Anonymous wrote:for the people talking about west coast gloves- how do you size them? DD is starting to get more serious (coach doesn't believe at specialization for u12, so she plays a half a game, but goes to weekly training through the club) and has been begging for better gloves

Anonymous wrote:How old? I assume a full time keeper?

Generally, game quality gloves will perform better but wear faster. Practice gloves won’t be as grippy, but will last dramatically longer. She should have a pair of both, ideally. All major brands will have game and practice gloves. I like Uhlsport.

Anna-Rose wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old? I assume a full time keeper?

Generally, game quality gloves will perform better but wear faster. Practice gloves won’t be as grippy, but will last dramatically longer. She should have a pair of both, ideally. All major brands will have game and practice gloves. I like Uhlsport.

She’s 13 and plays full time—so having both game and practice gloves makes a lot of sense. I’ll definitely look into the differences. I’ve also seen some gloves with reinforced palms and finger protection that seem ideal for her level.

Anonymous wrote:Two-GK parent here, playing at a pretty high level. We've gone through...I'm gonna say over 100 pairs of gloves by this point.

In short, you want the best quality latex you can get, with the least expensive glove to hold it on your hand. Almost all the value is in the latex, and the difference between good and cheap latex is vast. The big brands have good latex in their top models, but you are paying a lot for design and the brand. You can get just as good latex at half the price or less. We've bought a lot of Sells (from England) and Elite (US), but there are others. The West Coast gloves mentioned above sound like they are in this category too. Couple more tips:

--Have a pair of game gloves and a pair of practice gloves; when the practice gloves are really toast, get another pair, make them the new game gloves and downshift the other pair to practice
--Dry them after every wear. We use a boot dryer. Moisture is the enemy of both long glove life and your nose.
--Wash them every so often. We close the straps (so the velcro hooks don't abrade the latex), put them in a pillowcase (so other laundry zippers and such don't abrade the latex), and wash them with the regular laundry. Then dry them in the dryer (still in the pillowcase). The latex has a lot of little pores that help it grip; when they get full of dirt and dust, the grip is worse. Washing restores it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anna-Rose wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old? I assume a full time keeper?

Generally, game quality gloves will perform better but wear faster. Practice gloves won’t be as grippy, but will last dramatically longer. She should have a pair of both, ideally. All major brands will have game and practice gloves. I like Uhlsport.

She’s 13 and plays full time—so having both game and practice gloves makes a lot of sense. I’ll definitely look into the differences. I’ve also seen some gloves with reinforced palms and finger protection that seem ideal for her level.

You came back 5 years later to respond?