The Best (and Most Popular) Triathlon Goggles of 2025

Swim goggles may be one of the simplest items in a triathlete’s gear bag, but that doesn’t mean finding the best triathlon goggles is a straightforward process. Goggles can leak, fog up, break, or hurt your face – and that can make any swim a bad one. You need goggles that reliably do the job of protecting your eyes and preserving your vision. The best pair of goggles for triathlon is the pair you don’t notice.

So what matters when it comes to buying triathlon goggles? Everyone has different priorities: some triathletes value comfort, others value clarity, others value ease, and some value reliability.

The best triathlon goggles for the job

It’s also important to note that there might not be one particular swim goggle for the many things you do as a triathlete. Take, for example, pool swimming versus open-water swimming.

So for pool swimming, a tiny little pair of goggles no bigger than contact lenses through which only a pinhole of light squeaks through is fine. But for open-water swimming, we need to see the whole world around us, we need to have as little distortion as possible, we need to see out of the water (sighting), and we need to expect that at some point, we will probably be hit in the face. (For help with picking the right goggles for the right day, the Gear Guru has made you this guide.)

How to choose the best goggles for triathlon

When it’s time to look for your best triathlon goggles, there are five big rules:

1. Fit is king

The nicest, most expensive, most fully featured pair of goggles doesn’t mean anything if it leaks. Be prepared to send back, try out, or donate a few pairs of goggles before you get it right. There is an exception to the fit-roulette rule below, but even custom goggles aren’t perfect.

2. Go for coverage

In my mind, this is a matter of safety, but others like a bigger goggle for either comfort or because they fit their faces better. There are a few brands below with silly-huge goggles, which won’t win you any style points, but longtime triathletes absolutely swear by them for a reason.

3. Hydrodynamics? Meh

If you’re chasing hundredths of seconds and trying to hit the Olympic qualifier in the 100m free, yes, you need a “fast” goggle. But don’t forget in tri, we have to sight to finish a race, and this is about the least hydrodynamic thing you could do. Bigger gains are to be had elsewhere, like being able to see a buoy.

4. One pair is OK, two pairs are just right

Once you find the right fit, buy another pair of the same goggle. Ideally, the second pair would be darkly tinted if the first pair is light or colored, but either way, there is nothing more debilitating on race morning than a goggle issue or the wrong color lens. I always have at least two pairs for different conditions on race morning, and I’m always glad I do. And it’s not just me. In our 2025 community survey, 46% of triathletes shared that they own two pairs, while the overwhelming majority (83% had two or more):

5. Distortion sucks

Trust me, you need to be able to see clearly for that split second you lift your head up to sight. Or, you might need to be able to see another swimmer barreling toward you out of the corner of your eye. Fancy prisms and lens designs may look cool online, but they are not great for open-water swimming.

What are the most popular goggles for triathletes in 2025?

In our 2025 community survey, we asked you, the reader, what brand of swim goggle you own, and the results were no surprise. Two brands, Speedo and TYR stood out, with over 60% of respondents saying they own a pair of these longtime swim brands.

Triathlete’s reviews of the best triathlon swim goggles in 2025

We took the time to test and rate six different goggles with an exhaustive eight-point system and teased out details about fit, comfort, clarity, warranty, return policies, and more. Frankly, you can’t go wrong with any of these choices. It’s just a matter of choosing which attributes are most important to you. Read below for our criteria, then check out our picks for the best goggles in 2025 and beyond.

What makes our reviews different? Our testers actually use the thing. A lot. Learn more about Triathlete’s gear review process.

Blueseventy Contour

$40 at BlueSeventy

We appreciated the sturdiness of the strap’s attachment to the actual gaskets, the lens clarity, and the fit on this pair of somewhat unique goggles. Boasting a long gasket extension that extends past the temples – as opposed to the strap attaching right next to the eyes on many pool-style goggles – this design helped provide a low profile. As with any goggles, you may want to fiddle with the included swappable nose bridges to get the right fit, but this was an easy pair to love right out of the box. Our one ding was that the lenses didn’t hold up as well to the abuse of ocean swimming as well as other pairs did, so be sure you rinse them well with fresh water after every session.

Arena Cobra Edge Swipe

$110 at Arena

We’ll put this up top: $100 is a lot of money for a pair of goggles that’s neither custom molded (see: Magic5) or has some sort of heads-up display tech (see: Form). If money was no object, I would have given the Arena Cobra Edge Swipes five stars – but since money is an object, especially on something you’ll need to replace at least once a season, if not more, I had to give it four stars.

In terms of lens quality and comfort, these were some of the best low-profile goggles I’ve tested in a long time. The “swipe” feature keeps these goggles fog-free better than pretty much anything out there. That said, this is a lower-profile pair of goggles, so if you’re looking for extra coverage, field of vision, quicker/on-the-fly adjustment, and/or protection for the open water, you may want to consider Arena’s Tri Swipe goggles.

