PUMA is one of the weirdest brands when it comes to goalkeeper gloves. It was a few years back that they marked down all of their premium goalkeeper gloves and had them compete in the 50 dollar range. Those were good times because many of us had the chance to try out their models which admittedly we otherwise would’ve overlooked. These days the brand is making quite an impressive push into goalkeeping sponsoring some of the best players in the world like Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak. That doesn’t mean though that you can’t get some of their gloves at extremely low prices. That’s exactly the case with the PUMA ONE Grip 1 IC gloves. These gloves also did not start out this cheap, but they are currently going for around 12 dollars on Amazon!
Admittedly it’s the low price that these gloves feature which has pushed me to do a review on them. In the interest of full disclosure I used these gloves when they were not this cheap. I got them for around 30 dollars! I’m not going to let that bias kick in when I’m reviewing these gloves though. It’s actually quite the opposite, as I mentioned before Puma has made this move to downgrade the prices of their gloves and has them competing in markets that are below the ones that they were originally designed to compete in. More often than not this means that as a consumer you’re getting a decently made product at a price where you’re likely only going to find very poor quality options.
PUMA ONE Grip 1 IC – Grip
The grip on these gloves is not special. You know how there are a ton of videos out there of guys or girls testing out their new gloves, and they pour water on them and kind of rub their hands together. When they do that you can literally hear how the gloves are sticking together. It’s become a very Instagrammable situation. In any case, don’t expect to be able to do that with these gloves. With that in mind though I do think that we need to talk about what good grip can mean for low cost gloves. There’s really no gloves under 30 dollars that are going to be sticking to each other when you put your hands together.
What you have to rely on grip-wise with these cheaper gloves is the glove cut and making sure the latex is not slippery. This type of latex that the Puma One features can be considered very traditional. I had a lot of similar gloves back in the day. Pretty much this is what we considered grip. One of the things I really like about the grip on these gloves is that you can create more grip if you wanted to. They are latex gloves, and therefore you can use Gloveglu to make them a bit stickier. Keep in mind though that a bottle of Gloveglu is going to cost you a lot more than these gloves. Overall the grip is decent for the price!
How Long Can You Expect These Gloves To Last?
When it comes to durability we always have to take into account the amount of times that you’re going to be using these gloves within a month. If you were to train every single day with these gloves they may be clocking out in about a month. Especially if you’re 12 to 13 years old or older. If a younger kid is using them we can actually extend the life span of the gloves. Just because the force of the shots that they’re dealing with and how hard they are hitting the ground should not cause as much wear and tear on the gloves. For most of us though if you get two months out of these gloves with daily training, that would be a ton!
If you play a lot less, and you take care of the gloves accordingly you could wear them for maybe 3 months or 4 months. These gloves are so thin that if you leave them out in the sun for too long they may just start wearing out even if you don’t use them. So you want to make sure that you store them away from direct sunlight. I wouldn’t recommend washing them that constantly. Just make sure that you allow them to dry out accordingly after use. I’ve written a couple of articles on how to dry out goalkeeper gloves the right way if you want to check those out. Although I’ve mentioned that you can in fact put certain goalkeeper gloves in the washing machine, these are not models that I would be comfortable machine washing!
How Much Protection Can You Expect From The PUMA ONE Grip 1 IC
In this department you can expect little to no protection. This is the aspect that really has me on the fence when it comes to recommending these gloves to beginners. I know I’ve said already that they are a glove for beginners. What I like about them as a glove for that demographic is that these gloves have some higher end elements. In essence the jump from this to a premium glove isn’t as high as the jump from no name brand gloves to better true pro gloves. The PUMA ONE Grip 1 IC are a bit thicker than some of the other models that you can find at this price. The difference isn’t massive though. Actually if I think about it I would totally sign up for this exact glove, but have it be a little bit thicker even if I had to pay 5 dollars more.
With this somewhat lack of protection what happens is that you’re going to feel the burn when you come up against a hard shot. These are not going to be gloves that are forgiving in that department. I talked about this though, when I talked about the grip. For under 20 dollars what are you going to expect? Actually there’s an argument to be made that I would be more worried if I was buying gloves at this price with finger spines. You’d have to think in the back of your mind these are faulty finger spines for sure that’s why they’re cheap! Anyway don’t expect extra protection with these gloves. What you see is what you get here.
A Perfect Price Point For Beginners
I was almost talking myself out of this point in the last few paragraphs. I do feel though that these gloves are essentially a great starting point. It would be ideal if you can find this particular glove at the incredibly low prices for kids. What you’re getting is a very basic glove across the board. Really nothing special, but in a lot of ways it still does mimic some of the premium features. For example the latex on the glove is not as low quality as what you’ll find with other gloves within this price range. What that allows you to do is get a sense of what goalkeeper glove grip should feel like. Also, you’re going to be able to learn how to care for actual goalkeeper gloves.
One of my biggest issues with low cost no-name brand gloves, especially the ones for kids, is that the materials used to make the glove are not the same as what you’ll find in actual goalkeeper gloves. I had to go through this issue for a couple of reasons. It wasn’t until maybe I was around 7 that I really started getting actual latex gloves. All those kiddie gloves don’t give you that sense of grip. These PUMA ONE Grip 1 IC will give you a true sense of what grip feels like. It’s important to get that feeling because that way when you want to move up to a more expensive glove you’ll have a better sense of what to look for.
Why Have Puma Gloves Gotten Cheap?
I don’t have a straight answer for this one, but I do have some theories. Any time that any kind of product drops its price dramatically you as a consumer should have your doubts. Now, buying goalkeeper gloves isn’t as dangerous as maybe some expired food or whatever it may be. It is suspicious though what’s gone on with Puma. I have a couple of theories on what’s happened. Number one is that Puma is having a tough time really breaking into the market in the Americas. Maybe it’s a brand that’s more recognized as a casual wear brand here than it is an actual sports brand. I actually have seen more Puma goalkeeper gloves offered in stores in Mexico and the US over the last few years. It’s typically cheap gloves like these PUMA ONE Grip 1 IC that you find in stores.
My theory is pretty simple: the brand is trying to gain a bigger market share on this side of the ocean and that’s why they are lowering their prices. They’ve also made an effort to sponsor more high-end players. Still, for most of us that have been in this goalkeeping thing for a long time they are just not a brand that you associate with goalkeeping. Even Adidas which we obviously associate with a ton of different things is a brand that has catered to goalkeepers for years. Regardless of what I may think about the brand’s current options. Nike is perhaps facing the same issues as Puma. Nike has not dropped its prices at all though! It may be a good idea to give Puma a shot with these low prices.
Who Are The PUMA ONE Grip 1 IC A Good Buy For?
If you can find these gloves in junior sizes I truly feel that they are a perfect buy for kids. For all of the reasons that I just talked about. They give you a sense of what a glove should feel like and that allows you to make better decisions on the next gloves that you’re going to purchase. There’s actually another demographic that can benefit from these gloves. If you’re training every single day, and you’ve had to tear up gloves that cost a bit more money this is a pair of gloves that you can look into.
Let’s not get it twisted you would be giving up grip, protection, and a ton of other things for cheap gloves. A lot of times it just seems worth it. I’ve told this story before on the site. I would go out and get 20 dollar gloves for training when I played professionally. Precisely because at the time I didn’t have a ton of money to spend on gloves. That kind of thing happens in lower league play. It didn’t hurt me as much to tear up those gloves and push them aside after about a month or so. Maybe the PUMA ONE Grip 1 IC can become for you what the Pirma gloves that I wore around those days were for me!
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