Goalkeeper gloves are not cheap. For a lot of us the luxury of being able to buy new gloves almost as a hobby really came about until you started earning yourself a few dollars. Even then, paying those 100 dollar checks for a pair of gloves that you know is going to wear out in a few months is a hard sell. Especially when you have to sell the idea to your parents. Whether you’re a young or not so young goalkeeper getting your gloves to last longer is something that you’ll probably appreciate. These tips are to make sure that your goalkeeper gloves last longer in decent shape. If you’re going to ride out gloves with no grip and holes in them that’s your call. I wouldn’t say that’s making them last long.
Another thing that I want to get off my chest right away is that yes, a lot of these things are going to require time and effort. In fact, one of the main reasons why gloves don’t last as long as they could for a lot of goalkeepers is precisely this lack of time of effort. If you’re being forced to play with gloves with holes and no grip you may want to rethink the amount of effort that you’re putting into glove care. Especially if you’re at a point in your career where the competition is getting serious. The last thing that you want is to be giving up goals because of your worn down gloves. With this in mind, here are a couple of things that you can do to make your goalkeeper gloves last longer.
Don’t Play With Dry Gloves
This is the first law that must be observed. What I’ve been guilty of is getting late to training or even games. You really have no option, but to put them on and go. You’re doing a lot of harm to gloves though if you do that. In fact, they’re going to rip real easy. Most of the gloves are now designed to provide better grip when they’re wet, but that water is also going to serve as a bit of a lubricant. If you’re playing with dry gloves, what’s going to happen if you dive to a low ball is that the glove is going to encounter more resistance with the ground. Instead of skimming past without too much trouble. That’s going to make it more likely that the glove will ultimately rip.
How wet is too wet or too dry? That’s going to depend on you and the glove that you’re wearing. I’ve been in a situation where you do feel that it’s too wet, and the ball is slipping instead of sticking to the glove. In that case you may want to even take the gloves off and squeeze some of the water out. Another option is to just catch a couple more balls and get the water out that way. If you’re in training that’s probably the best way to go about things. One thing that I want to make sure is clear is that even in training you want to keep the gloves wet. In fact, even more so because you’ll be diving to the ground more in training.
Let The Gloves Dry Out Properly When You’re Done
This sense of what’s wet and what’s dry is something that I’ve talked about on the site quite a lot. There are a couple of reasons why you want to make sure that the glove dries out correctly. Number one is to make sure that the glove doesn’t stink. We’re probably all guilty of this at some point. You finish the game or training session, and you put your gloves back in your bag like nothing happened. When you go to take the gloves out of the bag the whole bag stinks. That’s the humidity smell, plus some of the sweat that’s built up. If nothing else, remove the gloves from the bag and just spread them out and let them dry inside the house.
What you don’t want to do is dry them out in direct sunlight. This goes back to the duality of wet or not so wet gloves. The latex that most of the modern gloves are made from can dry out completely if left out in the sun. What’s going to happen in a worst case scenario is that the gloves are just going to start to fall apart because of how dry the materials got. If you want to be more active, I always recommend using a hair dryer with cold air if possible to dry them out. Especially since you can get the air on the inside of the glove and avoid that stinky musty smell that you’d get otherwise.
Thorough Cleaning Once A Week Can Go A Long Way
How often should you actually clean your gloves? Allowing them to dry out properly doesn’t equal cleaning. Also, I don’t recommend having them go through a thorough cleaning process after every use. It’s also true that even if you’re extra careful with the way that you’re scrubbing the glove you can rip some of the latex on the palm while cleaning them. With all of this in mind, I’ve always thought that cleaning them once a week, especially if you play at least 3 times a week is a good number. If you only use them once a week then you can space the thorough cleanings out to maybe one in three weeks.
What you want to do is make sure that you get all of the dust particles off the glove. If you have an old toothbrush that’s not as worn out still that could be a good tool to use. One of the biggest enemies of grip is that dust builds up. If you feel really confident in your ability to scrub your gloves down without doing any damage to the palm area you could clean them more regularly. Don’t forget that the drying process is just as important as the cleaning process. So follow the same tips that I talked about above. No drying in direct sunlight. If you have a way to hang your gloves to dry, but indoors that can be a great passive way to allow them to dry. Just make sure that the next game isn’t hours away when you’re doing this.
Do You Need To Use Special Goalkeeper Glove Shampoo?
I’m just going to be 100% honest with you. The people that sell these products are going to tell you that of course you need the shampoo to clean your gloves. What makes goalkeeper glove shampoo different from the one that you use in your hair? Usually the main difference is the amount of foam that you’re going to be able to generate. What you want for your goalkeeper gloves is any type of soap that’s not going to stick to the glove. If you use something that’s going to be hard to remove from the glove what you’ll get is soapy, slippery gloves. You want to make sure that whatever you use doesn’t generate as much foam and therefore doesn’t stick to the glove. A thicker type of shampoo or even dish soap could do the trick.
If you really want to play it safe, or if you use a shampoo that does in fact produce a lot of foam then go ahead and buy the special shampoo. You have a ton of brands that sell their own product. What I mean by that is, Reusch, Rinat, Elite and all of the brands that primarily sell goalkeeper gloves have launched their glove care brand. If you’re going to go out and buy some of these products I would recommend that you use the GloveGlu shampoo. Not because it’s the best option on the market. It’s just because you can buy that shampoo with the next product that I’m going to talk about. So the segway is perfect!
GloveGlu Can Help
Technically speaking just using GloveGlu is not going to make your gloves last longer. I feel that’s the biggest misconception about the product. Why then would I add this as a tip to precisely make your goalkeeper gloves last longer? It’s pretty simple, this substance is going to make the gloves stickier than they are. That can give you a sense of grip and security that you do start losing even with the best gloves over time. It’s not that GloveGlu is going to make your gloves last longer. What’s going to happen is that in using it you’re going to feel more comfortable using older gloves because you’re going to be able to keep grip levels high.
There are a couple of things that you want to be aware of when using this substance. Apart from the fact that like I said it’s not something magical that’s going to help you keep your gloves going. You want to apply GloveGlu mostly only before games. Ideally, you’ll be applying it to clean gloves. What you don’t want is to apply it over a layer of dirt that’s just going to cause a gunk build up. After a short while that’s going to actually force you to lose grip. What a lot of people do is want to use more and more. Clean the glove, and just apply what you need for the moment and don’t worry about the rest. You can buy the glove shampoo in a package with GloveGlu to make things more convenient if you wish!
Be Realistic About Their Durability
Can you expect goalkeeper gloves to last 6 months if you use them every single day in high intensity training? The answer is probably no. If you are extending the lifespan of your gloves to 5, 6, or 7 months on a daily training schedule chances are you’ve got no grip for the last 2 months. With that said, I understand why some goalkeepers actually do this. You want to rely on your technique and not the glove. Particularly when it comes to making clean catches. So using worn down gloves for training forces you into that. I wouldn’t recommend it in games. That would mean that you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Also, if you’re fighting for a position that’s something that you want to look into. I’d rather play it safe with newer gloves.
Like I said before I’m one of those goalkeepers that’s going to renew their gloves way before most people would. That comes down to a true lack of confidence in my own catching ability. That’s just a straight fact that I don’t shy away from. Ultimately I feel that I need all of the help that I can get. Especially since being able to catch balls cleanly is very psychological in a sense. If you’re in the right headspace you’re more likely to make the catch. In fact, you’re more likely to try to catch the ball cleanly when you have that confidence. A lot of times having these sticky gloves can provide that sense of confidence. That’s why I feel that it’s ok if you feel the need to discard gloves early.
