Select has long been a brand that’s essentially been a pioneer in the American soccer market. For many years though, especially for those of who came from abroad it was a brand that exhibited the lack of knowledge that Americans had of the game. I’m talking about the products that they put out in the late 90s and through the 2000s. They were catering to the recreational soccer crowd that didn’t necessarily know what quality soccer equipment looked like. Over the last few years though I do feel that they have improved the quality of the products that they put out there. At least when it comes to goalkeeper gear which is the realm that I’m a part of. Therefore, I think it makes sense to look over their Select 88 Pro Grip V20 Goalkeeper Gloves!
Right off the bat one of the things that you can tell is that this glove is decently made. From there we can talk about what you like or don’t like. However, this glove does feature high quality latex that you’re going to be able to get quite a lot of grip from. In fact, there’s just so much latex on the glove that I worry about its durability on rougher fields. Whatever you do you want to make sure that you get this glove nice and wet before you play. That’s going to allow you to slide the glove through the ground to save a low shot. Hopefully while not ripping the latex on the glove in the process. Let’s get to the different things about the Select 88 Pro Grip V20 Goalkeeper Gloves that you should know.
Grip Is Going To Be Up There With The Best Of Them
You may not get the stickiness that you get from other top tier gloves when they are brand new. Still, these gloves have a ton of grip across the board. Especially if you treat them right like I was saying. You need to make sure that you get them damp before the game. What a lot of people recommend is that you sprinkle water on them about a half an hour before the game. I don’t subscribe to that theory at all. What you want to do is get them wet and then go through your warm-up. As you go through the warm-up the excess water should fall off to the point where you can start the game with your gloves in the best condition.
If you get them too wet to begin with you could see that the balls are slipping away from you. If that happens, what you want to do is catch a couple more shots and maybe rub your hands together to make sure that the gloves are not too wet when the game starts. I don’t like to take them off at all during this process. Maybe half time of a really hot day is fine. The reason why I don’t like getting them wet and then putting them on is because they can feel soggy and a lot of times it’s harder to get grip when your hands inside the glove don’t feel comfortable. In general though these are gloves that are going to offer a lot of grip.
Durability Should Not Be An Issue On Nice Fields
Any time you have goalkeeper gloves with so much latex on them, you’re going to have to worry about durability. Usually that latex part which is what provides the grip is also the same part of the gloves that wears out the quickest. Even if it’s not the part of the glove that you see go first it’s the part of the glove that you care most about. Just because it’s what’s going to get you the grip. Having said this, you can look at the glass half empty or half full with these Select 88 Pro Grip V20 goalkeeper gloves. If you want to look at the positive side you’ll see that you can get a lot of grip. There’s a ton of latex on these gloves for the ball to stick to.
If you want to look at the glass as half empty, you’ll see a ton of latex that’s going to wear out on rough fields quickly. I would be really nervous to take these gloves out to a rough turf field. There’s just no way around that one. There was a concerning review that I read on these gloves. Essentially the person who received them said that there was a chunk of the glove literally missing. What could’ve happened there is that they were not properly stored. With the latex being so fragile you can have these types of problems. These are going to be gloves that you need to care for even if you’re not actively using them.
Select 88 Pro Grip V20 Goalkeeper Gloves Price – Is This A Dealbreaker?
As is the case with anything that you buy the price has to be just right for you to feel great with the purchase. I’ve seen these gloves out there at different price points. There’s no question that I like them better at the lower price point which is around 80 dollars. To be completely honest if I found this pair of gloves for 60 dollars I would jump on the chance to get them. At 60 dollars you can overlook a lot of the durability issues. At 80 dollars you can kind of talk yourself into the purchase. Particularly if you’re someone who is just going to be playing on great fields. Really what you’re buying is a pair of gloves that can give you over top grip for what is now a middle tier price point.
I’ve also seen these gloves go for 100 dollars, and I truly don’t like that price point at all. When push comes to shove I’d put these gloves in the middle tier. I know that they are an attempt by Select to offer a premium option. When you put them up against other gloves from better known brands they just kind of fall short. Particularly when you look into some of the downsides that I’ve been referencing with these gloves. Just to kind of wrap up this idea, for 80 dollars I could get the purchase. At 100 there are just too many options out there that these gloves just don’t beat out. At the end of the day though, I would understand if someone fell in love with the grip these gloves provide.
What Gloves Can These Select 88 Pro Grip V20 Goalkeeper Gloves Be Compared To?
There are two gloves that I’ve looked at in the past on this site that I would say compare to these gloves. I usually don’t make direct comparisons in these articles. I wanted to do this with these Select gloves because I know they may be a brand that’s not as well known. So what I came up with for similar gloves are the HO Soccer Classic Pro Roll Gold gloves. Also, I think the finger cut is very similar to what you get with the Elite Sports Neo Aqua gloves. I’ve had multiple models of these gloves that I’ve worn a lot. So I’m very familiar with both of those gloves.
In both cases I just feel that the HO gloves and the Elite Sports gloves are better made gloves across the board. The HO gloves for example are also filled with latex, and that can give you a lot of grip. They are a lot thicker than these Select gloves though. For me that gives you better overall protection and at the same time I’m just not as worried that they are going to fall apart on me as quickly. When it comes to the Elite gloves we’re dealing with more durable latex, and the neoprene backhand is just really comfortable. If you can get both of these gloves at the same price point as the Select 88 Pro Grip V20’s I just don’t see a lot of people going with the Select gloves.
Training or Game Gloves – Where Do They Fit Best?
That price issue is coming around to sneak its ugly head again when talking about what you want these gloves for. I wrote the title when I found these gloves at 60 dollars. That price point is nowhere to be found. At least I haven’t been able to find these gloves at that price again. At 60 dollars, and the amount of grip that you can get I really felt comfortable saying that you can wear these gloves around for practice and games. Actually a lot of times I love those middle tier gloves that are priced at 50 or 60 dollars. I can buy a couple of pairs and wear them around even if I’m playing or training or rougher fields.
At the 80 price point you almost have to make them your game gloves. That’s not that bad, but you’d again have to be playing on perfect fields all the time. So in a sense they become those gloves that you’re going to have stored somewhere, and you can take them out once in a while because you can get a ton of grip from them. As you can probably see though when I’m talking about gloves that are extremely trapped in a niche it’s just hard to recommend the purchase wholeheartedly. Again not because they are the worst gloves out there. There are just better options that you could look into.
Who Can Benefit From Wearing These Select 88 Pro Grip V20 Goalkeeper Gloves?
I think I’ve more or less given out the profile for the type of goalkeeper that can benefit from these gloves throughout the whole article. You have to be a goalkeeper that plays on very good fields. You also have to be someone who is very happy to be dealing with a glove with a ton of latex. What you know is that with some GloveGlu and proper care for these gloves you’re going to get a ton of grip out of them. My only thing is, are there other gloves that you can get some of the same benefits out of? The answer is clearly yes! Particularly within the same price range that these gloves are going for.
Perhaps the main reason why I wanted to write this review was to put this out there and hope that Select does the right thing and lowers the price on these gloves. There’s a good chance that they have a ton of them in storage still. If you put them out into the market at 50 or 60 dollars this may be a glove that a lot of us can get behind. Particularly as a practice glove for the high-end goalkeeper that plays on decent fields. At 80 dollars there’s just too much competition for most of us to overlook a lot of the limitations that this glove has.
