If you’ve ever shopped for a new pair of goalkeeper gloves whether it be online or anywhere else there is a good chance that you realized something quickly. You can find pairs of gloves at a wide variety of prices. Goalkeeper gloves cost can vary a lot. There are gloves that are going to go for as low as 20 dollars while others could go for over 100. Spending the big bucks on each pair of gloves that you buy may not even be an option for you. At the same time, the reality is that you can find decent quality even in the lowest price range. You just have to know where to look and that’s what I’m going to try and help you with here.
There are a couple of things that you probably should take into account before making any type of purchase. Naturally, if you’re on a tight budget that’s going to restrain you quite a bit. That doesn’t mean though that you have to end up with “bad” gloves. There are very serviceable options on the lower end of the spectrum. That’s when the second issue comes in. What are you going to be using these gloves for? Do you need gloves for training or just to play pick up games? If you’re going to be playing some pickup games every once in a while it could actually make a bit more sense to spend a little more on decent gloves. Since they potentially won’t be used that often they can last for a longer period.
If you’ve read some of the other articles on the site you know that I like talking about some of these implications on youth sports. Therefore, there is also going to be a section where I go over the difference in goalkeeper gloves cost with youth gloves and whether or not it makes sense for a parent to spend big money on top of the line gloves.
Where Are You Using Your Gloves?
If you are mostly playing in harder fields, or turf your gloves are more likely to take a considerable amount of damage. It can get really frustrating to make a purchase that does make a dent in your bank account. Then look up after one or two practices and notice that the gloves are essentially coming apart. Of course, you could look into adjusting your technique to ensure that the palms of your hands are almost never touching the ground. I mentioned in a previous article that it can be a good habit to get into to incorporate specific techniques. When you’re in a game situation sometimes that just goes out the window though. In that case, you could contemplate less expensive gloves.
There are actually two options that you’re going to have if you play on rougher surfaces. You can go with less expensive gloves or find some of these newer options that many manufacturers are now featuring which include a harder palm surface. I am going to be exploring a couple of tangible examples below. The other option that you’re going to have is to go with a decent glove at a discount price. There are a couple of reasons why you’ll be able to find these discount prices. Maybe it’s an older model that is on its way out. Maybe it’s a brand that makes their gloves in a country with cheap labor.
Hard Field/Turf Glove Options
As I mentioned before playing or training on turf or just hard surfaces overall tends to take a considerable toll on your gloves. Here are two glove options at decent prices that will be durable in these conditions.
Select 33 Protec HG Goalkeeper Gloves
I didn’t love the select brand in the past. They were one of the few brands that made soccer gear in the United States in the 90s and early 2000s when I was growing up there. I always felt like the cut of their gloves was designed by someone who had never played a day in their life. They have since improved and released a couple of gloves at low prices that feature much more modern cuts. These particular gloves are meant to provide durability at the expense of grip. They may be a good training option. They also offer youth sizes, so if you’re one of those parents that want to make sure they don’t have to buy gloves every couple of months they can be a great option.
You could say that these gloves are at an intermediate price range of around $50. Ideally, you’ll be able to get more than 6 months of constant usage out of them. If you can get that type of long-term use then they make a lot of sense. It is a bit of a gamble though because if they don’t last long for you, you’re giving up a ton of grip for nothing.
Rinat Kancerbero Quantum Turf Goalkeeper Gloves
The Mexican brand Rinat made a full a line of turf gloves. The idea was that they were going to cater to the many players across Mexico and the United States that played on turf and dirt fields. The latex used on the palm is considerably thicker than the one that you would find on the rest of their models. The big issue is that you’re again giving up a lot of grip. I went out and tried these on only to back out of buying them because I felt the grip that I was giving up was too much. At $35 they could make sense for training. When it comes down to it they wouldn’t have to last as long as the Select gloves to basically make your purchase worth the while.
What If I Don’t Want To Sacrifice Grip?
As you can see usually when you want a durable option you are going to have to give up some grip. This is mainly because it’s hard to get harder surfaces to provide a decent grip and even harder to keep soft surfaces from ripping apart. What can you do then? The best idea is probably to buy a lower cost glove that you could potentially buy every 3 months or so and keep the great grip and feel. Here are a couple of options that exemplify what I mean. Less goalkeeper gloves cost equals less grip? That is sometimes the case!
