I’ve been happy with my Alpinestars gloves for over a year now and they have faithfully served me well, they still are serving me well; but the Knox Hand Armour Gloves are making a big impression on me… I’ll be concentrating on the flagship Knox Handroid Glove today.
At first glance they appear to be a prop from an episode of power rangers (But then I know some of you would love that anyway). The feature set on the gloves is actually very compelling.
First thing you notice is the skeletal looking finger guards, made from deformable plastic material it provides impact protection along the length of the fingers that other gloves simply do not have, interestingly there are notches engineered into the finger guards that lock up with finger hyperextension [bending backwards] helping to prevent dislocation.
The main knuckle guard is substantive with an underplate covering the breadth of the knuckles offering comfortable protection. Knox have come up with a decidedly competent fastening system which they call “The Boa”.
This intuitive little system ratchets the wrist guards to your wrist as tightly as you want it, to release the tension in the cords all you have to do is grab the button and lift it up a notch. The system works brilliantly in practice and removing the gloves by hand when they are done up is impossible.
They felt comfortable, secure and safe. The wrist pads that are drawn in with the “Boa” system are chunky without being oversized and causing annoyance.
Turning the glove over you can see what Knox are calling the “Scaphoid protection system”, the Scaphoid is the bone that joins your thumb to your wrist and often takes a battering if you land with your hands down. Knox have put in three plastic sliders on the scaphoid area and the knife edge of the hand, enabling your hands to slide out in front rather than levering your body over them which carries a far greater risk of breaking bones.
There has been a lot of thought and attention to detail with the gloves, they’ve even placed a leather tab on the underside so you can easily tug the glove on and off. On top of all of this the kangaroo leather palm contruction is comfortable and tough with excellent feedback to the hand, the rest of the construction is Japanese Aniline drum dried leather – very soft and supple. Impressed with Knox on this one.
HBW
New for 2010 is the full 
