When it gets wet getting good grip from your goalkeeper gloves is key. Otherwise, you’re going to be struggling all day giving up second chance opportunities that can turn into goals. Let’s get one thing out of the way right off the bat. Pretty much no matter what gloves you decide to wear there’s always going to be a chance that you just don’t get the right type of grip that you’d like. About 15 years ago I remember that there was a pair of gloves that was advertised as the best wet weather goalkeeper gloves that you could buy. The idea behind the glove was overly simple, since they featured some of the first palms that promoted you keeping them damp. They felt that meant great grip when wet.
Those gloves were a gimmick. I never saw them again. Truth be told virtually all gloves move towards palms that are going to work better if you keep them damp. Damp and fully drenched are two different states. What I want to do here aside from talking about 3 pairs of gloves that I currently like as the best wet weather gloves, as I go through the benefits or the attributes that a glove has to have to be considered good for wet weather. That way if you come across this article in a couple of years and I haven’t had the time to update it with new models some of the criteria can still be relevant. I hope I do have the time to update this article in the coming years, but still some of these basic concepts are going to remain relevant.
Look For A Glove That’s Not Too Thick & Won’t Hold A Lot Of Water
If you’ve read other articles on the site you know that I typically prefer gloves that are a little thicker. My reason behind this is pretty simple. Ultimately the thicker the glove the more it can naturally help you mitigate the impact of harder shots. I understand though that through new materials goalkeeper gloves are able to provide the same effect mitigating the impact of a shot without being so bulky. When it comes to wet conditions you’re probably going to want to make sure that you’re wearing a glove that isn’t as thick. What happens with thicker gloves is that they’re able to take in a lot more water.
When these gloves take in a lot of water they can get really heavy. So for younger kids just putting their hands up in wet weather conditions is going to be a challenge. If you’ve ever seen goalkeepers in heavy rain what they usually do is literally squeeze the glove as hard as they can to make sure that they’re able to get as much water as they can out of the glove. What usually happens with wet gloves is that they end up being more slippery, and you lose a lot of grip. When you have a thinner glove it does not hold in as much water as a thicker glove would. So they won’t get as heavy, and they technically should lose less grip even when fully wet.
The Glove Has To Be Completely Enclosed
Glove manufacturers have experimented with all sorts of materials, particularly for the backhand of goalkeeper gloves. One of the popular materials that is used for the backhand of goalkeeper gloves is what is typically known as mesh. That “mesh” can be made out of different materials. The biggest problem with mesh gloves though in a wet weather environment is that water is literally going to bleed through onto your hands. That’s certainly one of the biggest issues that you’re going to want to avoid as a goalkeeper. Even if the palm has decent grip, your hands could be slipping from the inside. That’s obviously something that’s not ideal, and that’s going to be giving you trouble throughout the game or practice.
It’s not just the mesh backhands that can cause this problem of water getting into your gloves. In some gloves there are literally holes in the finger slots that are going to take in water. You want to make sure that you avoid gloves that feature this type of design. Particularly if you’re going to be playing in wet weather conditions consistently. Another issue that you want to be aware of is the wrist part of the glove. Ideally you’ll have a nice strap to make sure that you’re not taking in water from the wrist area. If your gloves don’t naturally have a tight wrist area what you can do is add tape on top of the glove in the wrist area to make sure that you’re able to minimize the amount of water that you’re taking in.
Palms With Some Type Of Tread or Design
This is actually a tip that we can take from the world of Formula One and cars in general. Most gloves these days actually feature a slick palm, and for the most part we’re going to prefer it that way in optimal conditions. When it’s wet though, some of these slick palms could end up taking in too much water, so you’re going to be dealing with the same issues that I already talked about. If you’re wearing gloves with a slick palm, and you feel like the grip is fading away it may be a good idea to try and squeeze as much water out of them as you can. If it keeps raining you’ll be back at square one sooner or later, but you can keep grip levels decent this way for a while.
When you’re going to be playing in rainy conditions on a consistent basis you may want to look into gloves that feature some type of pattern in the palm area. They are not just perfectly slick gloves that are going to take in a lot of water. Those designs on the palm can allow you to have some sense of grip. The water is typically not going to get sucked into the glove as easily as it would in perfectly slick gloves. This is not to say that you’re not going to be able to have any type of grip with slick gloves if it gets a little wet. When there’s just a lot of water though you may certainly benefit from using gloves with some type of pattern on them.
