Joe McGarry - Also known as the Glove Guru
Joe formerly founded Polygenex International, Inc. in 1989, the largest specialty knit glove manufacturer in the world at the time. Thousands of companies and users follow his advice on glove manufacturing, or user guidance, and utilize his gloves every day. Joe's specialty is in industrial work and critical environment high-tech gloves.
Joe founded Gloves-Online in 1996 to assist consumers needing to locate hard to find gloves and educate consumers about different glove features and benefits. With just over a quarter century of glove experience, he undoubtedly can give you useful and practical glove advice.
We are very proud to announce that the USDA – United States Department of Agriculture has added our GO GREENS Bamboo Gloves to their armamentarium.
The APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) Division is the USDA division sector that has ordered considerable amounts of the GO Greens® Bamboo Gloves since they are economical, earth friendly, durable, and have a high grip for their tree climbers.
This is a very exciting endorsement and addition to the many users and organizations across the globe that use the GO Greens® Bamboo Gloves for use in their routine work and jobs. We believe it says not only a lot about the quality of our GO Greens Gloves but our company as well.
The tree climbing aspect is a new one for me but I will leave that up to those workers to enjoy.
See the GO Greens® Bamboo listing at the link below which also includes a nice video about them:
For nearly 50 years, APHIS has been protecting the health and value of America’s agricultural and natural resources. It’s a vital mission: Healthy and profitable American agriculture provides food and clothing for countless people worldwide and is a key pillar of our economy.
Millions of people benefit from APHIS’ programs and services every day. As our name suggests, APHIS’ work centers around animal and plant health, but our programs also address animal welfare, biotechnology, wildlife damage management, and global trade. Although APHIS may not be a household name, our efforts are seen and felt both far and wide. From ensuring an abundant and affordable food supply, safeguarding air travel against wildlife-related accidents, and sheltering household pets from harm during a disaster, to protecting the trees in our forests and communities, APHIS’ work touches people’s lives in a multitude of ways.
Let me know if you have any questions and thank you for subscribing.
Joe McGarry
The Glove Guru
GO Greens® is a registered trademark of Gloves-Online. Inc.
Once again, we are honored and proud to provide our distinct White Military Honor Guard Gloves and Parade Gloves for another important event in the United Kingdom and this one is more celebratory honoring the King Charles’ upcoming Coronation in the United Kingdom on May 6th.
It was only last September, when we were rushed to supply over 1,200 pairs of the same gloves for the Queen’s funeral events which was very somber but this time this royal event is more pompous and grander which is more uplifting and moving due to this rare historical occasion.
We have supplied our distinct gloves to many special events world-wide for over 25 years to many countries from Australia to the UAE including the UK and the many US Military units across the country.
Due to the large number of Honor Guard Gloves ordered, we anticipate that the Coronation is going to be a rather large royal ceremonial event.
As you can imagine, it is very exciting for us to see our gloves in action on the live news broadcasts and we are honored that the British Family Royal House of Windsor continues to choose our gloves due to our high quality and excellent service.
It amazes me that common work, gardening, and landscaping gloves used outdoors do not offer UV protection since skin cancer is the most common cancer in the U.S. Too much sun can cause skin cancer according to the CDC.
Most skin cancers are caused by too much exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light. UV rays are an invisible kind of radiation that comes from the sun and UV rays can damage skin cells.
As noted by the CDC, protection from UV rays is important all year, not just during the summer months. Did you know that UV rays can reach you on cloudy and cool days, and they reflect off surfaces like water, cement, sand and even snow. Therefore, it is very important to wear certified UV protective work gloves when working outdoors to reduce the risk of skin cancers.
Many heavy-duty work gloves like full leathers, welding and rubber electrical safety gloves offer natural UV protection due to their thickness but most common thinner work and garden gloves do not offer any UV protection.
I am proud to say that we have offered a very tenacious multi-purpose work and garden glove with certified UV protection since 2009 and many of our customers are not aware of this unique feature in this very popular and versatile work glove.
