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Good gloves are a cornerstone of workplace safety, ensuring employees can perform their jobs safely and efficiently while avoiding injury. But selecting the right pair of work gloves isn’t as straightforward as you might think.
You’ll need to understand the specific hazards you face—chemicals, cuts, poor grip—and how different features address those challenges. The best safety gloves strike the right balance between protection and dexterity, while also factoring in comfort, grip, breathability and more.
Whether you’re outfitting a team or looking to upgrade your own personal protective equipment (PPE), our guide to selecting the appropriate safety gloves will help you make informed decisions to ensure safety, efficiency and comfort on the job.
Battle Testing
Two major standards are used to evaluate the protection capabilities of your work gloves: ANSI/ISEA 105 (American) and EN 388 (European). Both are reliable, and both examine resistance to punctures, cuts and abrasions. Let’s focus on cut-resistance and abrasion-resistance, as those are the two most commonplace ratings you’ll see.
Abrasion and cut tests help to determine the durability and longevity of your utility gloves. So how are they conducted?
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‣‣ For abrasion testing: The glove is repeatedly scraped with a sandpaper-like, abrasive weighted wheel. The number of revolutions it takes to fully break through the fabric determines the gloves’ abrasion-resistance score. The ANSI scale for abrasion-resistance ranges from 0-6, with 1 enduring at least 100 cycles and 6 withstanding more than 20,000.
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‣‣ For cut testing: A machine pulls a blade across the glove’s surface with increasing force to determine how much pressure it takes to break through. Under ANSI standards, the sample is cut five times with three different loads, and the average results in a cut score of A1-A9.
Industrial gloves with a higher cut score are typically thicker, more uncomfortable, less dexterous and more expensive—you don’t want to wear them unless you have to. You want highly cut-resistant gloves when you’re working consistently with actual blades, such as sharpening knives or changing out the blade on a log cutter. If you’re moving sheet metal or glass, a moderate to low cut score is ideal. And the warehouse worker unloading boxes on the daily? She doesn’t need to pay extra (or sacrifice the dexterity) for cut-resistant gloves.
Material Matters
Dipped, seamless knit gloves are the most common player in the game. Within this classification, the yarn you'll see most often is high performance polyethylene, or HPPE.
High Performance Polyethylene
HPPE is essentially melted plastic—imagine it being pushed through a showerhead mechanism like fine spaghetti noodles. It's relatively cheap, wears comfortably and is flexible, long-lasting and abrasion-resistant. Since they are plastic, however, HPPE gloves are not heat-resistant gloves.
The gauge of an HPPE glove refers to the thickness of the plastic yarn. The higher the gauge, the thinner the yarn. The thinner the yarn, the better the dexterity.
If you spend your day moving logs or large pieces of wood, for example, you need hand protection, but not necessarily dexterity. And if you’re working outside, a thicker glove can offer some natural insulation—suitable for a “California winter,” perhaps. But if you’re an electrician, or if you work regularly with tiny washers and nuts, you can’t hope to accomplish much in a pair of 10-gauge work gloves.
Aramid (aka Kevlar®)
The same material found in bulletproof vests and bike tires, aramid is a strong and lightweight synthetic fiber. It’s inherently cut-resistant and, like HPPE, it comes in different gauges. But unlike plastic yarn, aramid’s main appeal is its resistance to heat. Flame- and heat-resistant gloves made with aramid are the appropriate choice for a welder, someone who works around an industrial oven or a plumber who solders pipes.
Aramid utility gloves don’t typically come in high gauges—they're soft, but the yarn is thicker and more coarse. Something else to keep in mind: Aramid fiber does not do well with UV light, meaning these gloves can degrade more quickly under regular sun exposure.
Dipping Dynamics
There are a variety of ways dipped gloves can be made, and with different chemical components. A palm dip covers the fingertips to the base of the palm, while a full dip extends all the way to the wrist. A three-quarter dip exists in the middle. Industrial gloves can also be single- or double-dipped.
But above all else, the most important factor in a dipped glove design is the type of coating involved. There are three major classifications of dips: polyurethane, latex and nitrile.
Polyurethane Dip
Often billed as a value work glove, the main benefits of a polyurethane dipped glove are its abrasion-resistance, thinness, dexterity and tactility. These safety gloves are ideal for the assembly line worker handling fasteners, or the electrician manipulating wires.
Polyurethane’s smooth texture creates a reliable grip without being super sticky. But—the grip does get worse if the gloves become wet or oily. (Say you’re working outside in the morning dew, or you’re removing machine parts with a light oil residue.)
Latex Dip
The least popular of the dips, latex does have one significant benefit, and that’s its elasticity, even in cold weather. It’s flexible with a good enough grip—but latex is not super abrasion-resistant compared to polyurethane. Plus, there’s the relatively common issue of latex allergies to consider.
Nitrile Dip
Far and away the most popular dip, nitrile coated gloves are highly chemical-resistant and extremely abrasion-resistant, while offering a strong grip to boot. One drawback: In cold environments, nitrile gloves tend to get stiff and brittle. So if you're working in a refrigerated warehouse or grocery store, this isn’t the choice for you.
Within the nitrile dip category, chemical additives can be used to create texture:
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‣‣ Flat nitrile: With nothing extra added to the dip, it’s smooth and shiny, very durable and highly abrasion-resistant. Breathability is limited, so palms can get sweaty. In the right conditions—when handling things that are smooth, dry and clean—it offers a supremely sticky grip, almost like having glue on your hands. (Think of an NFL receiver.)
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‣‣ Sandy nitrile: Additives create a sandy, somewhat bubbly texture. The main benefit is a stronger grip when picking up dirty or lightly wet objects. This dip is ideal for the general warehouse worker responsible for moving those dusty, lightly fuzzy cardboard shipping boxes.
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‣‣ Foam nitrile: Additives help to form bubbly bumps as the dip dries, turning the nitrile into a spongy, airy coating. It’s comfortable and more breathable, so your hands don’t get sweaty on the job. When working with oily parts, you may experience seepage, but you’ll have a reliable grip. Overall, a foam nitrile dipped glove is a great all-around glove.
Size Certainty
Proper protection requires a proper fit. To determine your true size, take a tape measure and measure all the way around the widest part of your hand, across the knuckles. Some safety gloves will be numbered. Others will be labeled S, M, L, etc. Some include both. Take note of your numerical glove size—it's more universal than the abstract notion of small, medium and large.
Color Concerns
In most cases, the color of your team’s safety gloves doesn’t make much difference, beyond personal preference. However, there are some scenarios where choosing a certain color can impact the bottom line. Consider this:
People don’t always wait for a hole. When light gloves turn dark—be it from sweat, grease or dirt—workers are liable to throw them out (and understandably so). Buying black or dark gloves for your team can save you money in the long run, as workers will be less likely to discard utility gloves that look dirty and worn.
Other times, the opposite logic applies. Say you’re the final quality check before a product goes out. If your employees have dirt or grease on their hands, you want them to know—you don’t want them soiling up a product on its way out the door.
Your Trusted Partner in PPE
From safety gloves and glasses to earplugs and respirators, our Olympia brand PPE supplies offer premium safety at unbeatable value. NorthSky has a variety of options to help you ensure your safe and smooth operations. Our product experts understand the challenges you face each day. That's why every feature is designed with your comfort, usability and safety in mind.