Reusch Attrakt Speedbump Ortho-Tec Goalkeeper Gloves
Reusch actually have quite a few gloves that I could’ve featured. The main reason why Reusch gloves are a good option for the rain is that they usually feature some type of unique design on the palm that’s going to help make sure that the glove doesn’t take in too much water directly. For the most part these are also gloves that are not as thick anymore. Even the water that does bleed into the glove will not have a lot of room to build upon. When it comes to this particular model the speed bump palm is an interesting option to try and get some grip.
I actually have a review on an earlier model of the glove. My issue with these particular gloves is that they were a bit too thin for me. So what happened was that I was really feeling the burn on every single shot. As I mentioned at the start of the article this could be more of a “me” issue due to my skinny hands. When it comes to the grip that you get with this particular palm I do feel it’s decent. I would come out and say that they have the best grip in the world, but you make it work. As an extra tip I would say to make sure to use Gloveglu on these gloves. They’re naturally sticky when new, but that does wear off after a while.
Adidas Predator Competition Goalkeeper Gloves
A lot of these Adidas gloves on the market have some type of design on the palm of the gloves. It’s nothing fancy for the most part, it’s a couple of lines. However, those can be enough to be able to allow water to flow through the glove instead of just bleeding through and having the gloves suck the water up like a sponge. Which is a real problem in certain models, particularly when the rain gets really heavy. The reason why I wanted to highlight this particular model over some of the other Adidas options that are very similar is because it features a strap. You can order with a wrist strap, actually I have to clarify that.
Adding that wrist strap could be an option with some of the other Adidas models. Again multiple times on the site I’ve talked about my crusade against modern cut gloves that don’t feature a strap to tighten up the wrist area. Just on a normal day if the glove is too loose it could certainly lead to wrist injuries when you’re going up against hard shots. When it comes to their claim as the best wet weather goalkeeper gloves the reason why you want the extra strip is to make sure that water doesn’t get into the glove. As I mentioned before, having wet hands under the gloves can cause all sorts of problems. You could get to the point where you feel your fingers are numb because the water is too cold!
Elite Rainbow Goalkeeper Gloves
I was on the fence about putting these gloves on the list. It was actually hard to find 3 gloves that met the 3 criteria that I set up. I swear I was trying to keep things as simple as possible going with elements that are important when it comes to the best wet weather goalkeeper gloves. Having said this, the reason why I was on the fence about these Elite Goalkeeper gloves was because they don’t feature as noticeable of a pattern on the palm area. I chose this model though because it does seem to have a couple wrinkles on the palm. Also, Elite goalkeeper gloves are some that I’ve actually worn recently in the rain. They have something that’s overly beneficial in the design of the fingers.
The glove wraps around your entire finger. So you want to buy these gloves a little loose on the top, maybe a size bigger than you may wear. I say this because if they fit too tight that may be an issue, particularly with hard shots that you save with your finger tips. In any case, in the rain this design really helps make sure that you don’t get water coming inside the glove. Of course, these gloves also feature a very good strap that essentially allows you to make sure that your hands are wrapped tight and can stay warm. Still, they do get a bit heavy in a downpour, so you want to squeeze as much water from the palm as you can as often as you can.
Ways To Adapt Your Current Gloves To Be The Best Wet Weather Goalkeeper Gloves
One of the themes that maybe even unintentionally I’ve touched upon throughout the entire article in this sense of going out and buying new gloves for when it rains. For a lot of you that may not be feasible for whatever reason. What everyone can do is adapt their existing gloves to make sure that they are better suited to deal with wet weather. There are actually at least two quick and easy ways to do just that.
The first thing is to make sure that water isn’t getting into the glove. If you have gloves without a strap as I mentioned already what you can do is wrap tape above the glove and down to your forearm to try and block some of that water from coming in. Another tip that I’ve thrown out there is the use of Gloveglu to try and get as much grip as you can on your gloves regardless of what type of palm you have. Put that on before you put them on in the rain. To make sure that the substance settles in!
