When it comes to cleaning glasses, we usually reach for the nearest cloth. However, it is precisely its quality that determines whether the lens actually becomes clear or the coating gets damaged.
Why your glasses need their own cloth
You wouldn't scrub a non-stick pan with steel wool, and you wouldn't brush your teeth with just any brush. In both cases, the reason is obvious. With glasses, this awareness is often missing, even though they are just as valuable and delicate.
Modern lenses feature several ultra-thin layers: a hard coating, anti-reflective coating, and often a dirt- and water-repellent top layer or a blue light filter. Yet, people often clean them with just any cloth or even their T-shirt—dry and with pressure. Whatever is in the fabric—fibers, dust, or fine particles—rubs directly over these layers. You might not notice it once, but over time, matte spots appear, and eventually, scratches develop. Proper care is therefore not a question of whether you should, but what you should use. You can read about why clothing is particularly unsuitable in our article Why you shouldn't clean your glasses with your T-shirt.
Household cloths belong in the kitchen
A microfiber cloth from the household is made for countertops and screens. It often has a coarse structure, sometimes contains hard fibers, and carries residues of dish soap or glass cleaner. For coated glasses, this is the wrong combination. The same goes for paper tissues: they contain wood fibers and act like fine sandpaper on the lenses.
The optician's cloth: small and quickly saturated
The small cloth from the case is a quick fix for when you're on the go or have nothing else at hand. The lens may look clearer afterward, but in reality, the dirt is often just being spread around. The cloth has little surface area and only one layer. After a few wipes, it is full, and what it has picked up just ends up back on the lens with the next wipe. You end up wiping and polishing using the exact same spot.
THE GLOVE: one side dries, one polishes
THE GLOVE separates the functions that the small cloth confuses. It is designed for eyeglass lenses and contains no abrasive fibers. The dark side is extremely absorbent due to its high fiber density, while the light side remains dry to provide a final polish.
Because your hand is inside the glove, it rests evenly against the surface, allowing you to reach the bridge, nose pads, and frame. This helps prevent skin oils and deposits from building up in those areas. With the Eyeshaker, THE GLOVE is the final step: shake, rinse, dry, polish.
Even the best cloth needs to be washed
Despite knowing about the right cloth: even the best one won't help if it is never washed. A cloth that sits in a case for weeks collects skin oil and dust. Eventually, it stops absorbing dirt and just spreads it around.
With daily use, it should therefore be washed about once a week, without fabric softener. Fabric softener leaves a film on the fibers, which ends up on your lenses the next time you clean them. This applies to the small eyeglass cloth just as it does to THE GLOVE: maximum 30 degrees, no fabric softener, do not tumble dry.