These gloves have many unique features but the feature most overlooked is the UV protection that they offer.
The GO Greens® Bamboo Gloves provide excellent UV protection from UV-A and UV-B rays naturally without any chemical treatments. Certified independent tests demonstrate that they block 99.97% of both UV-A and UV-B rays and have a UPF 50+ rating. This UPF (UV Protection Factor) rating is used for textiles and should not be confused with the SPF rating for FDA compliant sunscreen products.
These multi-purpose earth friendly form fitting coated work gloves are also made from sustainable bamboo, are 100% biodegradable, anti-bacterial, very economic, fiber wicks away moisture, and extremely durable with a high grip foam coating. They are also Oeko-Tex standard 100 certified.
Since I am discussing UV protection, I would also like to add that we also offer warm weather cooling sleeves that also offer UV protection and are great for people who work outdoors during the hot summer months. You can find them by typing UV in our search bar or at the UV Protection Glove link below.
If it is important for you, we have copies of the UV protection testing certification on the GO Greens® Bamboo Gloves in the glove listing on our web site.
As usual, it amazes me that other glove manufacturers have not paid attention to the benefits of UV protection in work gloves that they make but we are true glove expert developers and manufacturers and try to cover all the protection bases in gloves when we can. However, the natural UV protection benefits of our unique bamboo fiber made my job very easy with the GO Greens® Bamboo Gloves.
This will be Cary’s 40th year as a Tree City USA community since 1983 and we are fortunate enough to be headquartered in this wonderful green conscious town in North Carolina.
Sarah Justice, the environmental outreach program coordinator of Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources and her great staff have been very busy preparing for this wonderful event so don’t miss it.
The Arbor Day celebration will be held this Saturday near the town hall campus at the Page-Walker Arts and History Center courtyard, noon-3 p.m.
Celebrate Cary’s commitment to our urban forests with live music, local food, kids’ activities, and more! Enjoy a live falconer demonstration, paint a bluebird house to take home, ask an arborist about the trees in your yard, or pick up a native sapling while supplies last. This event will include free fun for the whole family plus the chance to engage with environmental experts about native plants, healthy soils, and going green at home. Don’t miss the chance to register to win a free compost bin, rain barrel, or native plant gardening kit while we celebrate Cary’s 40th year as a Tree City USA community. Learn more at https://www.carync.gov/recreation-enjoyment/events/environmental-events/arbor-day
We are pleased to participate in this event with the Garden Kit Raffles with our unique earth-friendly GO Greens Bamboo Gloves, a multi-purpose garden and work glove.
Additionally, they will also have a native tree giveaway program for residents.
In case you didn’t know, the green conscious Town of Cary has 30 public parks and natural areas, a green-way system of more than 80 miles, and four sports venues. Cary also operates the Good Hope Farm which is a community-supported urban farm supporting the local food system through events and workshops, farm-growth produce, and resources for new farmers. Their mission is to marry Cary’s agricultural past with an innovative future by connecting beginning farmers to affordable farmland and our community to local food.
We know that most of our subscribers are not local to us but the many who are, may find this event worthwhile.
See the links below to learn more about our GO Greens Bamboo Gloves.
Gloves-Online is proud to announce the addition of the US Mesh line of Stainless-Steel Metal Mesh gloves by Worldwide Protective Products.
GO Gloves has sold metal mesh gloves for almost 2 decades and the US MESH line adds a larger range of models which is vital for our food processing, restaurant, and food service customers.
This new line is also assembled in the USA and delivery will be quicker since the US Mesh factory is located near to us. This new product line became available to us since it became a new member of the PIP Global family of gloves. We have also negotiated favorable pricing which we will pass along to our customers.
We will be adding the various models to our inventory on a one-by-one basis, and we should have the full range available in the coming weeks.
