Mil-Tec produces budget gear that fulfils the needs of airsoft players, but also military gear enthusiasts. I mostly have experience with their accessories and reproduction gear. The Army Gloves they make are very affordable at $25 on www.military1st.com and I wanted to see if this Germany-based company could indeed produce a product that would satisfy MY needs on the range. I always am in need of good sturdy and functional range gloves, and with there being a general lack of recent and detailed reviews on this product, I figured it would only shed better light on the realistic performance of this budget glove from across the pond. SIZING & FITTING The gloves are sized from small (S) to extra-large XL on the website, and I have found that the fitting is not so exact. With European companies, you are better to go a size smaller for an optimal fit. But for a budget glove, these fit almost perfectly with little excess finger room. The problem for me comes from the elastic wrist band, which have hardly any tension and the elastic out of the box barely even held tension on my wrist. MATERIALS & DESIGN The palm is made a very sturdy polyester faux leather material that is paper thin. It has the consistency of the older style Mechanix glove palms that we all grew to love and rely on. The back is made of an elastic/nylon with polyester reinforcement on the high stress points on the knuckles and backs of the fingers. The palm and inside of the fingers are given separated strips of faux leather that is double stitched to provide reinforcement for the stress points of the inside of the hand and accommodate the integrity during thumb range of motion. There is also a strip of faux leather covering the V of the thumb and index finger for durability since this is a high wear area. The finger tips are stitched together from separate pieces of polyester faux leather, and the sides of the fingers have three vent holes to keep your hands from getting too sweaty. The amount of detail and the reinforcement of the specific stress points are pretty well thought out, surprising me that these gloves are as low cost as they are. The stitching is low profile and stays nice and out of the way. The only thing I feel was cheaply designed and applied is the elastic wrist band. PERFORMANCE AND TESTING RESULTS In my testing, these gloves breathe very well and have a good gripping capability. The problem I had was operating my touch screen phone, which is not surprising. Sometimes when the heat was built up in the gloves, it was easier. The palms held up quite well throughout the testing, despite handling a lot of equipment and aggressive grip textures. The finger tips on the support hand are showing some light fraying and wear from being the primary side for manipulating gear and weapon controls. The elastic wristbands actually got looser, which was a bit surprising, and disappointing. When really sweaty, the gloves do slip a bit, but it takes a bit before you get to this point. In the cold, the gloves actually did relatively well before getting wet. The gloves are not very fast at drying, but they do not lose their gripping ability. When wet, you do see that the gloves do want to slip off, and the fact that they get heavier does not help. But they do not hold onto water like a sponge, so that is a good thing, I guess. When you already have small hands and need gloves, it can be hard to find gloves that don’t compromise your ability to handle and properly grip a pistol. These gloves do not prevent you from getting a good grip on a pistol at all, nor do they affect your trigger reach. CONCLUSION I think these gloves are pretty good for being low priced. Yes, the elastic wristbands were quite a disappointment, but the gloves stayed on pretty well during manipulations. I would say that these are mostly a dry weather glove since they take at least a day to fully dry, but if they must be exposed to water, they won’t compromise your grip or ability to do manipulations. The choice is yours but these gloves do seem to be okay if you can’t get the gloves you want right away.
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