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20 Years of Gloves-Onlne by the numbers
Category: Glove Industry
A glove patent lawsuit worth watching
Tom Votel, President of Tenacious Holdings, Inc. (d/b/a Ergodyne) threw down the gauntlet yesterday against the Wells Lamont Glove company in a lawsuit claiming infringement on his glove design patent.
The lawsuit (Case 0:2012cv00893) filed in Minnesota on April 10th, seeks damages against Wells Lamont for claims that they infringe on a US Patent design patent #D/388,514. This patent, filed in 2009, was issued to Votel (listed as the inventor) on February 2, 2010 and assigned to Tenacious Holdings.
As a glove patent owner myself on several glove utility (field of use) patents, a glove design (appearance) patent for a work glove is rather unique and interesting. As a matter of fact, in the last two decades I’ve only been associated with one (1) design glove patent and that was for a consumer novelty glove.
It’s not uncommon for glove companies to copy another’s work glove and I can only assume Mr. Votel and his company became very tired of these glove industry shenanigans. I like the Wells Lamont Glove Company and I like the Ergodyne Company but I’m a glove designer and maker. So, I’ll watch this case closely. Let’s see who will be the most tenacious.
Glove Guru starting biodegradable packaging initiative
I need your help!
Gloves are a huge business and nearly all gloves are packaged in film produced with petro-chemicals which we know is bad for the environment and worse when disposed and not recycled.
We also know that industrial glove consumers rarely recycle product packaging which adds to the problem since they are the largest end user.
Effective immediately, my company, GO Gloves™ (Gloves-Online.com) will begin converting to 100% biodegradable (compostable) packaging for our own brands which is expected to be completed in 6 months. We will begin to encourage our suppliers (you know who you are) to switch to biodegradable packaging. Notably: We are even switching to biodegradable packaging for sending glove samples.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a consumer or an industrial user. I need your help to support this initiative by making a comment to this post. It would also help if you send a link to this post to other individuals who may share the same concern. I want our suppliers and even our competitors to see your support to this initiative.
You can also contact the IGA (International Glove Association) at gloves@windstream.net to let them know you support biodegradable packaging. The IGA is the watchdog and voice of the glove industry.
Together, we can make this happen. I appreciate your help and support in improving our environment.
Footnote: If anyone needs assistance on PLA (polylactide) Film biodegradable packaging made from annually renewable plants, please let me know. Since most all gloves are manufactured in
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Be wary of eco-friendly glove claims
I saw this recent post with a title (Recycled Gloves) about gloves made from recycled materials. The post itself is a bit misleading since these gloves are also made using Kevlar, Polyester, and Neoprene. Not the kind of stuff you recycle; or “can be” recycled.
I investigated this claim further by going to the company’s web site and they clearly refer to gloves made from a “fabric” using recycled materials. Lame but maybe true. You see, I was weaned in the healthcare industry where you must substantiate such claims or references.
Don’t you think when a company refers to a recycled glove; it should be made from 100% recycled material? I welcome our comments.
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Online Matchmaking and Gloves
I call it High-Tech Glove Marketing
When I was asked late last year by the IGA (International Glove Association) to write an article (about gloves of course) for the annual IGA feature in Occupational Health & Safety magazine, I knew immediately that it would be helpful to enlighten OH&S subscribers about gloves and the internet. After all, we are (GO Gloves™) the oldest glove company on the net.
(Click on the Title to see the article or you can find it under our Media Tab on our web sites)
Glove Czars gathering for State of the Union
If you want to meet and mingle with the worlds leading Glovers and Glovenauts (and “maybe” some other Glove Guru’s), you better mark your calendar to be in
You can’t afford not to attend the 2009 IGA (International Glove Association) Glove Symposium & Expo. Click on the Title for more information.
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My Modest Milestones in Gloves
A little trivia: Nearly all of my colleagues know that I’ve been involved with gloves for a very long time but, quietly, yesterday marked my 18th year in glove R&D and manufacturing. You can add a few years to that if I account for my association with gloves.
December the 22nd, commemorates our 12th year on the internet which started in 1996. To my knowledge, we were the first internet glove company at that time. It was all new (and lonely) back then but we did have some interesting companions. (See Internet 1996) To benchmark our internet origins, that’s 2 years before Google. (Google Beta 1998)
Today, according to Alexa, the web information company, we rank #1 “globally” in glove traffic out of 46,600,000 glove related sites. Cheers, from the Glove Guru
Welcome & Introduction
Welcome to the Glove Guru’s blog. Blog. Blog. Blog.
It’s all I have heard for the past year. As the Glove Guru, you need a blog. As an Internet retailer, you need a blog. Blog. Blog. Blog. So, here it is The Glove Guru blog.
If you found me through www.gloves-online.com, you already know that this blog is associated with it. Gloves-online.com started in 1996 (yes, that’s 1996) as a way for me to publish information about gloves for my customers. At the time, I owned and operated Polygenex International, Inc., the largest specialty knit glove manufacturer in the world. By 1998, I realized GO Gloves™ was the business and manufacturing gloves in the
As I have seen the glove industry change through the years (I’ve got more than 30 years in the biz), I have also seen how business on the net has changed. So, in keeping up with those changes, I’ve decided to blog. The purpose of this blog is to share my knowledge about gloves. (It’s a bit ironic that this blog’s purpose is the same as my original goal of launching my web site back in 1996.)
This is where I will educate consumers about new gloves, glove features, glove news, teach the industrial buyer how to select gloves for different reasons, answer those everyday questions and all my frequently asked questions, and probably a bit about how the Internet and business go hand in hand (yes, I used the pun intentionally.).