Leather glove

A leather glove is a fitted covering for the hand with a separate sheath for each finger and the thumb. This covering is composed of the tanned hide of an animal (with the hair removed), though it is not uncommon in recent years for the leather to be synthetic.

Common uses

A common use for leather gloves is sporting events. In baseball, a baseball glove is an oversized leather glove with a web used for fielding the ball. Leather gloves also factor into playing handball. Cyclists also use leather gloves. Leather gloves are also used frequently by football players so that they can more easily grip the ball.

Early Formula One racing drivers used steering wheels taken directly from road cars. They were normally made from wood necessitating the use of driving gloves.

Leather gloves also provide protection from occupational hazards. For example, beekeepers use leather gloves to avoid being stung by bees. Construction workers might also use leather gloves for added grip and for protecting their hands. Welders use gloves too for protection against electrical shocks, extreme heat, ultraviolet and infrared.

Leather Dress Gloves

Main types of Gloving Leather

Leather is a natural product with special characteristics that make it comfortable to wear, and give it great strength and flexibility. Because it is a natural product, with its own unique variations, every piece has its own individual characteristics.

• Peccary is the world’s rarest and most luxurious gloving leather. Peccary leather is very soft, difficult to sew, and is hard wearing.
• Hairsheep originates from sheep that grow hair not wool. Hairsheep leather is finer and less bulky than other leathers. Its major benefits are softness of touch, suppleness, strength, and lasting comfort. It is very durable and is particularly suited for the manufacture of dress gloves.
• Deerskin has the benefit of great strength and elasticity, but has a more rugged appearance, with more grain on the surface, than hairsheep. It is very hard wearing and heavier in weight than hairsheep leather.
• Slink lamb is used only in the most expensive lambskin gloves. Some of the finest lambskin comes from New Zealand.
• Sheepskin, also called shearling, is widely used for casual and country gloves. It is very warm in cold weather, and has its own natural wool lining from the wool on the sheep.
• Cowhide is often used for lower priced gloves. This leather is generally considered too thick and bulky for the majority of glove styles, particularly finer dress gloves. It is however, used for some casual styles of glove.
• Goatskin is occasionally used for gloves. It is hard wearing but coarser than other leathers and is normally used for cheaper gloves.

Leather glove linings

• Cashmere is warm, light in weight, and very comfortable to wear. Cashmere yarn comes from the hair of mountain goats, whose fleece allows them to survive the extreme weather conditions they are exposed to.
• Silk is warm in winter and cool in summer and is used both in men’s and women’s gloves, but is more popular in women’s.
• Wool is well known for its natural warmth and comfort, as well as having a natural elasticity.
• Other linings, which include wool mixtures and acrylics.

Component parts

The component parts that may be found in a leather dress glove are one pair of tranks, one pair of thumbs, four whole fourchettes, four half fourchettes, two gussets, and six quirks. Depending on the style of the glove there may also be roller pieces, straps, rollers, eyelets, studs, sockets and domes. Finally, linings will themselves consist of tranks, thumbs and fourchettes.

Stitching

The most popular types of leather glove sewing stitches used today are:

• Inseam, which is mainly used on women’s gloves, but occasionally on men’s dress gloves.
• Hand stitched, which is most popular in men’s gloves and some women’s styles. Hand stitching is a very time consuming and skilled process.

Some glove terms

• Points are the three, or sometimes single, line of decorative stitching on the back of the glove.
• Fourchettes are the inside panels on the fingers of some glove styles.
• Quirks are found on only the most expensive hand sewn gloves. They are small diamond shaped pieces of leather sewn at the base of the fingers, where they are attached to the hand of the glove to improve the fit.
• Button length is the measurement in inches that is used to determine the length/measurement from the base of the glove thumb to the cuff of the glove.
• A strap & roller is used to adjust the closeness of the fit around the wrist.
• A Vent is the ‘V’ shaped cut out of the glove, sometimes at the back, but more often on the palm, to give the glove an easier fit around the wrist.

Driving gloves

Driving gloves are designed for holding a steering wheel and transmitting the feeling of the road to the driver. They provide a good feel and protect the hands. They are designed to be worn tight and to not interfere with the hands movements. The increased grip allows for more control, and increased safety at speed.

True driver’s gloves can be identified because they offer tactile advantages to drivers frequently handling a car near the limits of adhesion. Made of soft leather, drivers gloves are unlined with external seams, which makes them seamless inside so as not to interfere with the sensitivity of the drivers touch on the steering wheel, and subsequently information from where the tire contacts the road. Driver’s gloves feature open knuckles and back for maximum flexibility, ventilation and to reduce stress on the soft, thin, skin tight, leather. Holes punched in fingers and palms for breathability, short cuffs so as not to restrict movement, and a stud fastener closure on the back for proper fit around the wrist.

The finest driving gloves, are hand sewn using Peccary glove leather, although other materials and fasteners may be used.

In history

Leather gloves have also been noted throughout history. The 1592 "Ditchley" portrait of Queen Elizabeth I features her holding leather gloves in her left hand. In the Victorian era, some women would wear undersized leather gloves in an effort to shrink the size of their hands, as small hands were considered a sign of beauty.^{[citation needed]} A gauntlet, which could be a glove made out of leather or some kind of metal armor, was a strategic part of a soldier's defense throughout the Middle Ages, but the advent of firearms phased hand-to-hand fighting out of most military engagements. As a result, the need for gauntlets also disappeared. As far back as the Old Testament book of Leviticus, the Jews were instructed to show their leather gloves to priests if it appeared the mildew was growing on them, and if so, the gloves would be considered unclean.^{[citation needed]}

More recently in history, Tommie Smith and John Carlos held up their leather glove-clad fists at the awards ceremony of the 1968 Summer Olympics. Their actions were intended to symbolize Black Power, but they were banned from the Olympics for life as a result of the incident. Yet another of the more infamous episodes involving a leather glove came during the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder case in which Simpson demonstrated that the glove purportedly used in the alleged murder was too small to fit his hand.^{[citation needed]}

In popular culture and fiction

In the film Jackie Brown, Samuel L. Jackson's character wears leather gloves.

A popular depiction of a leather glove in fiction is the use of such a glove by Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars movies. He wears the glove to cover his robotic hand and to hint at the transformation of Anakin into the evil villain Darth Vader.

In the television show Bonanza, Joe Cartwright famously wore black leather gloves.

Another example of leather gloves in fiction is in the Hitman video games. Agent 47, the main character, is an assassin who typically wears a suit, tie, and prominently-displayed black leather gloves.

In a Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch on Saturday Night Live, Sean Connery (as portrayed by Darrell Hammond) humorously refers to a leather glove being an object out of which people drink water.