BornBound Vann

$35 at BornBound

BornBound may not be a familiar name in the tri world, but this new-ish brand makes some of my favorite tri suits and running shorts, along with some other bits of swim, bike, and run gear. Though they only offer their Vann goggles in one lens color at the moment, the shape and features on these goggles had me intrigued.

While the on-the-go strap adjustment is excellent and overall comfort and field of vision for these goggles was impressive, there was an unusual irregularity somewhere either in the lens clarity or the way the eye gaskets spread apart when tightened down, due to the very flexible (maybe too flexible) silicone nose piece. As a result, the goggles created a strange double vision/vision shift sensation that affected the overall experience pretty badly.

If the nose piece was a hard replaceable component like many, it could have helped; or there’s the possibility that I had a one-off issue with production. One way or another it wasn’t a very good sensation – one that I’ve never experienced before in dozens of goggles worn and tested.

Form Smart Swim 2

$280 at Form

Data geeks, rejoice – you now can track just about anything you ever wanted to track in a swim, thanks to the Form Smart Swim 2 goggles. Marketed as “the most advanced goggles ever created,” the Smart Swim 2 seems to be Form’s response to customer reviews of its flagship design. New on the 2 model: a 15% smaller techpack (where the sensors and battery are contained), curved eye seals, an extended strap mount, and a built-in heart rate monitor.

The built-in heart-rate monitor will probably get Form devotees most excited, but don’t discount the comfort upgrades, which are a significant improvement over the Form Smart Swim 1. After all, what’s the point of having real-time data in your goggles if they’re fogged up or full of water? The smaller techpack is also a noticeable upgrade, helping things to feel slightly more balanced when turning the head for a breath.

But upgrades come at a cost – the SmartSwim 2’s $280 price tag is significantly higher than the 1’s $180. And that doesn’t include premium features like in-workout technique coaching, SwimStraight (an open-water goggle compass), the ability to import TrainingPeaks and TriDot workouts, or a workout library of more than 1,500 different sessions. To access those features, you’ll have to pony up an additional $100 per year. One last thing to consider: Goggles (and goggle lenses, in particular) have a pretty finite lifespan, even if you care for them super well; be realistic about how often you actually replace your goggles and factor that into the grand total.

For a more detailed review, check out Triathlete Tests the New Form Smart Swim 2 Heads-Up Display Goggles.

TYR Nest Pro

$28 at SwimOutlet

There’s a reason TYR is the second-most popular goggle with our survey respondents: If you’re looking for the most affordable (yet functional) triathlon goggles, the TYR Nest Pro fits the bill. At just $28, they are the most affordable option on the list.

With a wider lens than traditional goggles (but not as wide as full-coverage open-water models), they provide good peripheral vision, which can help when you’re sighting. Plus, those lenses are UV protected and anti-fog.

The stretchy nosepiece fit well with most faces and is infinitely more durable than interchangeable nosepieces, but it’s a double-edged sword – if you have an extra narrow or extra wide nose bridge, you’re unable to swap it out. That said, the integrated design makes them effectively bulletproof, so you can toss them around and mistreat them more than most. You also don’t have to wear these super tight to your face to avoid leaks, which means you don’t have to worry about noticeable goggle lines around your eyes for an hour (or more) after swimming.

TheMagic5

$90 at Magic5

If you’re able to wear Swedish-style goggles, congratulations. You got lucky in the facial-structure lottery. For the rest of us, finding a pair of goggles that actually fit can be a costly and time-consuming endeavor. Magic5 aims to simplify that by using 3D-printed goggles to create custom-designed gaskets for the curves of a person’s face. Customers can use their smartphone camera to “scan” their face in the Magic5 app, and a few weeks later, a new set of goggles, unlike any othe,r is born.

When the process works, it works really well – the resulting goggles truly do fit perfectly, suction to the face without requiring tight straps, and have all the right angles for a wide peripheral view. Because they fit so well, they don’t create strong “goggle eye” marks after exiting the pool, as you don’t need to wrench them down super tightly.

Because these are custom-made goggles, there’s no more adjusting (save for the strap) after they arrive. That requires the customer to place a lot of trust (and money, to the tune of $90 per pair) in Magic5. However, the company has improved its data-collection and printing processes over the years, so errors are few and far between. When they do occur, the company is quick to investigate, collect more data to address fit concerns, and send out a second pair quickly.

Finally, much like the Form goggles above, be sure to remember that no matter how well they fit, the lenses on most swim goggles don’t live forever, so you may find yourself plunking down another $90 even before your tri season is through.

More on the best triathlon swim goggles

Looking for more options in your triathlon swim goggle hunt? Check out The Best Triathlon Swim Goggles of 2023, featuring reviews of Roka, Huub, Zone3, and more.