Puma Gloves In General
Puma has had a bit of a rough go with goalkeeper gloves. They’ve been endorsed by top stars for years, but for some reason, they have not really taken off. At least not west of the Atlantic Ocean. At the time of writing for this article, you can find virtually all of the Puma gloves at under 35 dollars. This price was the same for all of their top gloves that originally cost around 70 plus dollars. Their PUMA ONE Grip 1 IC Goalkeeper Gloves are the ones that have seen the most dramatic drop in price while still being decent gloves. There are other options that can go for a bit less, but their overall design is ultimately not that great.
Nike Match Goalkeeper Gloves
If you want gloves that are in the bottom half of the pay scale but can provide decent performance these Nike gloves can be an option for you. There are a couple of things to watch out for. The strap to adjust the glove is not great, so taping your wrist could be something that you can look into. At $30 they are a pair of gloves that you can buy without making mostly a major dent in your bank account. To the point where buying multiple pairs a year to make sure that you’re always on the field with a decent grip can be an option.
Elite Stars Youth Goalkeeper Gloves: A Quality Goalkeeper Glove Cost Low Option For Kids
It had been a while since I looked at the prices for size 6 and down goalkeeper gloves. Naturally, it’s been many years since I dawned on those types of sizes. I found a pleasant surprise though in the Elite Stars Youth Goalkeeper Gloves. Elite is one of the most underrated glove manufacturers out there. Offering a medium to high-quality glove for kids at under 40 dollars is in my eyes a great incentive to the youth game. Mainly because a lot of the glove options at lower price levels for kids feature completely square cuts and just horrible quality overall. These gloves can give your kids that “pro” feeling. Without you having to spend the big bucks.
How Much Should I Really Be Spending On Gloves?
If you want to buy top tier gloves every time then you’re potentially going to be spending well over 300 dollars a year on gloves. This is assuming that you end up purchasing 3 pairs of top tier gloves within a calendar year. Each pair of these top tier gloves can retail for around 120 dollars. We could say that there is a bottom half of that top tier, at least as far as prices go. That bottom tier can see you spending 100 dollars per pair. The max amount then that you would potentially have to spend on gloves a year is around 350 to 400 dollars. You can spend a bit over 400 if you were to buy 4 pairs of gloves in a year.
There is a second tier of glove prices where you can find very good quality. Essentially some of these gloves could compete with some of the top options out there. The main difference is that these gloves go for 60 to 80 dollars. There are some great Reusch and Elite gloves that can be found in this tier. There are some Elite gloves that I personally really like in this tier. You’re most likely going to find gloves that don’t look as modern. The mesh Nike gloves are not going to be found in this tier for example. Just the solid options that are for old school people like myself.
You could spend only 250 dollars a year in this range and have 4 pairs in the year. Of course, if you are able to battle it out with 3 pairs you can get all of them for the price of one pair of the top tier options. A lot of times the difference in your performance that you’ll see from this tier to the cream of the crop options is not that significant. That’s why I have a hard time recommending the top tier options. Especially for up and coming players.
Finally, you could get in the habit of looking for the best deals out there. If you do this there is a good chance that you’ll be able to find decent gloves in under 40 dollars. You could potentially buy four pairs a year for a little over 150 dollars. This works great if you’re a little cash strapped. At the same time if you are a kid and you know your parents are not going to be able to spend a hundred plus dollars every time that you need a new pair of gloves. What you can do is save up to spend on a pair of expensive gloves and leave those exclusively for games and then train with some of the cheaper options out there.
Goalkeeper Gloves Cost: Is It Worth It To Spend Over 100 Dollars On A Pair Of Gloves?
The biggest issue that I see with this is that you usually have no real guarantee that an overly expensive pair of gloves will fit you perfectly. I’ve tried gloves on at the store and try to mimic movements while I’m there to try and get a feel for what I can expect when I take them to the field. When you get there things can change drastically. Also, there are plenty of very good options at the medium tier level. Spending 80 dollars on a pair of gloves is probably not something that a lot of people had in mind when getting in goal the first time. Even those price tags can be a hard sell for some.
At the end of the day it all comes down how invested you want to be in your game. Also, you have to take into account whether or not you like the current gloves that you wear. If you can find that perfect fit for you in gloves that cost less that’s awesome. To be able to really answer this question though, we would have to know the answer to another question.Higher goalkeeper gloves cost get you good gloves. Does that really improve your game? That’s a question that I am going to aim to answer in another article!
