There are a couple of important things you need to know before you click that “Send To Cart” button and your hands measure happens to be one of them. Our job is to research all types of gloves and the people that buy them so that you can get a better understanding of what you’re purchasing. Because of this, we find ourselves going through complaint after complaint for every glove that we end up reviewing to see the other side of things.
One of the most popular complaints is about glove size. The simple fact of the matter is that sizes are split into different tiers like “Small, Medium, and Large,” and these are quite subjective so they cannot be used as the one and only means of identifying the gloves we would like to purchase.
How To Measure Hands For Gloves Size?
Glove distributors know this fact so they often provide the measurements for their definition of the size tiers we’re all familiar with. This is because some distributors are in other countries so what constitute as Large on one area of the atlas might only be a Small in another area. So while one area might have an agreed upon standard for the size characteristics, another might have a completely different one and it all depends on the people.
There are three different ways of measuring your hand and we’re going to go through them step by step. The first is by measuring the circumference of your hand. This is one of the most common ways to find your glove size but this alone is not the indicator for which letter to click on (XS, S, M, L, XL, and the like). The next method is by measuring the length of your hand. This method should be used to supplement the first and find the best fitting glove for you. If you have relatively long fingers then this measurement is imperative. Whether this applies to you or not is irrelevant because these measurements are invaluable to you as the smart consumer. The final method we’ll go through is measuring the span of your hand. This is usually done by a variety of sports people and musicians alike.
Circumference
This is the most common way of measuring your compatibility with a pair of gloves and (with a few tweaks to the method) even socks. You’ll need a fabric-measuring tape but this can also be accomplished with the use of a piece of string and a ruler. By wrapping the fabric-measuring tape (or the string) around the widest part of your palm (where your pinkie meets your palm to where your index finger meets your palm and back to your pinkie) you get a measurement that tells you what size glove you need to purchase. If you’ve used the string then you need to mark the circumference on the string and measure the string on the ruler. If your measurement is in centimetres then you can divide it by 2.54 to get it to inches and if it’s in inches then you can multiply it by 2.54 to get it to centimetres. This number can be cross-referenced with a table with the different size tiers (XS, S, M, L, XL, and the like) and their numerical values.
Length
This is a supplementary method that should always go hand in hand with the circumference method. Again, you’ll need a fabric-measuring tape but this can also be accomplished with the use of a piece of string and a ruler. By measuring from the base of your palm to the tip of your longest finger (usually the middle one), you get a measurement that can be compared with the circumference. The larger of the two numbers should be used to determine your size. For baseball gloves, you should measure from the base of your palm to the tip of your index finger. For tennis racket grips, you need to measure from the tip of your ring finger to the lowest lateral crease of your thumb (on the other side of the bottom knuckle on the thumb).
Span
If you play cello, violin, or basketball then you’re probably going to need to measure your hand span. This statistic can help you determine what size instrument you’ll need and it’s used by professional athletes for various reasons. With the help of your measuring instrument of choice (preferably a ruler), you can determine your span by spreading your fingers as far apart as you can (yes, your thumb too) and measuring the distance between the tip of your pinkie and the tip of your thumb (your middle finger will be perpendicular to your ruler).
Be sure to write these measurements down so you can make it easier to refer back to them.
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