Bell Choir Gloves Archives

Santa Claus glove sales indicate a very different Christmas season due to Covid-19

Posted on October 26, 2020 by The Glove Guru

Santa Claus glove sales are very different this Christmas season due to the Covid-19 virus since I am seeing a downturn in our Santa Claus style White Glove sales with our regular shopping mall operators. These operators traditionally order their glove supplies for their Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus’ exhibits by September or early October and this has occurred for many years going back for over 2 decades now. Furthermore, this includes our mall and department store operators not only in North America but in other countries like Australia and so forth.

There won’t even be any Miracle of 34^th Street this year since Santa won’t be visiting any Macy’s stores in 2020 ending an almost 160 year Holiday Season tradition which started in 1861.

I feel very sad for the children anticipating their visit to Santa this year to reveal their gift wishes. However, I can’t place any blame on the mall and department store operators to help eliminate additional possibilities of the virus spread. Although, it does appear that most malls may have Santa’s behind Plexiglas for picture taking. They just won’t need a fresh supply of clean white gloves. See my teaching moment comment in my conclusion.

A lot of our glove sales have weakened this year due to the virus and, as you can imagine, this includes our sales to church groups and church ushers, Bell Choirs, doormen, many major hotel chains, restaurants, and catering companies. I refer to these glove sales as our hospitality segment.

Major parades such as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade have also been cancelled due to the virus. This also affects our Band Glove sales to marching band units and cheer units which has always been a traditional prop to our holiday seasonal glove sales.

Interesting enough, I’ve found that for many years, certain gloves sales are a barometer and indicator for many occurrences. For example, I can track cold weather patterns across the country by the mere sales of cold and winter weather gloves. We also saw an unprecedented sellout of our single use disposable gloves when the pandemic hit. We can also see at this time of year new orders for our High-Visibility gloves when daylight savings time ends.

As far as our Santa gloves, I’m not complaining since that business will come back next year. I’m simply sharing how everyone is affected by the Covid-19 virus and I’m sympathizing for the children that have to sacrifice that cherished visit with Santa Claus this year.

The up-side to this matter: The most positive aspect is that this can become a good teaching moment for our children. It can be used to emphasize the importance of wearing masks and social distancing since even Santa Claus can get the virus.

Links to Gloves featured in this post:

High-Visibility Gloves

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The Glove Guru

Joe McGarry

The Best Handbell Gloves

Posted on September 19, 2019 by The Glove Guru

This is a useful guide for selecting the best Handbell Gloves for Ringers for their individual need and use. These suggestions are based on over 25 years of making and selling gloves for Bell Ringers and Bell Choirs. We even have a special category link on our Home page devoted to Handbell Gloves.

Cotton Gloves verses Nylon Gloves

My first major suggestion is DON’T buy nylon gloves for Handbell Gloves! Always buy and use 100% COTTON gloves.

Cotton gloves for handbell use are better for the following reasons. First, 100% Cotton gloves last much longer than nylon gloves and fit the hand better (snugger) for better dexterity. Additionally, cotton protects the bells better due to its density and softness. Cotton gloves also act as a better barrier from hand oils that will tarnish the bells. Blended cotton gloves are OK but blended cotton gloves tend to be inferior since they are generally blended with weaker fibers to make them less expensive than 100% cotton gloves. Blended gloves are also less durable and the seams tend to break down quicker.

It should be noted that gloves made from 100% cotton are also washable and can be bleached when they become soiled.

Nylon gloves may look good and are more size friendly since they stretch but they are weaker. They also tend to get runs like nylon stockings due to the active stress from the constant hand movements. This includes stress on the stretchy seams which will split quickly. Nylon gloves are also slick and slippery which is undesirable when good grip is essential. By having to grip the bells harder with nylon gloves due to the slippery issue also creates hand fatigue.

Colors: Black & White

Although White Gloves are the most popular, many bell choirs prefer to use Black Gloves. It’s really a matter of choice but it is presumed that the Black Gloves are used since they will not show any soiling over time.

Dotted Palm Glove Models for better grip

Our glove models with the rubber Dotted Palms and Fingers are by far the most popular models with ringers. They offer a much better grip which also provides more dexterity and less hand fatigue. We also have gloves without the dotted palms and fingers for those that prefer a slicker grip.

Handbell Glove Models

We offer 8 different Handbell Glove models. Although this many may seem to be perplexing, we really have 4 models when you consider we offer the same models in either black or white.

MC-571 – Deluxe Beaded Grip Sure Gloves with Velcro Wrist Closure

These are our most popular Handbell Gloves which come in both Black and White Models. These are the ultimate grip gloves which offer robust gripping and reinforcement elements in high stress areas of the gloves including the thumb crotch. Even the side finger panels (fourchettes) are dotted for extra dexterity.

This model also has a special Velcro Wrist Strap Closure for a more comfortable and snug fit.

This model is very popular among active ringers due to their high dexterity, extra durability, and long glove life.

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MC-550 – White Cotton Beaded Gloves

This is our other very popular Handbell Glove model.

These are the beaded palm and finger version of our most popular white gloves.

