Welcome to a new series of review posts! I had a few people wanting me to bring back more product reviews, but truth be told they’re really my least favorite posts to write. So to make it a little more fun for me (and hopefully maybe for you too) I decided to put a little twist on it. Instead of just a single product, I’ll go over every product I have within said category, compare and contrast them with each other ruthlessly, and then pick a favorite. We’ll do that once a week until I, uh… run out of categories I guess. Hopefully this makes it a little more interesting than having to write or read a whole blog post about just one item.

So let’s kick it off with what I consider to be an important item, and one that I’m really weirdly picky about: gloves.

Ego7 Air Mesh Gloves

These are the newest addition to the collection so I might be able to comment a whole lot on longevity yet, but I still have plenty of thoughts. I bought these because I really wanted a mesh-back glove for the summer (in all honesty I went looking for the Roeckl Laila but 1. no one had them in my size at the time and 2. I was a little worried about those being durable enough for me, I am a bit rough and tumble). These Ego7 gloves are maybe a little more substantial than I was after with a true everyday summer glove… they come down farther on my wrist (some people might like that, I find it a little annoying), aren’t fully mesh on the back, and have a double reinforced rein area on the palm/fingers. It does make me think that they’ll last, they’re pretty rugged, but it’s not quite as light of a feeling as I was going for in the Florida summer. I will say that their touchscreen capability is probably the best of my particular bunch though. If you have long fingers I think they run small – I usually wear an 8, sometimes 8.5, but I had to size up to a 9 in these to get enough length in the fingers. I feel like these are a good summer show glove but maybe not the best summer everyday glove (at least not for people that live in super hot/humid places).

Sweet Iron Co Second Skin Gloves

I’ve talked about this Australian company and their gloves on here before – the skull ones have been my go-to cross country gloves. Lately though I’ve found myself gravitating to them more and more for every day. The palm material is similar-feeling to Roeckl and the top is a pretty thin stretch Lycra. They’re comfortable and slim-fitting, not bulky, and don’t feel too thick. I like that they have so much stretch to the material, they’re very easy to pull on and off and comfortable to wear. They work decently well on a phone screen and dry pretty well overnight, AND they don’t dry stiff/crunchy like some of the other Roeckl type materials do. To be totally honest though the real selling point of these for me is the skulls. I just love them, they bring me joy. I have these gloves in both the navy skulls and the black skulls, although they come in solid colors too. Aside from the aesthetics they are truly pretty solid gloves in their own right, but the skulls just give them that little extra bit of fun for me that elevates them. I also think their longevity is pretty impressive, I’ve been using my older pair on and off for like 4 years (I tend to rotate my gloves by season) and they’re just now starting to get worn in the fingers. I’ve tossed them in the wash a couple times and they seem to survive that just fine and come out looking clean again.

Woof Wear Event Gloves

These are quite possibly one of the biggest disappointments I’ve ever purchased. I was SO excited when I found them because they’re super lightweight, cut shorter at the wrist, the material on the back is really breathable and thin, and they were under $30. They feel GREAT to wear too, especially in the summer heat. However… boy did they shit the bed real quick. See all those black flakes on my wrist? That’s the edge material just flaking right off, and I’d only worn them maybe 5 times when that started happening. It’s a real bummer because gah I can’t even wear them without having little black flakes stuck all over my arms. Basically garbage. Womp womp. I guess the price really was too good to be true.

RSL Rider’s Touch Malibu Gloves

These are, to be honest, perhaps my most confusing gloves. If you think they look green, you’re not wrong. They look real olivey. However, they’re listed as being gray and navy. If you put them right next to something true green they do look more gray, but otherwise they just look like a strange green. I don’t hate it, I just wouldn’t necessarily choose it. The fit is also a little strange, it’s like they assume that if you have long fingers you also must have very thick fingers and a very large palm, because I certainly don’t have small hands yet have a ton of extra room in these. They come so far down my wrist that they cover my watch almost completely. If you like looser fitting gloves or have thicc fingers then maybe you’d like the fit of these, but it’s not my jam. They just feel really baggy. The quality seems fine though, and they’re not a bad price. The material on the back of the hand could be lighter weight too, if I’m being picky. All in all they’re just… fine. I almost never reach for these out of the pile but there’s nothing terrible about them either.

Epplejeck Shine Gloves

Look, did I buy these purely because they’re navy glitter? Of course I did. They were cheap and I won’t feel shame about that. Really I got them to wear at shows and I think I’ve only worn them once so far. Are they great? No. Can I complain too much for $15? Absolutely not. They wouldn’t be the gloves I’d buy and expect to wear every day for a year but they’re definitely fun and nicer than I was expecting for the price. They’re kind of a Roeckl-style dupe just with cheaper materials and perhaps lower quality execution, but they’ve got glitter, so…

Roeckl Lona gloves

Speaking of Roeckl’s, yep I have some of those too… I think everyone has some model of Roeckls. When it comes to fit I do think they’re the best of the lot. They have room where there should be room, and they’re fitted where they should be fitted. The material is fairly lightweight and they’re not too bulky. I do think the longevity is a bit meh considering the price (at least if you use rubber reins like I do) but they do have some decent color options that make them a bit more fun than just your standard black or navy. I don’t think this particular model is as breathable as I would prefer, and they take longer to dry than some of my others, plus they can be kinda stiff when they get super saturated (which is like daily for me) and then dry. They’re one of those that I’d buy repeatedly on sale but not for full price.

So – where would I rank them? Who wins this particular battle royale?

It’s a close one for me, but in the end it’s gotta be the skull gloves. They’re comfortable, they fit well, they’re about middle of the road price-wise, and they’re just really damn fun. I get comments on them all the time, and they make me happier than any gloves truly should. Most importantly though they’re functional (grippy and phone screen friendly), they’ve had pretty good longevity for me, and they seem capable of standing up to my lifestyle of rubber reins and machine washing. I find myself reaching for them every day and kind of have to force myself to chose other ones… that’s probably the most telling factor.

Hope you like this new little series! Let me know what item you’d like to see go head-to-head next week.