If you do a lot of sailing, and are well disciplined about wearing gloves to protect your fingers from rope-burns (essential on racing yachts) the chances are you get through a pair of gloves in a season.
Sailing gloves don't come cheap, so it was interesting to come across the Azure Wear range, which seem to have all the features of the market leading brands, and sell for a few pounds less.
Side by side with one of the big name brands, Azure's Amara synthetic leather glove appeared at least as well made, with materials of equal quality. Indeed the elastic fabric used in both gloves appeared to be identical. Both were labelled “made in Pakistan.” You wonder if they might come out of the same factory, as for example rival brands of trainers are supposed to!
There are differences in the design and layout of the padding and reinforcement, and on first inspection possibly the Azure comes out slightly ahead, though of course that needs to be put to the test by wearing both.
The Azure has a wider elasticated wrist band, with a larger Velcro closure, which should make it easy to fit and comfortable to wear. But the closure is on the top of the wrist, while the competition boasts that its inside wrist closure prevents false starting of that all important watch. Will this really make a difference?
I was impressed with the design of the Azure glove, which looks both stylish and practical. The price of £10 seems to represent very good value for money.
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It's good to see some price competition coming into a market which has been dominated by a couple of leading brands, whose products sell at premium rates. Only time will tell if the Azure gloves really are the bargain they seem, so I will be reporting back once they have been subjected to a few months' wear and tear. |
For more information visit www.azurewear.co.uk
