They have nothing in stock, ever. There are zero large or xl gloves available, and have not been any for what feels like 6+ months. wtf is going on over there?
They are nice and very comfy. However, they don’t have the ultra-tacky rubber grip palm, it’s more of a fabric. This would be fine with newer steering wheels, but with old, dried out rental plastic wheels, I’d prefer the grippy rubber palms, even though they wear out quickly.
I went fishing for gloves again today and came across these:
I had a pair of Offsets that had some of the stitching blow out, so the fabric layers would shift across each other, essentially rendering them useless. This was after only a few races.
Have you guys ever crashed / flipped with bad gloves? I’m thinking not… I’ve wrecked motorcycles and flipped karts, and was glad for LEATHER. I would not consider some of what I’ve seen above…
I’d go as far as saying the rubber grips are necessary. I once had an endurance race where I drove 3hrs in total and I had to use (slightly worn) gloves with no grips as I forgot mine at home. Even worse, those karts had the older round steering wheels instead of the new formula-style wheels, so I had to grip to the wheel for dear life to get the kart to turn. I got a large blister on my right palm because of it.
As Clayton said, let us know your thoughts about the Offset gloves. I’ve seen a lot of karters use them and my gloves are probably due a replacement.
Agree with Max I can’t drive without the silicone grips, done a few races on some rather trash quality gloves and got blistering as well since I had to death grip the wheel. Completely biased, but I think my brand are top quality, have had some drivers on 4-5 seasons with the same pair and still going strong.
Now for my non-plugged opinion, I still have my old Sparco ones (older Arrow model I believe?), they were really comfortable and despite half the silicone falling off they still had great grip.
I have a suede covered wheel on my race kart, so I have to remind myself NOT to grip so hard (thus avoiding arm pump). I find that having the “spokes” in a Y format lets me hook my thumbs and relax grip. Of course this can lead to damaged appendages in impacts, so YMMV.
This can be a problem with non grippy gloves, having the wheel shift and slide in hands, resulting in spoke bash. With rental karts, the wheels tend to be plastic. Some types don’t age well and get greasy.
My son has been running these for 1-1/2 years. Tons of track time and several nasty wet weather races on them. I cannot say enough about how well they have held up.
There are sooooo many glove brands out there now. Its partly a symptom of Minus273’s past success (making people aware a business can run off gloves alone) and the ease of getting gloves out of Pakistan in small quantities (not 273, they use Vietnam last I checked, but that’s the typical go to). There’s also a large number of sim glove sellers out there and lots of them are going for the longer cuff (karting style glove). I’d say its hard to judge without trying one.
Ignoring the brand i sell (Marina), I’ve most recently tried on 273, Moradness and Offset. Moradness and 273 felt the same to me, thin material, felt like they’d not last long. Offset felt better made with a slightly thicker material, similar to your standard offerings from Sparco, OMP etc. But I don’t have any driving experience with them.
As much as I enjoy the 273’s I have 3 pairs that have completely fallen apart at this point and one design with less grip on the hands that’s actually holding up better than the rest but I can’t trust them as my only set to not also fall apart at some point. I was literally shopping yesterday for gloves for the new season and there’s no inventory of 273’s so I’m giving Nick a little support and going with the Marina gloves. Enjoyed the ability to customized to my liking but was easily able to come up with something I liked in just a few minutes.
I’ll be sure to report back here after some use on how they work out.
I have had two pairs of -273 and both have been durable and I love them but I have heard others complain about the same things as well, so it’s probably a bit hit or miss.
Having also made/designed/sold gloves in the past I can relate to the struggle of dealing with vendors to get consistent quality.
