A long time ago, 19-year old me absolutely hated gloves. I would bicker and complain about them, and take them off once we left the COP. I was one of those lower enlisted who thought I didn’t need gloves, why would I? After I grew up and saw my fair share of burns I realized the importance of gloves. In combat without your hands you are useless. In life, without my hands, I couldn’t hold my son. After I grew up a little bit I realized how important gloves are. From then on I was a true believer. This all leads us to the SpecOpShop Combat Gloves. I’ve had them for a few weeks now and I’ve been relatively impressed.
Combat Gloves Origin
Back in the day, I wore Mechanic gloves. The reason being is they were tough, well made, and much cheaper than the dedicated tactical gloves. At the time not many companies were producing slim profile tactical gloves, so the prices were high. I had no complaints about my Mechanix gloves and they became the gold standard of what in my mind it takes to make good gloves.
The SpecOpShop Combat Gloves follow in their footsteps well. My initial complaints were about how tight they were. Although, with use they began to loosen up and become more and more comfortable. The insides are actually quite soft and feel good on the hand.
Magic Fingers
The pull back feature of the thumbs and index finger are a nice touch. I filmed and took several pictures while testing a variety of gear throughout a single day. The entire time I wore these gloves. The pull over portions of the combat gloves made it possible for me to mess with camera settings, play with touch screens, and take pictures and push buttons. The ability to still use my hands was critical to take pictures and film video, but for the 21st century Marine and soldier the ability to use electronics is important. The battlefield is changing, and soldiers and Marines are adapting to new technology daily, and touchscreens are the future of said technology.
Range Day
On the range, I used these gloves with both of my favorite CZs. My favorites being the CZ P09 and CZ Scorpion rifle. I shot, practiced reloads, and cleared some purposeful malfunctions. The gloves never interrupted my method of movement. Even as they got soaked in sweat the gloves maintained a solid grip on my firearms. That’s another surprise. I was expecting my hands to be much hotter inside the gloves, however, the gloves breathed very well. They got sweaty because it’s Florida and even in late September it’s 95 with 60% humidity. A lot of the sweat also came from wiping my head over and over.
Keep Moving
I also took the Combat gloves on a workout, well, several workouts. This includes some time with a heavy bag. The carbon fiber knuckles ensured I would scrape my knuckles on the bag. The purpose of working out with the gloves was to stress them out. I do a wide variety of calisthenics that stress using the hands, as well as basic lifts like dead lifts, bench press, curls, overhead presses, etc. Let’s not forget time with the Onnit Mace and flipping tires. Throughout a week’s worth of workouts, I had zero frays, tears or even signs of stress on the gloves. I imagined that the pull over portion of the fingers would be a weak point, but they are in the same shape as Day 1.
Combat
Would these gloves last in combat? In places where it is impossible to get resupply, so what you have better work? In my opinion, they would. These gloves are extremely well built. They are comfortable in the hands, and they don’t restrict movement. What else could you want?
