Goalkeeper gloves with finger spines, finger support, or fingersave in their Adidas brand name have been a trend since the mid 2000s. I’ve already talked about the topic in other articles. However, I felt the need to revisit the topic because a lot of times I talk about finger protection as something bad. That could be personal bias. Mainly because when goalkeeper gloves with finger spines got started they just weren’t very good. It’s important to differentiate though what we see today with these gloves from what happened in the past. If you are going to wear these types of gloves there are a couple of things that you should be on the lookout for.
As I mentioned Adidas was the brand that popularized these types of gloves. I’m not 100% sure if they were the first brand to try something like this out. There are stories about goalkeepers in the very old days that wore some type of metal rod for support in their gloves. If we had to say though which brand is the godfather of these types of gloves it would have to be Adidas. They brought these types of gloves to the mainstream. In the beginning, even pro goalkeepers fell for the trend. Today we probably don’t see a lot of them wearing goalkeeper gloves with finger spines. That’s another topic that I’m going to cover briefly here.
What Are The Spines Made From?
Obviously the first material that goalkeeper gloves with finger spines were made from was metal. As I mentioned the first gloves like these were way before the fingersave era. I have never tried these gloves on. Not even like 80s gloves with some type of finger protection. I would imagine though that the comfort level provided by these early gloves was not ideal. In some of the very early fingersave models you still had that metal frame if you will on the backhand of gloves. This made the gloves overly stiff. That’s why I just mentioned that I could have a biased opinion when it comes to these types of gloves. My first experience wasn’t the best. However, there’s a curious case of a current top goalkeeper who wore the early fingersave models. Yet, stopped adding that extra protection later in his career.
These days goalkeeper gloves with finger spines are made from hard plastic and other types of synthetic materials. What they are looking for now are spines that provide that extra support. While at the same time being able to bend enough to really help you absorb the impact. Which is what wearing gloves is all about in the first. Regardless of whether or not you wear finger protection or just regular gloves without it. There are some silicone elements in these gloves as well. The spines in most models are made from synthetic materials, and hard plastics in some cases.
Are Goalkeeper Gloves With Finger Spines Really Going To Help Improve My Game?
One of the things that makes goalkeepers, particularly younger goalkeepers, look for these types of gloves is getting that extra help with hard shots. When you’re younger it’s really hard to deal with hard incoming shots just because you don’t have naturally strong hands yet. There’s a whole debate over how young you can be to start on a weight training program. For goalkeepers, I would say that light weight with dumbbells can actually help with this type of issue. Trying to solve the same problem that goalkeeper gloves with finger spines aim to fix. If you’re expecting the difference to be night and day you’re probably going to be disappointed though.
I’m not going to say that there’s no tangible evidence that these types of gloves help. Specifically talking about improving your game. There are other things that they can help you with that I’m going to get to shortly. These types of gloves though can really help with very specific types of shots. For example the hard shots that you get to just with your fingertips. This is really where you could potentially be very thankful that you’re wearing these types of gloves. Particularly if you don’t have naturally strong hands. There are specific moments where you could see a difference. I do think that many goalkeepers just don’t find enough of a difference to justify using these types of gloves.
Getting Extra Protection From These Gloves
Certainly, the main reason why people look into these types of gloves is that they are supposed to provide extra protection. As I mentioned there are going to be benefits when trying to make saves with your fingertips. With these shots you could also get that level of extra protection. It’s a little bit of a two-way street here though. You need to make sure that the gloves fit right. Otherwise, these types of gloves could actually hurt you. Imagine that you put your fingers on the ground and the spines don’t bend, but your finger does! New spines that are a lot more flexible certainly help solve this problem.
Honestly it’s very uncommon to see a finger injury with impact in the middle of your middle finger. These types of gloves do help with impacts on the fingertips. Also, with impact directly on your pinky. That pinky is the easiest to break when playing goalkeeper. It’s super important though to make sure that you’re wearing the right size glove. You never want to wear something that’s too large. You lose all of the potential protection there. That’s when your finger is going to bend and the spine isn’t. That can be a real problem.
Goalkeeper gloves with finger spines do provide extra protection. It’s a very specific type of protection though. You need to make sure that you’re wearing just the right size glove. I talked about this with jerseys. If you buy a jersey that you expect to grow into, you’re not going to get any help from the elbow protections at the beginning. You have the same issue with these gloves. Your fingertips need to be in the right part of the glove to be able to get the proper level of protection.
Should You Actively Be Looking To Wear These Types of Gloves?
