Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Mostly-perfect winter commuting glove-mitten


A while back I offered my pro bono glove design services to the world. Amazingly, the accolades are not pouring in. And even more amazingly, not a single glove-mitten maker (that I'm aware of) has produced a set.

What gives?

This is easy money, man.

So. Once again, I'm forced to hack the just-ok REI glove-mitten (whoa! as I write this, these just-ok glove-mittens are on clearance for $20/set - that's a good hording price IMO) into a mostly-perfect solution.

Last time, I stitched a water/wind panel on the front of the mitten fingers. This time, I'm covering the full fingers. I figure that will keep the heat in on those sub-freezing rides. We'll see.
That messy-assed stich job took me nearly two hours!
I'd pay up to $58 for these gloves, if you're wondering.
That fleecy stuff holds up pretty well. And it's warm enough.
If you buy a size up, you can wear glove liners for the super cold days.
I'm telling ya, this is a good solution.

For the record, I'm not into the blaze orange. My buddy Jon gave me this fabric -- and it's exactly what I need, so I'm not gift-horse-mouth-knockin here. That's just too much orange. I get the visibility thing, but these are just too much. So if you're a giant corporation looking to take this idea to the bank, please do, but please don't do the hunter orange part. A reflective strip would be nice though.

You're welcome. Again.

8 comments:

Alistair said...

John, nice glove hack. It is amazing that no one makes such a thing already.
Just as amazing (to me), is that no one seems to make a cycling specific overshell type glove (as far as I know).
Thanks for the heads up on the REI clearance glove deal. For $20 I can add them to my glove stash and not worry too much if they're going to work. Cheers.

Jonathan Eberly said...

Pshhhh that blaze orange color is sooo sweet and by my calculations add about 2 mph to my average.

Jordy was looking over my shoulder and said, "did John steal your glove idea?" No comment..

gillsans said...

Two single-wides and some duct tape does not make a double-wide, my friend.

rory said...

https://www.rei.apply2jobs.com/ProfExt/index.cfm?fuseaction=mExternal.showJob&RID=4114&CurrentPage=1

Jonathan Hawkins said...

John I have to say I have found, perhaps the perfect wet winter glove. It is made by Glacier Glove and consists of 2mm neoprene, nylon interior, long gauntlets, velcro strap. Sure, if your sweating there may be moisture but they are H2O Proof and will even warm previously frozen hands, I tried it. These are great at $24.00 and they have an even warmer one all sealed and guaranteed waterproof.

Elissa said...

Hey, if I was in Spokane, I would do a slightly better job stitching those for you. If you want to send some to Japan...

Jonathan Hawkins said...

of course I meant to write "you're".

Pax said...

Hey John, followed your lead and picked up a pair for my sweetie & me for the holidays. Hers worked great, mine too narrow for my native ham-fistedness. Inspired to hack, I also picked up reflective fabric tape (good quality, both 1" and 2", 36' minimum order). I (also) need to work on my hand sewing skills, but it looks & works great. Shoot me your snail mail off-list and I'll send ya a few feet of each, plus some conductive thread in case you use touch phones & gloves