About Us

The GB Viz Story

GB Viz founder Michael Gower is a keen cyclist with a Guinness World Record for the fastest tandem pedal powered English Channel crossing.

Graham Earl (L) and Michael Gower (R) with their Guiness World Record

Slightly long sighted and now wearing glasses for reading, Michael could clearly see the road (and occasional waves and ferries) ahead but struggled with the smaller data fields on his Wahoo head unit.

To address the issue, Michael tried several available solutions including stick-on lenses that would often come unstuck at inopportune moments, cheap ‘Alibaba-special’ bifocal glasses with misty and distorting plastic lenses, and even piggy-backing regular glasses.

“I have owned prescription sunglasses from the big-name brands in the past,” says Michael “but they are very expensive, with limited styles for sports and break or get lost just as easily as regular glasses. The options seemed to be cheap, effective, or robust – pick two.”

What Michael needed was a more affordable, off-the-shelf bifocal sports-specific sunglasses and he soon realised a lot of local cyclists of similar vintage to himself were looking for the same thing.

With a career in product development and bringing consumer products to market, Michael set about researching, designing, and manufacturing GB Viz’s first bifocal sunglasses aimed at cyclists and runners. After nearly three years in development, GB Viz was founded, based near Canterbury, Kent, and the first product range has come to market offering an affordable, high-quality, and robust solution to better see your sports computer or tracker.