Equipment Review: ProGauntlet

A comment on https://www.reddit.com/r/wma reminded me I have been meaning to write up a little capsule review of the ProGauntlet, so this is as good an occasion as any.

REVIEW BACKGROUND

I paid full retail price for my pair of PG’s as part of the initial batch of gloves that were offered for sale through Purpleheart Armory whenever they first went up for sale. Both Purpleheart and Crossguard, the makers of the PG, were unaware of the possibility that I might write a review.

THE GOOD

The ProGauntlet offers outstanding protection for a five-finger glove. It is the best there is among non-metal five-finger gloves, and I've tried almost all of them. The design is great and very clever. I can feel the hits, but no discomfort at all, let alone pain. I completely trust my hands in them for full-speed longsword, messer, and a bunch of other things, which I have used them for extensively. Protection is comparable to a mitten glove.

Some people had some issues with the finish on the first batch of pre-order pairs that went out, but I thought it looked fine. I think they generally look cool.

They fit in all the hilts of swords I have. Some of those hilts may be sized a little larger than historical swords to accommodate gloves, but I'm OK with that. 

THE NOT SO GOOD

They are very expensive.

They are somewhat hard to obtain, as stock on the product is low. CrossGuard are working diligently to increase production, however.

They are offered in only one size as of September 2022, and it's quite important that you match the sizing chart given the fairly small tolerances for different-sized hands due to the nature of the close-fitting protection. I was fortunate in that my hand fits the current Large sizing for the product almost exactly. (I gather Crossguard may have Small and Medium sizes available near the end of 2022 or in 2023.)

They do have durability issues:

• The velcro closures on the wrist, like all velcro, can eventually wear down with time.

• I haven't experienced this, but a number of friends who have them have said that the rubber bands that hold the shell to the underglove have snapped. They are relatively easily replaced with the repair kits that Crossguard have been providing, I'm told. This repair cannot be done quickly or in an environment with time pressure - it means taking the gloves off and devoting time to it. If you get breakage during fencing, you probably need to take the gloves off and wear something else.

• Another issue I have not personally experienced is that the fingertip “buttons” that hold the exterior shell to the interior underglove can get damaged and need replacement. The repair kits provided by Crossguard contain some extra fingertip buttons. Like the rubber bands, this repair cannot be done quickly - it means taking the gloves off and devoting time to it. If you get breakage during fencing, you probably need to take the gloves off and wear something else.

• The major repair issue I had was that there's a small plastic/rubber retention ring that threads through some tabs around the base of the wrist on the cloth underglove. This holds the underglove to the hard shell exterior. It somehow popped out, and this meant that the interior underglove became completely separated from the exterior shell and would flop around, offering very little protection to the wrist. Crossguard sent me a free replacement, but unfortunately it did not fit. The solution I eventually came up with was to rather lazily thread/sew the halves of the glove together here using some pretty robust twine. It seems to work fine.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I'm overall very happy with my PG's and feel they are worth what I paid for them, but I can't offer a completely unqualified endorsement due to the durability issues, nor will they completely replace my mitten gloves. I feel I need to actually inspect them before each use to make sure all the pieces are in place and doing what they are supposed to do. I also need to try to spot areas of degradation as they forming. This means they have maintenance issues that are sort of comparable to a sword in some ways - you need to inspect swords to make sure they don't get excessively rusty, have burrs that will damage your partner's cloth kit or your partner, have weak spots forming where a gouge took out a chunk of steel that could later snap if put under pressure, etc.

That being said, the ProGauntlets are an excellent supplement to the other kit that I have. They are particularly suitable for certain contexts - for example, they might be the only gloves I would truly trust for semi-enclosed hilt weapons (e.g. early/mid-period rapier aka "sidesword").

They are also great for longsword. I don't think five-finger protection is necessary for longsword - Sparring Gloves and SPES mittens get you all the protection you usually need with most of the dexterity needed - but having the extra dexterity is nice. My Sparring Gloves mittens are currently in Poland with Barbara for repair, and when I get them back, I think I will go back to exclusively using those when I fence longsword. I might use the PGs if I were doing something special like a longsword tournament, and keep my SGs available in case there the PGs fail during fencing and I need a quick replacement.

For me personally, I do need five-finger gloves for messer, because for whatever reason, I get hand cramps when I try to fence messer in a mitten glove. I think the PG will have many good years of service as my messer gloves.