I’ve only listed here our two most popular Handbell gloves but you can use the link below to see all 8 models. It would be too redundant to list all of the gloves in this post. The other models include Black versions and extra-long versions for those that prefer to hide their skin.

See all Handbell Gloves using this link.

Thank you for subscribing to my blog and please let me know if you have any questions.

Joe McGarry

The Glove Guru

White Gloves

Posted on July 11, 2019 by The Glove Guru

White Gloves

White Gloves happens to be one of the most popular searched key words in regards to gloves on the internet search engines. It’s also interesting that white gloves happen to be our largest selling gloves in terms of volume.

To give you a little history, White Gloves happened to be our first product line on Gloves-Online back in 1996. To put this time-line in an interesting perspective, this was even before Google was live.

We introduced white gloves since people were searching for these using our static web site that only had an email contact link along with glove information. This was before internet shopping carts. People kept asking us where they could purchase white gloves so with their help; they did our marketing research to introduce white gloves as our first product.

This wasn’t exactly a rabbit out of that hat idea as an internet product idea since we were already an established domestic glove manufacturer. We used Gloves-Online to sell the high-tech gloves that we manufactured but we also needed some consumer gloves to help with our visibility on the early Netscape browser search engine at the time. Maybe that brings back some memories for old times sake. I doubt you Millennials have a clue what I’m referring to here.

The vast majority of the White Gloves we sell today are cotton gloves and nylon gloves. Although we also sell white leather gloves which are only popular in the winter months and normally only used as a nice fashion accessory, my focus will cover our cotton and nylon gloves. Another large category for white gloves is satin and silk gloves which I will discuss in the future. These models are normally used for weddings and balls.

Our White Gloves today:

As you can tell by the paragraph above, we’ve got the white glove category covered. The important issue is that not only are we an authority on gloves, we have 30 years of glove manufacturing know-how and expertise.

This brings up another matter. Quality and trust from these years of making and selling white gloves. We not only know how to make a good quality glove for a fair and reasonable price, we also know what the market wants, needs, and likes in gloves.

The white gloves we make and sell today are much different than the ones we introduced in 1996 except for a select few nylon models. Over the years, we learned what people liked in these gloves and what people preferred as far as glove design, glove fit, glove feel, and glove function. I often say that when it comes to gloves, it’s all about the 3 F’s. Fit, feel, and function.

Another aspect is pricing. It’s a big mistake to think that people buy gloves based on price. Although, people are very cost conscious, people don’t want gloves that are too thin that you can see through them. They don’t want gloves where the knit gauge is too high were they end up stretching and falling off. Nor do customers want gloves that fall apart due to poor stitching.

A big mistake that people often make when searching for white gloves on the internet is they cannot judge the quality or type of glove. They simply type in “white gloves” in the search and up pops the following types. Cheap inspection gloves used in manufacturing operations to eliminate finger prints on products or inexpensive thin therapy gloves from the chain drug stores that are used primarily for wound protection or therapeutic creams. Although our gloves can be used in these cases since they are made from 100% pure quality cotton, most people want gloves for special events where they look great and feel great.

A point to always remember: “You get what you pay for.”

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Popular White Glove Categories

I’m sure you never sat back and thought about all of the uses that people need white gloves for so I listed the most popular categories. To help you, these categories are linked to our web site in case you are reading this for the first time and looking for a glove in the general category you’re searching. Note: The site search on our web site will do the same.

When you link to any of the categories below, the header in that category describes the type of gloves that are listed in that specific glove category.

You may also find this list amusing if it’s new to you. The other funny aspect is that these categories are only the most popular. If you know of a good one, please let me know, we would enjoy your feedback.

For example, we know that some of our gloves are used for Bell Choirs but we have this covered under our Church Glove category.

Here’s this list:

Band Gloves

Church Gloves

Cotillion Gloves

Doorman Gloves

Food Service Gloves

Formal Gloves

Funeral Gloves

Hospitality Gloves

LOGO Gloves

Military Gloves

Parade Gloves

Santa Claus Gloves

Uniform Gloves

Usher Gloves

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White Cotton Gloves verses White Nylon Gloves

Which one should I buy?

This is a question that we get asked about almost every day for new customers. I’ll answer the most popular questions below.

Are the cotton glove models better than the nylon glove models?

The answer is no. Our white nylon gloves are a very high quality nylon that looks and feels like cotton. The big difference here is that the cotton can be bleached and washed if they get dirty and you want to reuse them. The nylon gloves also stretch unlike the cotton gloves.

When should I buy nylon gloves rather than cotton gloves?

This is a simple answer since our cotton gloves and nylon gloves are of the same quality, look, and feel. The main difference is with sizing issues.

Our cotton gloves are made in up to 7 different sizes for men, women, and children depending on the model. See our sizing chart in the left hand navigation panel of our web site.

Remember, our nylon gloves are made to stretch. Therefore, we have only 2 adult sizes plus children’s sizes in separate models.

The adult sizes in the nylon gloves come in 2 sizes: Small/Medium and Large/Extra Large. The S/M will fit most women and the L/XL will fit most men. We always suggest that if you are looking to buy gloves for a large group of people, then buy the nylon gloves since the fit is more forgiving.

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