These days you actually have to make an effort to go out and find goalkeeper gloves with finger spines. A few years ago, it was the opposite. Most models came with a finger spine version. Really what has changed is that there’s new technology to help mitigate the impact on a shot. So you don’t necessarily have to put metal or hard plastic rods in your fingers. That being said, there are certainly goalkeepers that are going to feel safer wearing gloves that feel like they protect you better. My biggest knock on modern gloves is that they are not thick enough to be able to mitigate the impact of a very hard shot. At least not the level that I personally need.
Having said this, I would understand if you as a goalkeeper feel the need to have this level of extra protection. At the end of the day goalkeeper gloves are like shoes. There are a ton that you can pick to look cool. However, what you’re looking for is the pair that provides the right balance of protection, and comfort. While at the very least not being detrimental to your performance. Whenever I talk about Fingersave gloves or this spines option I always come back to the robotic hand. The extra protection is great, but you probably don’t want to have a hard time moving your hands because of how stiff the spines are. This brings right into my next point.
Not All Gloves With Finger Spines Are Made The Same Way
Usually everyone ends up throwing all of the gloves with finger protection in the same basket. However, not all of them are made the same way. Therefore, you can have a different experience with one glove with spines, and another one with a different type of protection. You have the hard plastic modern versions. These ones are going to be able to bend much easier. So you don’t have the stiff fingers that you can’t even move that you had with the first metal rod options. Now you also have removable spines. I’m going to talk about these in a bit in depth. Also, there are gloves that include extra protection on the thumb. Some leave the thumb completely plain. That simple difference can make gloves feel way different.
If you’re looking for maximum protection you could look for the more old school gloves with the hard metal spines. For other goalkeepers that had a bad experience with those hard metal spines the new synthetic materials may be worth a look. I’m sure more than one goalkeeper stayed away from goalkeeper gloves with finger spines because of a bad experience with hard spines. Technology has evolved. Plus, if you were around in those old days, and you’re still playing, getting some of that extra protection may not be such a bad idea. Injuries are harder to come back from later on in life.
Removable Spines on Goalkeeper Gloves
It’s been quite a few years now since this concept came about. Now, what goalkeeper glove manufacturers do is that they allow you to buy one pair of gloves and let you choose whether or not you want to use the spines for that particular day. In theory this is a great idea. If you don’t feel comfortable with the finger spines you can just remove them instead of having to throw the gloves out and take the loss on the investment. What’s important here though is to make sure that you are able to put the spines back in the right way every time. I’ve talked about the importance of wearing gloves that fit the right way. The same concept applies here.
What you don’t want is for the spines to be loose in your fingers. The worst case scenario is that you’ll develop an injury because the spine not only didn’t protect you from the impact of the ball, but dug itself into your finger. On a personal note, I’m never a fan of having outfits in general with moving parts. That’s why I never got into the trend of using shoes with removable cleats. You have to account for all of these parts really making sure that they are attached correctly. Otherwise, what is meant to protect you could put you at a higher risk of injury. Yes, I described pretty much a doomsday scenario a couple of lines back. There are those days though where whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Don’t put yourself at risk!
Why Professionals Have Moved Away From Goalkeeper Gloves With Finger Spines
I have a full article on this focusing specifically on the Adidas fingersave model. Obviously anything that can be said about this is speculation. This is a topic that I’ve talked about with other former pros in my circle. A small sample size I must admit, but the reasons behind dumping these types of gloves that people have given me are about the same. We had a bad experience with the older models. They were just way too stiff. You couldn’t even make a closed fist. Technically you should be able to punch a ball out easier with these types of gloves. However, it felt odd to many goalkeepers.
What we see in today’s goalkeeper glove market echoes some of the sentiments that goalkeepers have expressed for years. The gloves limited your hand movements. There are many goalkeepers out there that felt the stiff gloves messed with their grip. Goalkeepers are usually a very feel based superstitious bunch. If something feels off, or you feel that an element in your outfit is affecting your game, removing it is usually the easy way to go. That is potentially the reason why many pros just stopped being interested in these types of gloves.
Conclusion: Should You Use Them?
As with all goalkeeper gear ultimately the best advice is to use what you feel comfortable with. There are tangible benefits that you can obtain from wearing these types of gloves. Those benefits though are probably not as significant as many glove manufacturers would like you to believe. That’s probably one of the main reasons why goalkeeper gloves with finger spines are no longer the main option that manufacturers are trying to push. Even though the Fingersave trend has dissipated I do think that it wouldn’t hurt to look into getting more protection from your gloves. Especially for kids and maybe folks that are starting out. Ladies or guys like myself who have to deal with having thinner softer hands.
Ultimately if you think that you can use extra protection it wouldn’t hurt to give them a try. I would say though to try gloves that have a similar cut than what you’re used to. Don’t buy an overly bulky glove and then think that you don’t like goalkeeper gloves with finger spines. Find something that at least looks like what you usually wear. Then try that out! Maybe they are for you, maybe not.
