Gardening Gloves – A guide to protect your hands

Posted on by The Glove Guru

Every gardener knows that a good pair of gloves is an essential gardening tool. However, with the many types of gloves available, it can be overwhelming to make a choice. Here’s a simple
guide by type to help you with your choice.
(see links in titles below)

Leather and Pruning Gloves
Leather gloves are the standard for strength and
durability. You chose from standard driver’s styles to models used for wire fencing. For pruning, purchase a pair of pruning gloves specifically designed for pruning with reinforced arm protection. If you are working in wet conditions look for pigskin gloves since they will dry soft if they get wet. Newer artificial leather gloves are fine and will last longer than natural leather.

Cotton and Jersey Gloves
Cotton and Jersey gloves are the most popular because they are inexpensive but they have
limitations. They are breathable and lightweight and will keep your hands clean and protect you
from blisters. However, they will absorb moisture and not protect you from chemicals or cuts and
abrasions. Also, they are not very durable or long-lasting. 

Disposable Gloves (Latex, Nitrile, Vinyl PVC)
I do not recommend using disposable gloves since they are not durable and do not offer proper
protection against most chemicals and pesticides. Plus, latex gloves will dissolve when exposed to
gasoline or motor oils used in lawnmowers.

Rubber Gloves
Although rubber gloves tend to be hot, they offer great protection against moisture and most
chemicals. If you only need moisture protection – natural rubber is fine. However, I suggest you
look for nitrile or vinyl gloves for use with chemicals and pesticides.

Bamboo Knit Gloves
These are becoming extremely popular since they are earth friendly, last long, fit and feel
great, and inexpensive. They also come with a coated palm for added protection and grip. My
personal biased choice is the GO Greens® Bamboo Gloves from GO Gloves.

A glove patent lawsuit worth watching

Posted on by The Glove Guru

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. 

A look at Olga Gloves in the Palm Passage – St. Thomas USVI

Posted on by The Glove Guru

Many of you have asked me about the location of the new Olga Gloves Boutique in St. Thomas – so I decided that the easiest way to explain it would be to provide the details and links in this post. 
Rather than talk about the Palm Passage here, I’ve provided some useful links which you can follow. You can also find some useful general information about St. Thomas at the Palm Passage link. 

Spring for some UV Protective Gloves with GO Greens Bamboo Gloves

Posted on by The Glove Guru

It’s that time of year again when you begin to work outdoors. It’s also time to begin to think about UV protection for your hands from the sun’s rays. 
GO Greens™ 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 used for FDA compliant sunscreen products.
These earth friendly, form fitting coated gloves are made from sustainable bamboo, are biodegradable, anti-bacterial, very economic, and extremely durable. 
Click on the “title” of this post to see the GO Greens Gloves in action and for more information. 
GO Greens are also great (and profitable) for fundraising events. 

The White Glove Myth Demythed

Posted on by The Glove Guru

It’s unusual for me to criticize others observations about gloves. It’s also frustrating when I see seasoned business publication writers write opinions about gloves when their observations are unfounded, speculative, and wrong. So please let me vent. 
This morning, while reading the distinguished Forbes on-line (what else) business journal, I came upon a commentary about the absurdity of using white gloves for protecting documents by one of their writers, Nathan Raab.  Although Mr. Raab was on the mark about the white gloves he collectively discredited, his single observation was based on a reality show. Really!
What a shame to discredit gloves that serve a purpose to protect historical documents and archives.
You can link to his story from the title of this post and you can see my commentary reply at the bottom of “his” article by clicking on the “expand comments” link. 
Maybe Mr. Raab should have searched the internet and he would have surely found me as an inventor (in the early 90’s) of white gloves specifically used for protecting our nation’s archives, documents, and films. My observation to Mr. Raab would be that it’s not rocket science and I doubt he would see the proper white gloves for protecting documents on a reality show. 
Maybe Mr. Raab will see these links after reading my reply to him.
If Mr. Raab is as smart as I think he is, he may even contact me for a few samples of neat white gloves.  

A truly international glove shop….

Posted on by The Glove Guru

Since our new Glove Boutique (Olga Gloves) is located at the famous international Caribbean island destination of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, we thought we better provide our foreign customers a warm welcome in their language.
On our new entry sign, we narrowed the word “Gloves” down to 13 language translations – we didn’t have room for more – and headlined it with our now famous slogan – “We Glove You!” in English.
If anyone can guess the languages we selected, we might have an award for you. 
You can click on the image to enlarge it if needed.

We now Glove you in St. Thomas USVI, too!

Posted on by The Glove Guru

We finally opened our new Glove Boutique on St. Thomas days before Christmas and it’s been High 5’s everyday since.

If you happen to be on the island during a cruise or on vacation, make sure to look us up. We’re located in the world famous Palm Passage which runs between the waterfront and Main Street.

Stay tuned for information about our Grand Opening in February.

Winter Cell Phone Gloves remain a top seller for the Holidays…

Posted on by The Glove Guru

We were the first to introduce cell phone gloves back in 2008 and we ran out of gloves before Christmas. Each year since we doubled our stock and we continued to run out of stock.
Already this year we surpassed last year’s sales. We’ve added new lines like ISOTONER to maintain a good supply and we also expanded our touch-screen models due to the popularity of tablets.
Keep in mind that there are two types of cell-phone gloves. One version has removable fingertip and thumb tops (shown above) which can be used with Blackberry type keyboards and the other versions are exclusive to touch-screens and contain conductive fibers on the finger tips (shown below). The models with removable fingertip tops can be used with both types of keyboard and touch-screen devices.
My point!  Don’t wait to buy cell phone gloves as a gift or stocking stuffer. They will sell out again even though we have the largest selection and largest inventory. 

Happy Thanksgiving, The Glove Guru 

Who said the glove business is boring?

Posted on by The Glove Guru

From time to time I do like to add an unusual or fun post and this seemed appropriate before the holidays.
Yes, this is a wedding dress made from rubber gloves. I must admit that this is a first – for me anyway – and the artist is either incredibly creative or just loves gloves like me.
Wedding dresses are renowned to be very pricey but if you knew how expensive disposal rubber gloves are these days, this dress would obviously be over the top for most buyers.
However, if anyone out there needs disposable gloves (or any gloves for that matter) for a new outfit or artistic idea, please let me know. We have many glove types and many glove colors. For example – we have flesh colors for that nude look; purple for a fun look; and even black for those formal events. I’m sure we can make you a deal.
(Click on the images to enlarge them) 

We exported some of our Fashion Glove savvy to St. Thomas – US Virgin Islands

Posted on by The Glove Guru

Finally, after years of planning, we are opening our first retail luxury glove boutique on St. Thomas – US Virgin Islands. The new duty-free shop will feature our exclusive fine fashion Italian leather gloves under the brand called, Olga Gloves.  The shop will also offer other fine fashion gloves.
Olga Gloves is a new venture but not a new experience. We are simply using our half-century of retail glove knowledge to assist shoppers and tourists who visit St. Thomas.
For you industrial glovers reading this, now is the chance to take a vacation and splurge for some nice winter gloves for your family and friends.
Stay tuned for up-dates on the shop.