Initially, we added the Standard Size Stainless Steel Glove with the web strap and the model with the spring cuff along with the extended cuff forearm model with the spring cuff.
The added benefit with adding the Worldwide Protective Products to our glove armamentarium is that we will also be introducing new customized cut and abrasion knit gloves for our automotive and food processing customers where cut and abrasion risks are high. This new line made from special blended super-strong fibers will be introduced shortly and we will let you know when they become available. These special gloves are also produced in the USA in Wilkesboro, NC.
In the meantime, please see the link to the US Mesh Glove line below:
This week, I received a surprise email from one of our loyal and long-term glove customers. It included an image from their 40th Annual Professional Santa Claus School held earlier this month in Denver, Colorado. The photo above is the Class of 2022 wearing our gloves.
The title on the photo image says it all: Santa’s source for gloves since 1996. Yep, that’s 26 years!
Susen Mesco, the founding director of this special Santa Claus School since 1983 was kind enough to send me this image which was a pleasant surprise.
For your information, this Santa Claus organization is much more than just a Santa Claus School, they also arrange many Santa Claus events and Santa Claus visits across the country. You can see the link to this Santa Claus organization below to see all the many things they do and provide to bring more enjoyment to your Christmas time events.
Regarding our special Santa Claus Gloves, we even have a distinctive link on our web site which is devoted exclusively to our most popular Santa Claus Gloves. We have many glove styles for both Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus including Beaded Grip Glove models for handling small toys to Long Winter Glove models for those outdoor parades and events.
As many of you may already know, we have supplied Santa Claus Gloves to many Santa’s around the world and for the many special event companies that stage the Santa kiosks at many Shopping Malls across the country including as far away as Australia.
GO GLOVES is honored and proud to be an important supplier of gloves for the Queen’s Royal State funeral events.
This week we expedited several cases of our special White Gloves to England for the Queens funeral events. That would be over 1,200 pair in case you were curious.
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised since we have supplied gloves to various military dealers in the UK for years for their pageantry and parade uses. As most know, England is famous for their formal pomp and ceremony events and since we have the broadest selection of military dress gloves, we have a longstanding following for over 25 years now in the UK and the USA. In fact, we also supply gloves to the Funeral Honor Guards in Arlington Cemetery in Washington D.C.
Coincidentally, I was about to create a post this week about selecting Military Dress Gloves, but I think I will wait since I may have some new images from the Queen’s State Funeral.
The Covid pandemic drove certain glove sales to new highs the last two (2) years. This was especially the case for single use disposable gloves, but no one anticipated the unmet demand for Cryogenic Low Temperature Safety Gloves.
Therefore, I thought it would be useful for me to bring these gloves to everyone’s attention and the safety benefits that they have provided workers around the world even up to today. It is always good to be in-the-know about glove issues like these.
First, to inform you, Cryogenics is the science that addresses the production and behavior of extremely low (cold) temperatures.
Cryogenics is widely used in fields including rocket fuels in Aerospace programs and projects, Mining Operations, MRI Machines, Cryotherapy, Bio-Medical, Handling of Vaccines, Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Nitrogen manufacturing and services, Home Health Oxygen Services, Frozen Food Operations, and Laboratory testing just to name a few.
Cryogenic Safety
I prefer to discuss this issue up-front since it is very important for user safety issues.
Cryogenic safety is very important with hand safety since the extreme cold can cause very harmful and damaging skin burns and even frostbite.
Temperature Examples are: Liquid Nitrogen Boiling Point is -196oC (-320oF); and Liquid Oxygen Boiling Point is -183oC (-297oF).
Therefore, you will require specific and certified gloves that will meet and withstand these harmful low temperatures and meet the appropriate standards. These standards include: EN 511, EN 388, EN 420, and for the Liquid Nitrogen Gloves, they must meet: Static Charge Resistance NASA MMA-1985-79; Cryogen Penetration Resistance ASTMF 903, Procedure D 10 minutes; Limited Oxygen Index (LOI) ASTMD 2863, and Flame Resistance ASTMD 6413. Your Safety Officer should be able to provide you with further assistance for on-the-job safety with cryogenics.
