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Leather Work Gloves 101

leather gloves - blog post image

Have you noticed that leather hand protection is used in sporting events including baseball, car racing, cycling, football, and even handball? The earliest use of leather gloves comes from Formula One car racing in the 1890’s. Today, we use leather gloves in a wide variety of environments from sports to construction, industrial safety, manufacturing, hardware, and more. With this, let’s break down leather work gloves in the PPE industry.

With over 30 years of experience, Liberty Glove and Safety’s competitive advantage is providing a vast selection of leather properties, construction, and qualities. With our long history in hand protection, leather work gloves provide strong and tough material resistant to abrasion, puncture or tear, and heat. Our product offering includes leather drivers gloves, leather palm gloves, double palm gloves, and lined gloves. For additional protection, we also offer mechanic gloves and impact resistant gloves with leather properties. From performance levels to cost savings, these gloves can be used in light to heavy duty working environments. Performance factors are based on leather type, glove construction, and cuff.

Highlighted Features:

  • Standard Full Feature
  • Specialty
  • Insulation
  • ANSI cut level
  • Kevlar® Thread Sewn
  • 3M® Thinsulate® Lined

*LGS offers custom services like pad printing, silk screen printing, vend pack, service hang tags, and more. Elevate your brand identity with custom printed products. Visit libertysafety.com/services to learn more about our custom services today.

The Properties of Leather Work Gloves

Leather work gloves are available in grain and split cowhide, pig, goat, or deerskin leathers. While cowhide is the most popular in the industry, pigskin has higher abrasion resistance, great air circulation qualities and retains its flexibility when wet. Goatskin has an excellent abrasion resistance and high tensile strength; its high lanolin content makes this leather exceptionally soft. Deerskin has the highest density strength of all leathers that offers dexterity as well as softness.

Leather Type

  • Cowhide: most popular, cost effective, abrasion resistant, durable, and heat resistant
  • Pigskin: soft, flexible, does not harden, breathable
  • Deerskin: very soft, flexible, comfortable, and lightweight
  • Goatskin: high tensile strength, abrasion resistant, soft, and flexible
  • Synthetic: weather resistant, comfortable, lightweight

Types of Cuts for Cow Leather

  • Side split: most durable and provides greatest protection because there are fewer scars with weaker fibers
  • Shoulder split: more economical than side split due visible texture differences and less fiber density
  • Belly split: most economical due to its inconsistent texture and appearance

The Construction of Leather Gloves

Driver gloves include slip-on configuration for ease of don and doff and available with a straight, wing or keystone thumb.

See how we construct drivers gloves below:

Leather palm gloves range in full featured safety cuff, knit wrist, or gauntlet cuff for more protection.

Double palm gloves feature reinforced palm area to provide added protection and wear. Kevlar® sewn thread is used on certain styles for additional strength and abrasion resistance on the seams. For additional air circulation, our cotton canvas on the back of leather palm gloves is another popular style.

Lined gloves with jersey, piled or 3M™ Thinsulate™ can be used if the job requires insulation for additional protection from cold weather.

Cuff Construction and Lining Options

  • 2-1/2” Safety Cuff: The most common cuff design, protects the wrist area. Slides on and off easily.
  • 4-1/2” Gauntlet Cuff: This longer cuff offers the same protection as a Safety Cuff, with increased protection to the forearm.
  • Knit Wrist: This design holds the glove in place while preventing debris from entering.

  • Fleece: The most used glove liner, made of napped brushed cotton.
  • 3M™ Thinsulate™: The warmest thin insulation on the market, Thinsulate™ has about 1.5 times more warmth than down feather lining and absorbs less than 1% of its own weight in water allowing it to retain its insulating ability even in damp conditions.
  • Pile: This synthetic wool is popular because of its relatively low cost and realistic similarity to wool.
  • Foam: With the comfort of a fleece layer and an additional two layers of polyester and polyurethane foam, this lining offers the most value for warmth insulation.

*LGS offers a vast range of leather to choose from. Ask your sales professional for leather products that satisfy your needs and budget today. 

Liberty Glove and Safety’s Featured Leather Products

  • 7017Q – Standard Grain Pigskin Drivers Gloves

Looking for more breathable leather work gloves? This glove offers standard grain pigskin leather protection. Unlined with a keystone thumb construction and shirred elastic back. Even when the gloves are exposed to water, pigskin leather keeps its natural softness intact. Looking in purchasing in multiple sizes? Use our color-coded fabric hemmed cuff for easy size identification. 12 pairs per poly bag, and 10 dozen pairs per case. Sizes: XS-2XL

  • 7217 – Standard Grain Pigskin Insulated Drivers Gloves

With extreme weather conditions in mind, this glove offers standard grain pigskin insulated leather protection. With its red fleece lining, it provides extra comfort and warmth protection needed in extreme temperature working environments. This glove’s construction also offers a keystone thumb, shirred elastic back, colored hem, and a rolled cuff. 12 pairs per poly bag, and 10 dozen pairs per case. Sizes: XS-2XL

  • 6237 – Standard Grain Cowhide Drivers Gloves

Not interested in pigskin leather? One up your hand protection with this 100% standard grain cowhide drivers gloves. This durable and great value glove with a red fleece lining, keystone thumb, and shirred elastic back. Offers color-coded fabric hemmed cuffs for easy size identification. 12 pairs per poly bag, and 10 dozen pairs per case. Sizes: XS-2XL

Closing Statement

Liberty Glove and Safety has taken pride in delivering hand protection for the last 30 years. While continuously finding the right solutions to protect our customers in demanding environments, our product offering includes leather drivers gloves, leather palm gloves, and lined gloves. Their performance factors are based on leather types and glove constructions. Reduce workplace hand injuries with LGS leather work gloves as popular choice in hand protection in the PPE industry. LGS offers a wide variety of leather gloves and performance factors or cost savings benefits. With confidence, contact your LGS sales expert and find the best solution for your needs.

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