Want to double the life of your work gloves? Would you like to save money on your work gloves?
Most people overlook the ambidextrous feature of some work gloves and that oversight might turn out to be very expensive in some cases. Our competitors don’t talk about the advantages of ambidextrous work gloves since it reduces glove sales but we like to educate and make our customer’s glove smart.
Simply said, ambidextrous work gloves are gloves that can be worn on either hand. Some manufacturers refer to them as reversible gloves but you get the idea.
I’m sure that many of you never stopped to think about an ambidextrous glove or a non-ambidextrous glove but the difference is very dramatic. One point is that non-ambidextrous gloves have what is called a keystone thumb. A keystone thumb is made from a different piece of fabric or leather and sewn separately into the palm of the glove. Gloves with a keystone thumb are more comfortable and ergonomic since they mimic the hand structure. This feature is very important with very form fitting work gloves or dress gloves. The other type of a thumb design is winged thumbs but they are not very popular today in more modern work gloves in general.
Another type of non-ambidextrous gloves is coated work gloves that are very form fitting and replicate the natural curvature of the hand.
By what I’ve mentioned already may make many of you think that ambidextrous gloves are cheaply made or inferior gloves but this is not the case. It is simply that some gloves lend themselves to this type of glove design opposed to non-ambidextrous glove models. You will see that in the examples below.
As many of you have experienced, under most working conditions where you need to wear protective work gloves, the palms always wear out before the rest of the glove making them useless. So, if you think about it, by simply wearing the glove on the other hand, you reverse the palm side to the back side which extends the usefulness of the gloves. OK, now that the back side may not look pretty but who cares when it comes to work gloves. We’re not talking dress gloves here. We are taking performance in a work glove.
Therefore, once you consider that you can renew the life of the gloves by reversing them, in essence, you have now doubled the working life of your work gloves. This is money saved.
Another example is the fact that in some operations, one glove wears out faster than another like a right hand or a left hand glove. In the case of ambidextrous gloves, you can replace one glove and it doesn’t matter if it’s a right hand or left hand model since it will fit either hand.
To put this in perspective, I’ll give you some examples so you can get a better idea how ambidextrous gloves can possibly apply to your situation. The examples may seem obvious in some cases but it’s good to point out some examples employed by many of our customers.
A factory assembly line is the best example where there is a very high usage of gloves. Therefore, by doubling the life of the gloves that workers use can lead to some very significant savings. So, if you purchase gloves for your factory workers try and find an ambidextrous model. Some examples of these are cotton inspection gloves or utility cotton gloves used in moving items along an assembly line. Our 7 Gauge – Standard Weight Seamless Knit Cotton/Polyester gloves are a good example.
Another good example is ambidextrous heat resistant gloves. In many cases only one heat resistant glove is required in a work activity. In this case and since heat resistant gloves are sold by the pair, an ambidextrous model is more cost effective since you only have to replace one glove at a time and it doesn’t matter if it is a right hand model or a left hand model. Otherwise, if these gloves are not ambidextrous, you will be throwing away either the left handed or right handed glove. See this link as an example.
The same condition applies to some ambidextrous cut-resistant gloves as they do in the ambidextrous heat resistant gloves above. See this link as an example.
Regarding ambidextrous cut-resistant gloves, our Stainless Steel Metal Mesh Gloves are an excellent example. These are widely used in meat cutting activities such as grocery stores, and an ambidextrous feature is ideal since they are shared among many employees and it does not matter if they are right handed or left handed.
The most popular and obvious example of ambidextrous gloves are disposable gloves such as latex, nitrile and vinyl gloves. Although no one ever thinks about it, these gloves are ambidextrous and always have been.
See the following link to see our current offering of ambidextrous work gloves.
If anyone wishes to bring a nice Ambidextrous Gloves to my attention, please let me know.
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Joe McGarry, The Glove Guru