The 10 Best Armored Gloves

Editor's Notes

April 09, 2020:

During this round of updates, while the majority of our previous selections maintained their positions, we did remove the Kolumb Premium Tactical and Jiusyu Touchscreen Tactical due to availability issues. In their places, we added the TCBunny Powersports – a budget-friendly option that comes in three colors, and the TitanOps Gear Combat Training – a comfortable pair that’s available in three sizes.

A few things to look for in this category:

Fit: Like any other gloves, a good pair of armored gloves needs to be comfortable, and to be comfortable they need to fit well. While which gloves will best fit you personally largely depends on the unique shape of your hand, several models we ranked include extra features to help ensure an agreeable fit.

While the Street & Steel Westwood have stretch panels along three fingers on each hand, allowing users to comfortably form a fist, the TitanOps Gear Combat Training use military-grade Velcro on their wrist straps, to ensure the gloves stay snug. On top of this, the TitanOps are one of many options that use stretchable, synthetic textiles to create a glove that easily conforms to the shape of your hand.

Ventilation: This is an especially important consideration for this category, given that these gloves are often worn by users riding motorcycles – or playing paintball – in the hot sun. Options like the TCBunny Powersports help keep hands cool by using breathable fabrics across their palms and vented eyelets on top of their fingers – the latter being a strategy that’s also employed by the FreeToo Tactical Military Outdoor. As the name implies, the Valken V-Tac Half Fingers are missing half their fingers, which makes them much less stifling than most, while the Joe Rocket Motorcycle Cold Weather take the opposite approach, and minimize ventilation as much as possible by implementing a drawstring around their wrists, to help keep hands warm.

Protection: This is what sets armored gloves apart from their common counterparts – the rigid shielding they offer one’s hands. While the Reebow Tactical Military have no special provisions to protect your fingers, the Tonsiki Carbon Fiber Full Fingers have two small pads across each finger, and one across each thumb. The open fingers on the Valken V-Tac Half Fingers do leave your digits exposed, but it should also be acknowledged that the full shielding they have across the back of their hands is more than most. The multipurpose vented eyelets on the FreeToo Tactical Military Outdoor also help give a bit of extra protection to your fingers.