Most gloves are insulated with lofted synthetic materials. Versus down or wool, synthetics are less prone to soaking up water and provide more warmth with less thickness. Both merits are important, since your hands are going to be exposed to wet stuff more often and persistently than any other body part other than your feet, and because every every additional iota of puff around your fingers works to reduce your sense of touch.
In short, every glove represents a compromise. You can make them out of waterproof membranes and completely prevent moisture from invading, but the fragile nature of stretched out Teflon means they wouldn’t be a solution for rough work. That’s why so many ski gloves fall apart after just one season. And, sure, you can pile so much insulation into gloves that you’ll never feel the cold, but doing so will make them impossible to wear. That’s why your hands are always cold.
The material used for the shell and the warmth-to-thickness ratio of the insulation are the primary determining factors in a pair of gloves’ ability to keep your hands warm.
For its Guide Gloves shell, gear company Beyond employs a…
