Red Dragon Armoury AR7010 Hema Fencing Gloves, 12"

These gloves are fantastic for HEMA. Unlike Lacrosse gloves these gloves provide all the extra protection in important areas such as the sides of the fingers and extra knuckle protection. I also appreciate the velcro wrist strap as I don't have to use the strings which only get in the way. I find that I can move my wrists and hands in any manner as I could without. Of course they are a bit constricting at times but not a big deal and bbetter that broken fingers which occur not infrequently in HEMA. The only issue I'd like to point out is that I bought these for my wife as they didn't offer a size 13 on Amazon. Size 12 is more for women or youth with small hands. Upon searching online for the best deal on a size 13 pair I found that the site "Cheaper than Dirt" was significantly cheaper than what these gloves are listed for herein.

I've been using these since November of 2016 and they have provided very good protection but a finger came unstiched even before their first use. I fixed this with some nylon thread and have had no other issues sine then. But combined with the experience of other reviewers I urge caution in giving these gloves a thorough inspection when you receive them to check for any possible problems with the stitching or construction so you can return them immediately if needed. Otherwise they are excellent. I have small hands (male over 40) and they fit exactly. So if your hands are any larger than on the sizing chart for these, I'd get the larger pair.

Wow! I was worried these gloves would be cheap because of the low price, but they are excellent. The grip allowed with the amount of protection gained is outstanding. I would have liked the wrist to be more open but I couldn't be more happy with them otherwise.

I like these gloves, but one set of ours (size 12) already started to get a hole by the 2nd time using it. It’s a pretty significant one too. Not sure if it’s a one off since our other one seems ok for now.

Good protection. The draw string is pretty hard to tighten once the glove is on. Requires a LOT of breaking in before they're not wildly uncomfortable.

Where to begin? Out of the box, it was really clear that there was no Quality Assurance / Quality Control with these gloves. There was plenty of spots where a bit of finishing could have been done, trimming excess leather, having small parts re-sown. Manufacturing was obviously unreliable too, as it's clear that some fingers were stitched very differently than others - for example, on my right hand glove the finger sewing is substantially stronger, the inner component is folded and sown into protective element - not on the left side, where a finger blew out. You can also see in the attached pictures how the inner webbing of the gloves were wearing out rapidly. Mind you, this is after less than 10 hours of use. I guarantee that after 25 hours of use the inner portion between your index finger and thumb would be worn out completely. Obviously this part of the glove is a high friction area (you know, handling a sword/weapon constantly) - so an easy fix would be a single smooth piece of fabric that is particularly resistant to wear (i.e., leather, high denier polyester). Then, the overall design doesn't include wrist protection. They're a knock off of a Lacrosse Glove, but instead they should have copied a Hockey Glove. Then, the protection offered with these gloves is barely adequate for full contact sparing - in fact my instructor flat said, "These are NOT suitable, but they're a good starter." Maybe I got a lemon, but I doubt it. These gloves had to pass through several people (including the distributor) who didn't notice these massive flaws....or, much more likely, this product is so commonly flawed that no one stepped back and said, "Wait a minute, this needs to be re-sown here, here, and here." I noticed that right out of the box. Also, why is there cord to keep the glove's fit tight? Sure, on it's face it makes sense to include that - but in practical use, right away, you'll notice how unbelievably stupid of a design this is: while wearing the glove you can't adjust it yourself with their stock hardware! You need to go over to someone and kindly ask, "Excuse me, would you mind tightening my glove? It's a stupid design, I know." Red Dragon could have just used oversized parts to fix this...you know, something appropriate for the tactile abilities of the glove wearer. I could keep ranting. Just move on. Don't buy these. Unfortunately Amazon.com doesn't offer many HEMA gloves; but I would recommend a good pair of Hockey gloves, or potentially going outside of Amazon.com. SPES and Absolute Force seem to be much better brands.

I got these for HEMA and they are OK. My jacket sleeves are a bit long and they push the gloves off my hand a bit (it would be better if the cuffs were either narrow enough to go in the sleeves or broad enough to go over) and would appreciate some smaller sizing options. I fence poly and was hit/tapped right across the thumb padding with a Pentti style sword and it bruised my thumb up pretty good, which I didn't feel like should have happened through the gloves, BUT the next day the swelling went down a lot and my thumb was undamaged so I feel like the gloves get a "well, it's OK" 3 stars. Also have gotten some painful whacks to the outside of the pinky finger but no fun bruise pictures.

The seams on the left thumb unraveled in less than a month. The thumb plates, flapped open exposing the thumb to injury. I send an inquiry, via Amazon a week ago, and got no response. The gloves are useless for any serious training

Put the gloves on three times. On the third time the stitching on the wrist section came undone. Don't buy if you intend to use them often.

They’re good for what they are. Nothing special but they work well. Used for single sword HEMA