It’s been a while since I got my hands on these types of goalkeeper gloves. Right off the bat, the first thing that I thought was that I needed to change my mindset when reviewing these gloves. Let me give you a quick rundown of why I’m saying this. It’s not fair to write a review for these gloves where I’m trying to compare them to a premium option from Adidas, Nike, Reusch, Elite, or whoever it may be.
That’s one of the things that people who are just getting into the goalkeeping world may have some trouble grasping. These gloves are actually tailored to meet the demands of precisely that amateur goalkeeper who is just getting their feet wet at the position. I picked this option out of many low-budget gloves because I think that they bring interesting elements to the table.
One of the biggest mistakes that I see parents make when their kids are starting out in goal is that they’ll go out and get cheap, thin gloves for them to wear. Why is this a mistake? If your kid is just starting out in anything, don’t you want them to be able to get as much protection as they can? Thin gloves mean that the kid won’t get too much protection from hard shots. At a certain age level, it may not be too much of an issue since kids can’t kick that hard.
If they are starting out in goal, maybe at around 8 years old, you may want to think about giving them that little extra protection. That’s where I feel that these Sportout Youth & Adult Goalie Goalkeeper Gloves can come in handy. Now, that doesn’t mean that you should run out and buy them. At least read through my reasons as to why it may make sense!
Can Both Adults and Kids Benefit From These Gloves?
This was one of my main questions coming into this review. Right off the bat, I saw the benefits that these gloves could have for kids. They are a lower-priced option, but the model does look like a goalkeeper glove. If you’ve read through some of the other reviews on the site, you’ll know that one of the things that worries me the most about gloves for kids or novice players at low prices is that they don’t even feel like a goalkeeper’s glove should feel on your hand.
Why is this a major issue for me? If you’re going to continue playing in goal, you’ll want to develop within the position. One of the key things that you need to develop is your catching technique and your ball security. Both of these elements rely a lot not only on the grip that the glove has but how you are able to adapt to the grip. The goalkeepers who make the most clean catches are the ones who are confident to do so.
There’s no reason to sugarcoat this sense that these gloves are meant to be level 1 in your goalkeeping career. They can be a great starting point, though. Right off the bat, you’ll feel that sense of grip that goalkeeper gloves should provide. I’m not saying these gloves are going to be overly sticky, but when the ball hits your hand with these gloves, you’ll get a feeling that’s similar to the one that you can get with more expensive ones.
I kind of went off the rails a bit from the main point of the paragraph. Ultimately, I do get the sense that these gloves can serve both kids and adults who are novice players. The elements that I talked about are, in essence, the reason why I feel these gloves can be a great starting point.
Positive Elements That Sportout Youth&Adult Goalie Goalkeeper Gloves Provide
The thickness and the cut of the glove are two elements that I like. Both are a bit on the traditional side, I have to say that. It is true that going with a traditional cut glove may not help your transition to a modern glove that much. However, I’m always in favor of novice players using thicker gloves. There’s a very simple reason behind this. You’re going to be better protected against harder shots.
When you’re developing as both a human being and a goalkeeper, there’s a good chance that your hands are not going to be as strong as they will be at some point. Therefore, going with a thicker glove that allows you to soften the blow of some of the harder shots that you’re going to face is a good idea.
Adults who are starting out in the position can also benefit from the glove design. Even if you have strong hands, if you put them in the right position when a hard shot comes in, you can get hurt. That’s just the nature of the beast with goalkeeping. Having gloves that can help you soften the blow could make injuries less likely.
You can also get a sense of what goalkeeper glove grip should feel like. As I mentioned previously, this is an experience that you want to have early in your career. I had to learn it a bit late, and looking back it could’ve hampered my development a bit. That was more due to just how much goalkeeper glove technology changed over my career. I don’t expect things to change so drastically, but you never know. Regardless, getting a sense of how a glove should feel is a good idea.
What Worries Me About These Gloves
The one thing that I do question about these gloves is their durability. It’s important to keep in mind, though, that we can be a bit more lenient with the durability of these gloves than we would a more expensive option. Let’s say that you’re training every single day with a pair of these, and by the end of the month, they are not looking so sharp, and the grip has all but gone. It would be a bit of a letdown but not a massive deal.
I actually went through a similar situation with the gloves that I used for training back when I was playing professionally. They were made by a local brand called Pirma, and at the time, they cost about 20 dollars. I would go through about a pair a month which is what I feel these gloves are going to last if you use them every day in a professional training setting.
Obviously, if you use them less and you are more careful with just allowing them to dry properly after you use them, you can get maybe about three good months out of these gloves. They are the type of glove that I would recommend replacing when the grip falls off, but when it does, you’re going to feel like the grip dove off a cliff. The benefit of all this is that the low price allows you to treat these gloves as a bit more disposable than many of the other options on the market.
Grip Is Decent
I mentioned that you can expect not only grip to fall, but a lot of the latex to rip rather early in the process. Maybe kids are going to be able to use these gloves a bit more. Unless they start playing around with the latex, that’s tearing and up tearing more themselves. I’m not judging. That’s something that I used to do.
When these gloves are new, though, or even well cared for, the natural grip is going to be okay. It won’t be sticky like some of the more expensive options that you can find on the market. I’d say a typical line of you could add some glove glu. The thing is, a bottle of that stuff is going to be more expensive than these gloves. You may just decide that you want to wear these gloves until they run their course and then you get new ones.
Overall, though, the grip is decent. The whole design reminds a lot of a traditional glove that Rinat had back in the day. It was the base design of the gloves that I wore for games throughout basically my entire pro career. That was one of the main reasons I was drawn to these gloves. All things considered, I’m primarily talking about the price and the quality of the materials that are used to make these gloves; the grip is decent.
Can You Still Buy These Gloves as an Experienced Goalkeeper?
I would say that if you’re looking for a cheap pair of training gloves, you could do worse than these. Many of us, when we’re at the point in our careers when we’re coming up, won’t have a lot of money to spend on gloves. If you’ve been around the goalkeeping block for a while, you know that gloves can set you back a pretty penny. In many ways, I see these as a viable training glove option.
At the same time, I would understand if you say that they are too different in cut and overall feel from the game gloves that you have. I would agree that you want to be wearing a pair of gloves on a daily basis that allows you to get a similar feel to what you get with the ones you wear for games.
If we’re just talking about the price of the gloves and what you’ll be able to do with them, these can certainly be viable. Again, I’m not saying that everyone should jump on this option. There are better quality options in that 40 to 50-dollar range that could be a better fit for your budget and what you’re looking for. If you want something cheap that you can actually use, I’d say these are cheap enough to where you can give them a shot. If it doesn’t work out for you, then it’s not too bad.
Final Thoughts on Sportout Youth&Adult Goalie Goalkeeper Gloves
These gloves are a very viable option for novice goalkeepers, both young and old. As I mentioned, I really like the idea that you can get a sense of what true goalkeeper gloves should feel like at a low price. One of my biggest knocks on cheap options is that they don’t contribute to the development of young keepers, particularly because learning to catch is such a feel-based activity.
I do recognize that I’m overlooking a lot of the shortcomings with these gloves. One of the points that I led off with, though, was precisely that you can’t grade these gloves on the same scale as 100-dollar options. That’s just not a viable way to find value in the goalkeeper glove market. If you want to get into goalkeeping and you want to buy cheap gloves that may not last long but can give you a good sense of what goalkeeper gloves should feel like, these are a good buy in my book.
