Most of the goalkeeper gloves on the market today are going to want to advertise the amount of grip that you can get when wearing the glove. I get the sense that instead of helping the goalkeeper pick the right glove, grip is now something that’s not reserved for top of the line gloves. Even a lot of the no-name and up-and-coming brands have their TikToks and Instagram Reels showing how much grip you can get with their glove. When you see that as a goalkeeper there are a couple of things that you probably should be asking yourself. Number one would be is this grip level sustainable? Number two is, how comfortable will I really be while wearing this glove? The second question is one that’s sadly faded into the background.
The main reason why I can confidently claim that goalkeeper glove grip is overrated is because you can find grip in a ton of modern gloves. Not just in the way that I just talked about. You can now “fabricate” grip through products like GloveGlu. In essence all of the gloves with great grip are kind of sticky out of the box. So glove manufacturers are using products to ensure that the gloves have more grip when new. The problem is that optimal grip that you get with brand-new gloves tends to fade away with use. Now with things like GloveGlu you can ensure that the grip on your gloves remains at optimal levels. That would be reason number two as to why I feel that grip is overrated in modern goalkeeper gloves.
What Should You Look For When Purchasing Goalkeeper Gloves?
The first thing that you want to get a sense for is how they actually feel when you’re moving your hands. For example, there are certain cuts of goalkeeper gloves that may never fit your hands. You’ll have a hard part of the glove pressing against the cartilage between your thumb and your index finger. Even if the glove has a ton of grip or is touted as safe for kids, whatever it may be, if it hurts you to wear it, don’t wear it. This may seem like the simplest advice anyone can give out, but I think a lot of times we need to hear it. Especially for kids or those of us who kind of refuse to grow old.
What happens is that you can become enamored with a glove because it’s the one that your favorite goalkeeper wears. I’m sorry to have to break it to you, but maybe what your favorite goalkeeper wears isn’t what’s best for you. Besides fit, and comfort you of course want to look for grip. Durability is also a nice element to keep in mind.
That’s what’s ultimately going to give you the answer to whether that glove is good value for money or not. What I’m trying to get at here is that grip is just part of the equation. Not all goalkeepers are going to be buying gloves with the same intentions in mind. If you play 3 or 4 times a week, durability is going to be more important to you than it would be for someone who plays once a week. All that falls under this list of things to consider.
This Is Not To Say That Natural Grip Is A Bad Asset For Goalkeeper Gloves
Yes this article is meant to make the point that grip is not the end all be all in goalkeeper gloves. That doesn’t mean though that you should stay away from the gloves that provide this sense of natural grip. At the same time the equally important point that I’ve been trying to make is that there is more to grip than sticky gloves. That’s perhaps one of the reasons why you don’t see a lot of pro goalkeepers wearing finger protection on their gloves. I know this seems like an awkward segway, but here me out. Most pro goalkeepers are looking to wear gloves that allow them to move their fingers freely to be able to wrap their hands around the ball when needed.
With finger protection on the gloves it usually becomes a lot harder to move your fingers in the right position on the ball. Also, even when you do manage to grip the ball just right the stiffness of your fingers because of the finger protection may cause the ball to hit harder on the glove and end with you giving up a rebound. This is because the surface of the glove is going to be harder even if it’s coated with the same latex. Gloves with finger protection are usually a hard plastic structure covered with latex. The ball is going to bounce harder off these gloves than the ones that don’t feature the hard plastic protection. Sticky gloves are good, but there’s more to goalkeeper gloves than that.
Can You Use GloveGlu On Any Goalkeeper Glove?
There are some gloves that I wouldn’t recommend using Gloveglu on. For the most part though these are the cheap goalkeeper gloves or the kids version of gloves that have palms which aren’t made from the latex that you can find in most other gloves. For example, when I was a kid I had gloves that had what seemed like a cotton based palm. Thinking back, that’s kind of weird, but I do still see a lot of the kids gloves out there using different materials for the palm than the ones that are used with most regular goalkeeper gloves. I just don’t feel that GloveGlu is really going to be the answer here. It could very well help these gloves become stickier. You could end up in a situation though where the gloves stick to each other.
That’s why I’ve talked about getting kids gloves that at least resemble the palms of adult gloves somewhat. I’m not a fan of using gloves that are made from materials that regular gloves just don’t use. The thing is for kids it doesn’t allow them to get a proper sense of what goalkeeper glove grip should really feel like. So when they move up to adult gloves it can be harder for them to decide what they need and why. Also in this case it kind of makes it hard for GloveGlu to improve the grip on these gloves. In fact, it can make the palm on some of these gloves harder than it originally was. Cotton based palms for example don’t take water well. So the last thing that you want is to add more liquid to them. It can literally ruin the gloves.
Proper Glove Care Besides The Use of GloveGlu Can Prolong Your Grip
Quick question, what would you prefer? Having goalkeeper gloves that have amazing grip which lasts for about 2 or 3 games or training sessions, or gloves that have decent grip that lasts about a month? If you’re a pro and you get new gloves every game the first option is what you’ll probably choose. For the rest of us mortals I think the second option sounds better. Regardless, the best way to keep your grip level at a decent rate is to take proper care of the glove. Adding GloveGlu to try and maximize your grip is again not the only thing that you need to do to ensure that grip lasts long. Properly drying your gloves is one of the most underrated things that you can do to ensure that your gloves last longer.
What a lot of brands tell you is that you should let the gloves dry in the shade. That’s great advice in theory. What you don’t want to do is dry them out in the sun because that can overcook the latex and the glove is going to become hard. When that happens you can say goodbye to your grip for good! The problem with drying your gloves in the shade is that they may still be damp the next day when you go to use them. If you put them on and use them your gloves are going to stink up the place. Using a hair dryer can be a great way to speed up the drying process and therefore allow you to feel more comfortable cleaning your gloves often. That should lead to more durability with most glove models.
Why It Still Makes Sense To Look For A Top Glove
If grip is not as important, and you can technically make most gloves sticky these days, why does it make sense to spend a ton of money on a top quality glove? I don’t want to say that it doesn’t. It goes with what I’ve been saying though. You’ll want to find a glove that fits just the right way to the point where you’re going to feel comfortable wearing the glove. Then you can essentially try and get it as sticky as you need to be. The reason though why it makes sense to buy a quality glove is because these are going to be the gloves that will fit better, and feel better on your hands. Simply put, as a general rule, more expensive gloves will be made with better materials. Also, the design is typically going to accentuate the comfort of the glove.
What is also true though is that at this point in time goalkeepers should feel more comfortable looking for good deals on gloves. I talk about this constantly in the reviews. Sometimes you can’t compare the comfort level that one glove gives you over the other. The price tag on one option though makes it more viable particularly since you can make the glove almost equally as sticky as the expensive one. I’m not saying that you should absolutely sacrifice comfort for the sake of getting a better deal on goalkeeper gloves. What I do feel is that this opportunity to make any glove sticky certainly makes finding good value deals on goalkeeper gloves much easier.
Why Goalkeeper Glove Grip Is Overrated In Modern Gloves – Conclusion
I guess I wrote all of this just to say that you shouldn’t bend over backwards to find a glove that’s sticky. There are more things to goalkeeper glove grip than having a sticky glove. In many ways grip is a state of mind in my opinion. What you want is to feel comfortable making clean catches with your gloves. Having sticky gloves is not the only thing that you want to base your buying decision on. At least that’s how I see it. Truth be told it seems to be a genuine consensus amongst pro goalkeepers. That’s why you see some pros come out to games with beat down old gloves. Comfort level and sometimes that superstitious confidence that an old pair can bring trumps stickiness.
