Daniel Vettori, aka ‘Harry Potter’

Some sportspeople’s eyewear is so distinctive it’s transcended mere functionality to become their trademark.

Nicknamed ‘Harry Potter’ for his bespectacled cricketing appearances for New Zealand, Daniel Vettori told Waikato Times he was never comfortable wearing contact lenses. The captain-turned-coach reportedly has severe astigmatism in his left eye and is long-sighted.

Northern Irish 1985 snooker world champion Dennis Taylor’s distinctive spectacles were developed by a snooker commentator. Prior to his TV work, Jack Karnehm served a five-year spectacle-making apprenticeship and his swivel-lens design gave Taylor wider peripheral vision while optimising the optical centre of the lens for looking upwards along the snooker cue, according to The Irish Times.

Dennis Taylor

Dutch footballer Edgar Davids began wearing protective goggles after an operation on his right eye for glaucoma in 1999, according to Soccer Times. As well as getting permission from governing body FIFA to wear them, he also needed dispensation to use Diamox eyewash, since acetazolamide, its primary ingredient, is a banned substance.

Edgar Davids