What the Manufacturers say

The Winter Gloves from SealSkinz are waterproof, windproof and breathable as well as featuring excellent insulation to keep your fingers toastie warm throughout the winter. Pre-curved fingers are great for comfort and provide a really natural feel while the extended cuff provides extra warmth and can often be layered easier.

Price£40

These winter gloves feature additional insulation for extra warmth.

• Totally waterproof, breathable and windproof
• Pre-curved fingers and soft supple leather palm for natural feel & dexterity
• Additional insulation & extended cuffs for increased warmth & a comfortable fit

Material composition:

• Outer Shell: 100% Nylon
• Micro-pourous Membrane
• Inner: 100% Polyester

Sizes: S / M / L / XL

Weight: 172g (Large)

Sealskinz Winter Gloves - Dave Mycroft

Gloves aren't the easiest of products to test, beyond the waterproof/breathable/windproof claims there's very little guidance given in a gloves specific use and even with winter gloves there's rarely any indication of exactly what "winter" actually means. We put the Sealskinz Winter Glove through a series of tests designed around a UK winter with temperatures down to -12°C and everything from submersion in water to standing around on a windswept alpine piste. Whether this took the gloves beyond their design limit or not we don't know but as winter starts to get a grip in Britain we haven't seen anything yet that exceeds our test conditions.

The first test was waterproofing and sitting for 20 minutes with a hand in a basin of water. When it comes to being waterproof a glove can start out waterproof but wet out, so a 20 minute submersion test gives a better idea of the gloves capacity to retain its waterproofing over a prolonged period. This was then followed by a 5 minute continuous high pressure water jet to replicate and exceed the worst rain. In both cases the gloves remained completely waterproof. The neoprene wrist closure was then deliberately wet to test drying times. It was found that simply wetting the edge of the wrist closure led to the water spreading quickly through the whole strap, and drying at 18°C without any direct heat took around 8 hours from completely wet (wet through then hand squeezed to remove excess water).

The wrist strap took around 8 hours to dry from fully wetted out

Next up we headed for the Austrian Tirol and temperatures down to -12³C. With a mix of skiing and photography on the agenda the gloves were on and off at regular intervals but keep the hands warm without overheating. Grip on walking and skiing poles was better than expected and the precurved fingers were flexible and responsive enough to be able to adjust boots and helmet without removing the gloves. Operating the camera was beyond them, however, with the fingers being to bulky for small buttons. We found that wearing a pair of thin liner gloves solved the issue, keeping the hands warm for long enough to take photographs even on the coldest day. Having the liner glove in really put breathability to the test, particularly when working hard side-stepping uphill, but a short tern build up of heat started to dissipate within 3 or 4 minutes and the temperature rebalanced. Without the liner glove breathability and wind resistance wasn't really an issue.

Conclusions

The Sealskinz Winter Gloves don't look that special alongside the ubiqitous black gloves on a retail rack and there's no indication and at £40 you'd be excused for expecting a middle of the road performance with a minimum temperature of not much below zero. In reality the gloves performed well beyond their price point and while there are undoubtedly warmer gloves on the market they're going to be double the price. The waterproofing worked perfectly over the main glove but if there's one area of concern it's the way that water quickly spreads throughout the neopene wrist strap; the upside being that the strap gives a very very comfortable and water/snow resistant seal.

The precurved fingers and polyester lining allow even cold wet fingers to get in and out easily while the leather palm gave both good levels of grip and enough "feel" for walking, skiing and gripping the sides of a speeding skidoo! That they remained warm down to such a low temperature was beyond expectations and the ability to combine them with a liner glove means they should cope with pretty much anything a UK winter will throw at them. Where they may fall down in comparison with a more expensive glove, such as the Rab Guide, is durability; but that will only show with time.