Tip: Walmart Ultralight Glasses/Sunglasses Case
It's a blue plastic case, of course.
If you wear prescription glasses or sunglasses on backpacking trips, you need to take extra care to ensure you don’t roll over them at night and smash them to bits. I’ve done it. While you can keep them safe by wearing them during the day, storing them safely at night in your tent or even in your backpack is difficult unless you’re willing to carry a crush-resistant case. Ounce and gram-counters that we are, it can be difficult to find a lightweight case that provides adequate protection while minimizing gear weight. It took me years.
I stumbled onto a good solution to this dilemma several years ago when I bought prescription glasses at Walmart. The glasses sucked, but the plastic glasses cases they give you with each pair work very well. Each one weighs 1.9 oz/56g, and their blue color makes them easy to keep track of. The cases are lightly lined inside to prevent scratches on the lenses and muffle any sounds when you walk. The top lid snaps shut and stays shut even when they’re packed away in your backpack and get jostled with your other gear.
While Walmart will give you a blue case if you buy your glasses in its optical department, it doesn’t appear to sell them elsewhere in the store. In fact, I’ve only been able to find them on eBay for as little as $5 each and nowhere else. If you’ve purchased a pair of glasses at Walmart, you can, and I have, gone into my Walmart store and requested “replacement” cases from them, which they were quite happy to provide. Otherwise, try eBay.
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My Dollar-and-a-Quarter Tree has ultra-lightweight, crush-proof glasses cases with thin craft foam to protect lenses.They are perfect for the uses Philip mentions. Plus, color choices!
A convenient opportunity to also consider acquiring “keepers” for your eyeglasses. Otherwise, glasses are prone to falling off at the worst possible moment, like into a glacial crevice you’re traversing on the Antarctic continent and your backup pair is at the bottom of your pack, somewhere. I use thin silicone keepers because they don’t absorb water and weigh very little. Not the best for hot, humid weather however, still working that issue.
I have never had a problem with crushing, but since I carry both Rx sunglasses and Rx clear glasses, I do need something to keep the pair I’m not wearing from getting scratched. I have been using watch travel pouches. They are very light and have a drawstring at the top.
Once you, or some close member of your family, gets old enough to have occasional surgery, or other hospital procedure requiring temporary use of a hospital johnny, you will be able to acquire all the cheap plastic cases that you want — as long as you remember to grab them before they are thrown out.
Been using variations of this for years:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DYXXZTGN?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1
Work great, can see through to whether its my spare pair or sunglasses.