Wondering if The Magic5 Swim Goggles live up to all the hype? Here’s a goggles-on review of these customized swim goggles from the lap pool.
Frustrated with swim goggles that leak, are uncomfortable, leave deep, long-lasting racoon eyes, and even give you headaches?
The Magic5 Swim Goggles promise to make all of those things history.
The world’s first truly customized swimming goggle, The Magic5 Goggles represent a huge step forward in the experience of swim goggles.
In this hands-on, in-the-pool review of The Magic5 Swim Goggles, I’ll detail my experience using these swim goggles.
Having spent a LONG time swimming laps in the pool, as an age group swimmer, national qualifier, Olympic Trials qualifier, and finally as a 5x a week, noon-hour lap swimmer, I’ve tried every swim goggle under the chlorinated sun.
In this guide, I’ll highlight the obvious benefits of the goggles, some not-so-obvious pros of the goggles, and a couple of things I didn’t like about them.
By the end, you will have a crystal-clear idea if The Magic5 Swim Goggles are right for you and your swim workouts.
So let’s dive in (pun completely intended!) and look closer at what makes The Magic5 Swim Goggles one of the best swim goggles in the water.
The Magic5 Swim Goggles – What in the World Are They?
The Magic5 Swim Goggles are a unique type of swim goggles that are custom-fitted to your individual face shape.
They are designed to provide a comfortable, leak-free fit that lasts throughout your swim.
Unlike traditional swim goggles that use straps and buckles to adjust the fit, the Magic5 goggles use a custom mold of your face—built through a scan of your face using an app and your smartphone—to create a personalized fit that is tailored to your exact shape.
My Experience with the Magic5 Swimming Goggles
Having worn and tested four different sets of The Magic5 Swim Goggles (they offer awesome deals when buying in bulk) there were a lot of things that I really liked about these swim goggles.
The big stand-out items include:
✅ They are specifically tailored to the shape of your face
Let’s hit the most obvious benefit of these swim goggles right off the bat—they are purely and totally custom-designed for the shape and contours of your face.
The Magic5 app scans your face through the camera on your smartphone, measuring out the unique distances and depth around the eye socket, creating customized goggle gaskets that sink perfectly into your face.
As a result, this makes the Magic5 goggles a truly unique swim goggle… to you.
It was a weird sensation placing the gaskets on my face for the first time—never before, through decades of swimming, had I experienced a swim goggle that sunk perfectly into the contours of my face.
The Magic5 Swim Goggles are truly one-of-one swim goggles. Bad news, perhaps, for lane-mates who want to borrow a set of goggles at practice.
✅ These are some good-looking swim goggles
Let’s be honest: the function of the swim goggles gets a ton of air time, and deservedly so, but these swim goggles look great.
They have a mirrored tint (the Magic5 swim goggles also come in clear and colored tints, as we will see shortly), side arms for extra stability, and silicone head straps that sit snugly around the head.
✅ The Magic5 have an extremely thin profile and gasket
Of all the swim goggles that I have used over the years, from the top-of-the-line Speedo FastSkin goggle to what I thought was the champ for slimmest goggle gasket, the Arena Cobra Ultra Swipes, I’ve never seen a goggle gasket thinner than the Magic5.
Which surprised me a little bit, to be honest. But once I pulled out my trusty tape measure I was able to confirm it. The gasket is a shade under 0.5” thick.
Why does this matter?
For a couple of very important reasons.
First, the goggles sink into your face, not protruding out of the profile of your face, making it much less likely that the swim goggles will fall off when you dive into the water. (Super important, as we all know!)
And second, that slim profile means a little bit less resistance in the water. Cause every last little bit matters when you are chasing down a new personal best time in the water.
✅ They reduce headaches and raccoon eyes from goggle wear
When I was in high school and college, it was not uncommon for me to be in the water up to 11x a week, for two hours at a time. That’s a lot of time with swim goggles strapped to your face.