NOTE: Anyone handling cryogenic liquids should be familiar and knowledgeable about the hazards presented by such materials and trained in how to handle them safely. Emergency procedures should be established and rehearsed, proper training in the operation of all equipment provided and knowledge and appreciation of hazardous properties of the materials instilled. Cryogenic liquids should never be handled without proper protective safety gear.
Generally recommended protective apparel for handling cryogenic liquids include the following: Proper fitting gloves*, Protective face shield and goggles, Protective apron without pockets, Protective gaiters, Pants without cuffs, Shoes without laces.
*Proper Fitting Gloves: For maximum dexterity, comfort, and safety, cryogenic gloves must fit properly. Although gloves should be loose enough to allow for quick removal, if necessary, a glove that is too large impairs dexterity and function. A glove that is too tight will lead to thermal loss. I will provide a glove fitting guide below.
The TEMPSHIELD Brand of Cryogenic Safety Gloves and Products
Over 15 years ago, GO Gloves (Gloves-Online) narrowed our line of Cryogenic Gloves down to the Tempshield line of products. Although there are a few notable Cryogenic glove manufacturers, we limited our offerings to the Tempshield brand due to their superior quality, and high standard for materials and workmanship. Additionally, their products are certified by the United States and International testing agencies which is vital since we sell these gloves around the world. Besides their high-quality standards, and extended glove product line, they also offer exceptional customer service and timely delivery. I would also like to add that their pricing is very reasonable since these gloves are handmade and crafted to-order and we all know about those high labor costs.
Another very nice bonus is that the Tempshield Gloves are made in the USA. This became a very vital issue recently due to the accelerated demand for Cryogenic Gloves, which are required for workers handling the Covid vaccines on a world-wide basis as I previously mentioned. As most of you have heard and seen on the news, these vaccines must be stored in an ultra-cold freezer. I have no doubt that many of you may recall seeing the workers handling the vaccine kits and those thick blue gloves.
Cryogenic Glove Model Options including Cryogenic Safety Products
Since we carry over 35 different models of cryogenic products, I will refrain from discussing the features of each model below for the sake of brevity (including reading time) and since the features of each model is represented on our web site listings for these models including model lengths and sizing, etc.
Models include Wrist Length, Mid-Arm Length, Elbow Length, and Shoulder Length.
One notable new model are the new Tempshield LOX Cryo-Gloves which is a newly commercialized glove specifically made for handling hazardous Liquid Oxygen. These gloves were in limited production and specifically made upon request for the military and NASA for their aerospace programs and projects. The good news is that we now have available the LOX Cryogenic Line of products in LOX Gloves, Lox Safety Kits, LOX Aprons, and LOX Gaiters. We are very proud to finally be able to offer these to our commercial and industrial customers around the world.
I have provided a link to each model as a reference, and you can also find a “related” link in each product listings. Please note that each model below is a single listing since the gloves come in various models as mentioned above.
A quick tip primer about Novax Electrical Safety Gloves
We have sold the prominent Novax Electrical Insulated Gloves from PIP for over 15 years now, shortly after the Novax Company began producing the Class 0 & 00 Insulating gloves in Malaysia. They have since been used as life-saving protective gloves by our customers in many trades. These work-related trades include applications such as Power Generation, Electrical Contractors, Linemen, Plant Maintenance, Utility Work, Mining Operations, and Electric Vehicle Repair, Service, and Manufacturing.
From an interesting historical perspective, after learning more about electrical shock energy back in 2007, I find it amazing that Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison didn’t perish from their early inventions and tests with electrical energy. As you can imagine, they had no protective means in those early days. Think about it.
