Hands-On: Irwin’s InnerGrip Work Gloves
By Sean O'HaraProtection
For our protection test we wanted to test how well the gloves would stand up to working around a hot engine — so we fired up the car and heated up the engine a bit, then grabbed a hot spot to see how long we could hang on before the heat got to us.
We tried the Irwin gloves both normally and inside-out. We were impressed with the 64 seconds we achieved with right-side out. You could easily brush up against a hot engine without feeling the burn — or quickly handle a part without much worry. Inside out didn’t work as well for some reason; a 47 second score was the best we could get.
Keep in mind, though, that these aren’t welding gloves. It’s always a better idea to let the engine cool down before working on it.
Dexterity
Remember Dan Marino picking up a dime in those old Isotoner commercials from back in the day? So do we. But we wanted to test using something you might actually need to pick up in the shop, so we tried washers. Digging around the shop yielded a 7/8” flat-washer for the first test and a super-small 1/2” flat-washer — considerably smaller and thinner than a dime — for the second test.
Wearing the InnerGrip gloves, we picked up the larger washer on the second attempt without much difficulty — besides poked-up hands from the InnerGrip dots. But we just couldn’t snag the smaller washer. After ten attempts finally gave in and slid the washer to the end of the table, dumping it in out into our hands.
Incidentally, we also ran them through the test inside out and picked up both washers on the first try. Go figure.
Read on to page three for our conclusions.
September 3rd, 2007 at 6:08 pm
i think IRWIN makes really cheap/low quality products…
September 4th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
IRWIN used to make really high quality stuff… now they’re more hit-or-miss. I’d have to see these gloves in person before I’d buy them….
February 9th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Dear Sir,
Our Company is making and exporting various types of:
WORK GLOVES
WELDING GLOVES
AND DRIVER GLOVES
Please visit our web page www.sfaunionsports.com
and confirm us your choice, so we shall send you samples with minimum
price offer most acceptable to you.
Awaiting your MOST KIND RESPONSE.
BEST REGARDS
TARIQ MAHMOOD
SFA UNION SPORTS
Sialkot,Pakistan