on, drop, and lose without a second thought, in a hundred colorways. Both then added a polarized UV400 lens, because that is the floor of a usable pair of sunglasses. So the lens conversation is close to a tie, and the frame conversation is where the decision actually lives.
| Factor | goodr | Knockaround |
|---|
| Grip when you sweat | Coated arms and bridge that tack up as you heat — the reason runners buy them | Standard smooth arms; fine walking, slides on a hard run |
| Impact toughness | Light frame; survives normal life, not abuse | Impact-resistant frame and lens — the more droppable pair |
| Lens | Polarized, UV400, no contrast tuning | Polarized, UV400, no contrast tuning |
| Fit range | A few fixed shapes (standard OG, smaller round Circle G) | Several shapes, broadly generous sizing |
| Style range | Loud, limited-run colorways with joke names | Very large permanent color range, plus custom options |
| Best for | Running, walking, sweating, race day | Beach, boat deck, glovebox, skate park, everyday knockabout |
The grip difference is the whole comparison
If you take one thing from this page, take this: goodr coats the temple arms and the nose bridge with a grippy layer that gets tackier as it warms and dampens. That is backwards from how most plastic frames behave — smooth acetate and standard nylon get slickeras your face heats up, which is exactly why a normal pair of sunglasses starts creeping down your nose at mile three. Knockaround's standard frames use conventional smooth arms. On a walk, in the car, or on a boat, you will never notice the difference. On a hard run, in humidity, or on a long climb, it is the only thing you will notice.
That is not a knock on Knockaround. It is a different design brief. Knockaround's frames are built around impact resistance and cost — the pair that goes in the beach bag, gets sat on, gets handed to a kid, and keeps working. If your sunglasses live a rough life but a stationary one, that toughness is worth more to you than a grip coating you would never trigger. Our goodr review and Knockaround review go deeper on each brand individually.
The lenses are closer than the marketing suggests
Both brands sell genuinely polarized, UV400 lenses in their standard lines, and neither does contrast tuning. That matters, because contrast tuning is the expensive part of a lens. Costa's 580 filters specific wavelengths to lift fish out of water; Oakley's Prizm tunes for road or course contrast. Neither goodr nor Knockaround attempts that, and neither pretends to. What you get from both is the fundamental job: horizontal reflected glare removed, and essentially all UVA and UVB blocked. The Vision Council will tell you that UV protection is the actual health function of a sunglass, and it is unrelated to price — a $25 UV400 lens protects your eyes as well as a $250 one.
Where both give ground to premium lenses is coating durability and edge clarity. Budget lens coatings scratch sooner, and cheap lenses smear slightly toward the outer edge of your field of view. In practice that means treating either brand as a season-or-two pair rather than a decade pair — which is fine, because that is precisely the deal you signed up for at this price. If you want to understand what the extra money buys before you decide, read are expensive sunglasses worth it.
Fit: the one thing that actually goes wrong
Neither brand adjusts. There is no adjustable nose pad, no bendable temple, no small/medium/large in most models — you get the shape as designed. So fit is the real gamble, and it is where most disappointed buyers of either brand ended up. goodr's standard OG suits a broad middle range of faces and can perch too wide on a narrow one; the round, smaller Circle G exists exactly to fix that. Knockaround runs generous across its shapes, which suits wider faces well and can leave a narrow face with gaps at the temples where side light leaks in.
Our practical advice: if you have a narrow or small face, start with goodr's smaller round shape. If you have a wide face and a rough life, start with Knockaround. And if you are buying for running specifically, buy the grip — a pair you are constantly pushing back up your nose is a pair you stop wearing. The full field is in our best running sunglasses roundup.
What about the third option?
There is a whole tier below both brands — TR90 sport wraps that cost less than either and deliver polarization, UV400 and far more wraparound coverage than a lifestyle frame. The Duduma above is the archetype. What you give up is refinement: generic fit, budget coatings, and a lens that is fine rather than good. If your budget is genuinely tight, or you want a spare pair for the car, that tier is a legitimate answer and we say so in our cheap polarized sunglasses guide.
The verdict, stated plainly
For running and any sweaty activity, goodr wins and it is not close — the grip coating solves the specific failure mode of budget sunglasses in sport. For everything else, this is a coin flip decided by taste and abuse level: Knockaround if the pair will be dropped, goodr if it will be worn hard. Neither is the right choice for sight-fishing (you want a contrast lens — see the fishing roundup) or for cycling with a bike computer (polarized dims the screen — see polarized lenses for cycling).
How to decide in 30 seconds
Do you sweat in them?
Yes → goodr. The grip coating is the entire reason the brand exists and the only feature here that a rival cannot match at this price.
Do you drop them?
Constantly → Knockaround. The impact-resistant build and the low replacement cost are a better match for a pair that lives dangerously.
Is fit your worry?
Narrow or small face → goodr's smaller round shape. Wide face → Knockaround's more generous sizing. Neither brand adjusts, so buy the shape, not the color.
Is the budget genuinely tight?
Then a TR90 sport wrap undercuts both and still gives you polarization and UV400. You trade refinement for price, which at this level is an honest trade.