The Novax line of rubber insulated gloves are certified under many standards and regulations including 29CFR part 1910; ASTM D120-14a; and the NFPA 70E certifications just to name a few of the most important and popular standards of the 9 standards that these apply to. You can contact me directly if you have a safety standard that you require if that is necessary for your industry.
Note: The natural rubber raw material used in the Novax Gloves Insulating Gloves is kept in its natural aqueous state, as opposed to the solvent dip process used by other manufacturers which uses extensive amounts of volatile compounds (VOC’s). Our Novax gloves retain more of the beneficial physical properties of natural rubber which is demonstrated in the physical property tests required in the ASTM D120 testing requirements. This process also keeps the gloves very nimble and dexterous opposed to competing models.
Testing
Another vital aspect of the Novax brand is that these gloves are “made to order” to ensure that they are compliant with 29 CFR 1910.137 specification which requires testing on first issue and every six months thereafter. Additionally, the Novax Gloves are individually serial numbered for traceability and stamped with the factory manufacturing date. If the insulating gloves have been electrically tested but not issued for service, they may not be placed into service unless they have been electrically tested within the previous 12 months.
Glove Types and Styles
We offer the widest selection of Novax Rubber Insulated Glove sizing and lengths, model types, and electrical classifications which I will cover below. This includes sizes from 7-12 in most models which includes woman’s sizes, and lengths from 11” to 18”, and Electrical Classifications from 00 to 4. Our styles include the traditional Straight Cuffs and Bell-Shaped Cuffs. For those of you new to the glove cuff selection, the Bell-Shaped cuffs are designed for a more comfortable fit under heavy clothing such as winter coats or other types of thick protective sleeves.
EV (Electric Vehicle Gloves) – Class 0
(Class 0 = Use AC Voltage of 1,000 & Use DC Voltage of 1,500)
The Novax Gloves are the most prevalent models used today in Electric Vehicle manufacturing, repair, and maintenance. Currently, the class of choice are the Class 0 models. This may change due to advancements, and it would be wise to check the vehicle manual for the vehicle’s specifications.
These models are often referred to as models used for hybrid electric cars since they were originally designed for hybrid vehicles, but the gloves referred to as “hybrid models” will also work for today’s fully electric vehicles. They fall into the same Class of 0.
Selecting an Electrical Insulating Glove
How do I know what glove to use?
First, you should determine the maximum voltage that you will be exposed to during your work. Once you have determined the risk, you can use the chart below to determine the appropriate class of glove that will provide you the protection required to complete your job safely. Each class of gloves is clearly marked with the maximum use voltage on the permanent color-coded label.
Leather protectors should always be worn with rubber insulating gloves. ASTM F696 provides the specification for the manufacture of Leather Protectors. Leather protectors are sized to be worn on the same size rubber insulating glove so if you wear a size 10 rubber insulating glove you should order a size 10 leather protector.
The length of the protectors are determined by the class. Certain leather protectors are used with specific classes of rubber gloves according to their length. The protectors are not interchangeable with the different classes of rubber gloves.
Cleaning and Storage
How should rubber insulating gloves be cleaned and stored?
Wash in warm water (85oF) with mild detergent, disinfect with a small amount of chlorine bleach. Air or tumble dry at low heat (165oF). Gloves may be dusted lightly with talc to reduce tackiness. Gloves should be stored in a glove bag, finger tips up, hung and not laid flat. Leather protectors should be removed before storage. Never fold gloves. Store in as dry and cool (95oF maximum) location as possible, away from sources of ozone and direct sunlight.
Thank you for subscribing,
Joe McGarry
The Glove Guru
Wash in warm water (85oF) with mild detergent, disinfect with a small amount of chlorine bleach. Air or tumble dry at low heat (165oF). Gloves may be dusted lightly with talc to reduce tackiness. Gloves should be stored in a glove bag, finger tips up, hung and not laid flat. Leather protectors should be removed before storage. Never fold gloves. Store in as dry and cool (95oF maximum) location as possible, away from sources of ozone and direct sunlight.