And no matter how soft the gasket, or how much I loosened the head straps, over time I started getting headaches at swim practice from the goggles.
Not to mention the red circles around my eyes.
Now, I don’t swim nearly that much anymore, but there are some swim goggles out there that leave marks and give headaches with far less than an hour of wear.
The Magic5 Swim Goggles are not one of them.
While they don’t make those red circles go away completely, they do reduce them as the goggles are designed to not be worn too tightly.
✅ No leaking!
These are by far the best swim goggles for people who struggle with leaky swim goggles. There is truly nothing more infuriating than trying to complete a swim workout and having to stop every length to empty out a leaky goggle gasket.
Because The Magic5 gasket is tailored to your exact face, there is no leaking.
Related: 3 Swim Workouts for Building Muscle (and How to Avoid Losing Muscle Mass in the Pool)
(Of course, no goggle is ever perfect, even customized swim goggles. The Magic5 backs up the goggles with a leak-free guarantee in the event that the goggles aren’t performing up to your leak-free expectations.)
What I Didn’t Love About the Magic5 Swim Goggles
It is difficult to find fault with these swim goggles. For even moderately serious lap swimmers, the Magic5 are a total game-changer. But surely, there must be some downsides to the goggles?
Well, there is one…
A bit pricey for the occasional lap swimmer
The Magic5 Swim Goggles are not the cheapest set of swim goggles in my swim bag.
While not as pricey as the “smart” swim goggles, like the FORM Swim Goggles and FINIS Smart Goggles (which have literal heads-up-displays in them), the Magic5’s retail for between $60-90 per set.
In my opinion, this puts it out of the price range for the very casual swimmer who only goes 1-2 times per week.
For everyone else, though, the Magic5’s are a no-brainer for both training and competition.
Magic5 Swim Goggles — FAQs
What makes the Magic5 Swim goggles different from other goggles?
The most obvious difference between The Magic5 Swim Goggles and the other options on the market is that the gasket is custom-fitted.
This feature is not available on other swim goggles, even by the major swim brands like Speedo, Arena, and TYR. The Magic5 Goggles are individually made, with each gasket 3D printed to the unique specifications of each swimmer’s face.
Pretty friggin’ cool, when you think about it.
How do the Magic5 Swim Goggles get custom-fitted?
After you order The Magic5 Swim Goggles from their official website, download the Magic5 app to your smartphone.
The app guides you through a face scan using the camera on your smartphone (the way you hold your phone and turn your head to get the full scan varies by device, so double-check the instructions before starting to avoid frustration).
Once the scan is completed and uploaded, the scan is sent to a 3D printer that builds your unique goggle gasket.
A week or two later, those brand-spankin’ new swim goggles show up in the mail.
The scan is stored in your profile on the app, so if you want to order a new set of Magic5 goggles—they are coming out with new and limited edition colors and tints all the time—you can quickly re-submit it and get that same, custom-fit gasket design.
Are the Magic5 Swim goggles worth it?
For regular lap swimmers, competitive swimmers, triathletes, and open water swimmers, the Magic5 Swim Goggles are unequivocally worth the investment.
Swimmers spend a lot of time in the water, going up and down the lane, around the black line, and staring at the pace clock. Why wouldn’t you use swim goggles that are leak-free, exceptionally comfortable, look great and are built to last?
As mentioned earlier, the very casual lap swimmer, the kind of person who goes to the pool maybe 1-2 a month, can get by with a set of “standard” swim goggles that cost around $15 or so.
But for folks like me who consistently and deeply smell like chlorine, are at the pool all the time, and don’t want to compromise when it comes to vision and comfort, the Magic5 Swim Goggles are a no-brainer.
| ✅ PROS | ❌ CONS |
| Only customized goggles on the market | Too pricey for the very occasional rec swimmer |
| Leak-free guarantee | |
| Tons of tints and color options | |
| Carry case included | |
| Eliminates headaches and *most* of red circles after swimming | |
| Super slim goggle gasket profile |
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