In recent years, Marker has expanded its offerings into the helmet and goggle world. For 2017, its flagship is the Phoenix Carbon helmet designed with a lightweight Multi-Impact Adaptive Polymer (MAP), a three-part hybrid construction allowing 15 to 22% more absorption than traditional materials. That's a mouthful of techno information, so what does it all mean? That this is one advanced brain bucket.
The Phoenix Carbon has different layers of materials integrated into a three-piece shell, which makes it one of the smartest helmets on the market. I am planning to never need to use all of its technology. On the head, the fit is snug and uniform and moves well with no movement or loss of comfort. Marker has followed the trend of using a magnetic closure that is easily adjustable and works seamlessly with or without gloves. The beauty is its simplicity: why all recreational helmets have not gone down this path is beyond me. The earpieces are warm and slightly contoured for comfort and compatible with different-sized speakers. I installed the Outdoor Research Universal Speakers in mine, and had no loss of comfort and minimal loss of outside sounds.
Helmets are no longer merely for safety; looks are just as important. I tend not to be a fan of basic black (too boring), but the Carbon top shell is done in a tasteful gloss and matte carbon finish with a white bottom and red accents; it's classy, timeless, and matches most every outfit by either complementing or contrasting depending on your taste. Marker has found a great balance of form and function.
The 16:10 is a large-fit goggle that doesn’t fit like one. Most are cumbersome and can look like a bay window on your face. The “large fit” does make a difference compared to other comparably sized goggles when it comes to peripheral vision. With some goggles, you still see the edge of the lens or reflection on the padding, but not with the 16:10+. You really have to look for any padding reflection, and Marker smartly uses dark-colored foam on the inside of the frame so there are minimal reflections against the lens. Marker also integrates MAP in the goggles; again, I hope I never need to test it out, but I can think of a few falls in which it would have helped disperse the energy from the impact.
Back to the lenses, my Signal Red-framed goggles were shipped with the Yellow Plasma Mirror as the main lens and the Clarity Mirror low-light lens as the + (extra). The Yellow Plasma, on the lighter side of the scale for a two-lens system, is very versatile and could be used as the only lens. For my older eyes, it has quickly become one of my favorites. I will say that swapping the lenses isn’t as easy as some systems, but with a little practice it becomes pretty intuitive. I would still suggest keeping a cloth handy for wiping off the fingerprints. The goggles do include a high-quality hard case and extra lens bag to keep things protected.
It is obvious that the Phoenix Otis and the 16:10+ goggles were designed to work together: the fit is accurate, the ventilation integration works as designed, and cosmetically they match perfectly. To me, that is as much as you can expect from any product. A brand reintroducing itself to this market segment is immediately becoming a force to be reckoned with and should be on anyone's radar.