When you first start your journey into goalkeeping one of the primary steps that you need to take is choosing the type of gloves that you want to wear. Nine times out of ten whether it be parents with their kids or an older person going out to buy their first gloves they’ll buy what’s cheap and readily available. That’s a natural tendency because at that point you’re obviously not going to be immersed in the world of goalkeeping just yet. Plus, spending too much money on a pair of gloves when you don’t even know if goalkeeping is going to be for you long term doesn’t seem like a good idea. Still, the soccer goalie gloves that you choose can heavily influence your experience on the field. With that in mind you’re going to want to know what to buy even from the first day.
There are essentially two main purposes that soccer goalie gloves have to fulfill. They have to protect your hands from hard incoming shots first and foremost. Ideally, they’ll also provide some decent grip to make it easier on you as a goalkeeper to make clean catches. Now, there are a ton of different gloves that come in completely unique designs, and of course all of them promise to get the job done. Naturally this can make the buying process overwhelming. What I want to do today is go through the key elements that you want to look for in gloves. Particularly if you’re someone who is starting out. Ultimately as you progress you’ll develop your preferences. Even if you’re a bit later in your career you can still fall back on these key elements to choose soccer goalie gloves.
Soccer Goalie Gloves Are Meant To Protect You – Look For A Thicker Glove!
This is a pretty obvious one, the main reason why goalkeepers started wearing gloves was to protect their hands. I’ve said before on the site, I’ve met goalkeepers that played in the late 60s and early 70s. There were gloves back then already. Obviously the gloves that were out there can’t be compared to what we have today at all. You can see that in the hands of these guys. All of the guys I know or knew from the era have completely messed up fingers. Today gloves are hopefully going to allow you to avoid that outcome for yourself. Still you have to know that even if you’re wearing modern soccer goalie gloves injuries can still happen.
I did not play in the 70s or 80s at all. Really I would say I played all through the 2000s and to today. So I’ve gotten a good glimpse of the evolution of soccer goalie gloves within that time frame. I say all of this to say that I have crooked fingers also! The guys I was talking about before have it worse than me, but I’d have to get to their age to give you guys a final verdict. In any case, even though having good grip and a glove that improves your game is ideal you still should be looking for thicker gloves that protect you. Especially if you’re new to the position. You can avoid injuries with better technique, and therefore you can risk wearing thinner gloves. If you’re starting out though, thicker gloves are usually the way to go.
Should You Look For Gloves With Finger Protection?
Speaking of the evolution of gloves that I was able to witness, I was actually around when the first Fingersave gloves by Adidas were released. A lot of us jumped at the chance to get these gloves with finger protection. After wearing those around for a while I realized that I don’t like gloves with finger protection. The finger spines that are on quality modern gloves have certainly improved over the early models. The problem with the earliest models is that the spines were too hard. So what happened was that it made it hard to close your hand, and it was more or less uncomfortable. At least it was for me, and I’m willing to bet it was the same for a lot of goalkeepers. Particularly judging from the fact that the Fingersave model has fallen out of favor with Adidas.
Even through saying that, I can accept that some goalkeepers are going to benefit from using gloves with finger protection. If you feel that you’re having trouble dealing with hard shots, and it hurts your hands to try and make saves it makes sense to go down this route. When you’re nursing an injury it can also make sense to wear gloves with finger protection. About 8 months ago I broke my pinky in a game, and I had a final to attend in a couple of days. What I did to feel safer was to go ahead and buy gloves with finger protection to wear while I was injured. By the way, playing with a broken finger leads to crooked fingers, so I don’t recommend it!
How Does Grip Work In Soccer Goalie Gloves?
When you hear people talk about soccer goalie gloves, grip is perhaps the main thing that people want to talk about. I think one of my crusades on the site has to do with this issue. There’s a lot more to good goalie gloves than good grip. With that being said, it doesn’t hurt to have a good grip. Today grip is just how sticky the glove is, and therefore how likely it is for a ball to just stick to your hands instead of just bouncing off. For a lot of years though gloves were not necessarily sticky. What we qualified as grip was making sure that the ball would not slip from your gloves. The gloves didn’t give you a lot of extra help. If you make the catch right though the ball is going to stay there.
