Gloves making some serious noise

Two years has passed since a sports marketing group appeared on my door step with some primitive but functional gloves that made a lot of noise when you clapped your hands together. They were very excited about their invention but disenchanted by the failure by a few glove manufacturers making promises to develop a stadium ready glove.

Typically, I was enlightened by their enthusiasm and excited about the concept.

In time for the baseball playoffs, I managed to tweak “their” concept using hardened baseball bat wood glued to a weight-lifting glove to the gloves they market (and we make) today. (Enlarge image or go to their web site below)

Mission accomplished: a low cost; universal size; comfortable glove that can make more noise than anyone can imagine (or bear to listen to) and intimidate the heck out of opponents on the field or in a stadium.

If you need some noise from your fans, contact the guys at Home Team Handz. Just don’t tell them the Glove Guru sent you. They’re pretty busy.

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 Asia, a conversion to PLA film packaging will be easy. PLA films and labels are readily available in Asia.

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Too Hot to Handle

This January 28th release by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission regards a voluntary recall of Primovolta Warming Gloves made by Outdoor Research of Seattle, Washington. Apparently, the electric heating pad can short circuit and overheat.

We sell a competing brand of Heated Gloves (shown) and Heated Mittens but these are not associated with the recall. My guess is that the heating elements are located around the palm of the recalled gloves which receive a great amount of strain and stress.

I know OR and they are a very respectable company and known for quality gloves.

Of interest, the heating elements in our Heated Gloves and Mittens are contained in the back side (non-palm side) of the gloves to avoid damage. But you can never win because people complain they don’t get hot enough. However, at $25 bucks verses $260.00, I think they work fine providing a safe and comfortable room temperature. What do you think?
(Click on the Title to go to the release)

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Happy Holidays


We’re taking a short break from the Holiday Glove Rush. But WOW, the snow storms this year certainly made our glove life interesting.

Additionally, based on customer calls & e-mails, I’ve been informed by our customer service department that it looks like the USPS (US Postal Service) has let us (along with our customers) down this year falling behind by days. Not fun after working so hard. Maybe some delays are snow related but not in LA, Miami or the South.

Next week, I’ll share our top sellers for ’08 (since we are a customer centric business) and begin to talk about real issues in the Industrial Glove markets.

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Great Gifts under $5.00…


I read a post this morning from the Taking Stock Blog (one of my favorites). Sue is our local Retail Guru and also writes a column for the News & Observer newspaper. She constantly has great tips on shopping (even nationwide stuff) and her post this morning made me remember that we qualify for her difficult challenge.

How about Great Gloves Gifts for under $5 and remember those Stocking Stuffers.

Here’s an under $5 favorite: Winter Magic Gloves

Under $10.00: Winter Knit Gloves

For those that want to splurge this year, how about some Fur Lined Chinchilla Gloves.

Thanks for the idea, Sue.

The Mystery of Naked Metisse Leather Solved!

When the new line of luxurious leather gloves by Grandoe arrived a few days ago (tagged: Made from Naked Metisse Leather), I struggled to recount my 2 decades of glove experience to interpret the meaning. I even beckoned our warehouse manager, Alaqui, a Moroccan who speaks fluent French, thinking it was one of those fancy words inspired by the French romantics. No luck there either. Google and my Webster’s failed me, too.

I then resorted to humble myself and go back to the source. First, I sent an e-mail to my new glove friend, Mike D’Arcy, one of the Czars at Grandoe, and asked for the meaning. His reply was simple as if I (The Glove Guru) should have known, “Metisse is the finest leather available.” Hmmmm, Thanks a bunch, Mike, I said to myself.

Thinking there was no way we could convince any of our customers from CPW (that’s Central Park West in case you’re not into NYC acronyms) that Naked Metisse leathers were the finest for gloves, I had to call Mike.

Mystery Solved: When I asked Mike on the phone, he simply chuckled. Instantly, I felt foolish but I still had to know. The nerve of him, I thought. After a short pause, he said laughing; it’s a word we made up! “OK, fine, but what is it, Italian Nappa? European lambskin?”, I asked.

Incredibly, I soon learned that these fifth generation glove makers from Grandoe were onto something new to me; old to them. The leathers they use (for more than a century) are made from Ethiopian Highland Sheepskins, which are the finest leathers available and have an international reputation for use in gloves. Sheep raised there near the Equator provide a softer and finer grain ideal for luxurious fine fashion leather gloves.

Now that I solved the mystery of Naked Metisse Leathers, I wonder who is going to make it to Wikipedia first, Mike or me. I know I’ll beat him to Google due to this post. He still gets kudos for the word and the gloves.

Gloved Up: Would you wear this? Retail

Fashion Gloves for those with an endless amount of disposable income.

I found this new site called the Fashion Guru which is very well designed and very in vogue on fashion trends. Even though we feature many modern Fashion Gloves, I’m sorry to inform you that we don’t currently sell any gloves like these. But you never know, the Fashion Guru may have just started a new glove fad.

Click on the image for a preview.

Click on the title and check them out. They have other items on gloves, too.

Retail versus Industrial Posts

How about a little housecleaning before I even start?

After reviewing my Blog “to-do” list, I soon realized that I would be discussing both retail (consumer) gloves and industrial gloves. There is a big difference between retail fine fashion gloves and gloves for the roughneck industrial users.
It’s for the same reason we have two web portals for our glove business. One for retail customers (Gloves-Online.com)and one for industrial customers (Industrial Gloves-Online.com). This way Industrial Glovers don’t have to deal with distractions with fashion glove navigation and vise versa.

Therefore, when I make a post, I will add the words (Retail or Industrial) at the end of the title. This way, you can ignore a post that doesn’t pertain to your interests. If you don’t see a Retail or Industrial in the title, then the post should be of general interest to everyone. After all, Blogs are supposed to be brief and content focused.