I first noticed Haro’s Nic Long wearing Deft Family gloves at a UCI Supercross event and thought they looked pretty sweet but wasn’t able to have a close look at them until early this year when Steve Cramer Products supplied a box full of them as prizes for the BSX charity event. There are quite a few different styles and nearly all of them have a wrist strap. Taking a quick looks it seem the Artisan 2 is the only model of Deft Family glove in the current range that is a slip on.

I have a big hand so I thought an XXL would be perfect for me, only to find the Deft Family gloves are a tight fit getting the “slip on” Artisan 2’s on my hands was quite the chore.  I’d have to say they are easily the most difficult set of gloves to get on that I have ever worn. That said though, once they are on they are like a second skin and extremely comfortable.

Deft Family gloves look great and have some crazy colour combos and designs. The black and white Lifestyle gloves were the most neutral in the range, and I imagine would be the most popular.

The silicone design printed on the palms and fingers is a nice touch for design but also extra grip. I did notice the silicone start to lift from the index finger and thumb tip without getting much use out of them, but I realised it was lifting from the “Touch Screen Compatible fingertips”, it was fine everywhere else on the glove and stayed in place. I think the silicone would make it difficult to operate a touch screen anyway, so it’s not such a big deal.

“Touch Screen Compatible fingertips” sounds like marketing hype to me, I had heard of people not being able to operate their touch screen smart phones with gloves on, but I’d never had that issue personally.  That said though, it was very easy to use my phone with the special fingertips. It might be the shape of my thumb but the seam on the thumb did tend to get in the way of me using the screen, but seriously, if you were going to do any more than just play, stop or skip music, or read email or SMS you’d just take your gloves off.

All in all the Deft Family glove is a nice design, it looks great and has held up well to lots of riding. I would like to check out the other Deft Family gloves with the wrist straps and see if they are easier to get on and off.

Features

• Innovative Touch Screen compatible finger tips.
• All-New and Improved “Slip-on” Airprene closure design.
• Superior fit and function that is second to none!
• Single layer Clarino palm with silicone DEFT Tag logo printed on palms for grip and Style.

Rating 18/20

Comments

• Deft Family Artisan 2 Lifestyle Gloves are a great looking,  comfortable and high quality glove for a reasonable price
• Not only do these gloves fit well, once you have put them on it’s easy to forget you are even wearing them
• I highly rate the Lifestyle gloves, it would just be nice if they were easier to get on and off
• These gloves look fantastic, the only thing I can pick on them for is the silicone peeling off the “Touch Screen compatible finger tips”. You wouldn’t really want silicone there while using a touch screen anyway, so it’s not a deal breaker.

Deft Family are distributed in Australia by Steve Cramer Products. For more information about Deft Family check out www.deftfamily.com.

Review by Shane Jenkins/25 February 2014