Still today I think that apart from how sticky a glove is or not it’s a good idea to make sure that you’re able to perform decent technique with the gloves that you wear. What I mean by that is, wear gloves that allow you to curve your fingers in the right way to make clean catches. If you have comfortable gloves that you can work with and that help your hands not burn after hard shots you’re in the clear. Really these days you can produce stickiness with some of the additives that are used for cleaning goalkeeper gloves. There’s an argument to be made that natural stickiness is better. I’m old school though, and I’d rather have gloves that I feel comfortable with and add stickiness when needed.
Best Gloves For Beginners (Kids) – Elite Stars Jr Goalkeeper Gloves
I’ve been on these gloves for years as the best option on the market for kids. The design does mimic what you can find from pro gloves. Naturally they feature a more traditional glove design overall, but in my opinion that’s the best place to start for kids. This is a thicker glove than what you can find with most modern adult gloves. Kids though are going to benefit from wearing a thicker glove because what that does is help you mitigate the burn from very hard shots. Having this pair of gloves with a real latex palm is also going to allow you to measure durability the right way and get a sense for what real grip should feel like. This grip issue with kids gloves is something that I’ve been on recently.
The reason why I recommend gloves like these is because these are actual gloves that are kid sized. Some of the other options on the market are more toy-like if that makes sense. They are replicas that are made from different materials at times compared to what real goalkeeper gloves are made from. With Elite Stars Jr Goalkeeper Gloves you’re getting a real glove experience. At the same time these gloves provide grip and protection that you’re going to need particularly at these ages. These gloves are not overly expensive, but they can look like a steep buy when you pair them up against other options. I would just say that they are worth the buy. Especially if you’re seeing that your kid is serious about goalkeeping.
Best Starter Goalie Gloves At A Low Price – PUMA ONE Grip 1 IC
I just recently reviewed these gloves, and they are actually a model that I wore around for a while. The main difference that I see in this model versus the Elite gloves is that you’re forgoing a lot of the protection aspects that I like about that model. What you are getting are actual goalkeeper gloves for under 20 dollars. When you’re starting out in goal, and you’re not sure that this is something that you’re going to want to do long term, it’s natural to not want to invest 100 dollars or more on gloves. With these soccer goalie gloves what you’re getting is a bit of a taste of what actual goalkeeper gloves will feel like paying a really low price.
There’s a good chance that you’re going to outgrow these gloves as you move forward. However, they are gloves that you can get for under 20 dollars that are going to provide you with a true latex palm. What that means is that you’re going to be able to get a sense for how grip works in goalkeeper gloves. They are also going to allow you to get a good sense of how gloves should be cared for and how they deteriorate. In a sense the reason why recommending these two gloves specifically is because they can help you get a sense for what you’re going to want in future gloves. Ultimately what you want to look for in soccer goalie gloves is a very subjective matter.
Why You Probably Shouldn’t Buy No Name Brand Cheap Gloves From Amazon
There are a ton of cheap gloves that you can find on Amazon or even at some stores in your own hometown. A lot of these cheap options aren’t necessarily made from the same materials that you can expect in actual soccer goalie gloves. The problem with that is that you won’t get a feeling for what you like or don’t like. I just mentioned that what you want to look for in gloves is something that’s very subjective. To me there are actually multiple reasons why you don’t want to buy extremely cheap gloves. The lack of protection is certainly one of the reasons why you want to stick to brands that know what they’re doing. Of course, the whole feel aspect is really important.
As you go along your goalkeeping journey you’re going to find the things that you like or don’t like in gloves. You’re truly only going to be able to do this the right way in my opinion if you get a chance to experience materials that are similar to what you can find in pro goalkeeper gloves. One last thing that I want to put out here, is that over time you’ll know that you’re sacrificing protection for grip for example. If you’re going to have to make those decisions make sure that you know what you’re giving up. The best way to do this is by wearing or trying out different types of gloves and as I’ve been saying, figure out what you like or not.
