One of the essential components of competitive swimming is a solid set of swim goggles. Along with your bathing suit, goggles form part of the “uniform” of your local lap and competitive swimmer.

Goggles are a relatively new invention, only popular amongst elite swimmers since the mid 1970’s when a British breaststroker named David Wilkie put on a cap and set of goggles at the Commonwealth Games.

Swimming goggles are more critical than we realize, however. For starters, goggles help us to see properly under the water. The human eye is not designed to see well under the water, and goggles will help us to see other swimmers, the black line at the bottom of the pool (so that we can circle swim properly), and the upcoming walls.

Secondly, and this goes more to our health, goggles protect our eyeballs from the redness and irritation that arises when they interact with chloramines over the course of our swimming workouts. What are chloramines? The result of chlorine interacting with human feces, urine and sweat. Yup, that’s gross.

Here’s what ya need to know when trying to pick out a perfect pair of swimming goggles:

Choose your goggles by tint and color of lens. One of the things you should absolutely keep in mind when picking out goggles is choosing a tint or lens color that matches up with the environment you are swimming in. Are you swimming outdoors? Pick out a pair of goggles that are darkly tinted or that are mirrored. This will help cut down on the glare, and also help you to see when swimming backstroke and have your face pointed at the sun. Many, if not all, mirrored goggles also have UV-protection. Are you swimming indoors? Choose a lens that is clear or lightly-tinted.

Choose comfortable lens. Beyond the color of the lens make sure that the ocular part of the goggles sits comfortably in your eye sockets. Most goggles have rubberized linings around the lens that will help buffer the pressure of wearing them for extended periods of time. Swedish goggles, one of the more popular types goggles, have lenses that are made strictly of hard plastic, making them not advisable for beginner swimmers.

Don’t buy into the anti-fog myth. Every goggle manufacturer, from Arena to Speedo to Nike, will tell you that their goggles are anti-fog. And this is true, for about two weeks of use, at which point the anti-fog will wear out and you will be struggling to see through a film of sweat, beaded water, and fog on the lens. This is where choosing a goggle tint comes in particularly handy, and why you should stick to lighter lenses if you are swimming at an indoor pool. My local YMCA pool, for instance, is poorly lit, making any of my dark or mirrored goggles nearly worthless in use. You shouldn’t have to spend the duration of your swim taking off your goggles at the end of each length in order to see the pace clock and dodge other swimmers.