Article by Mike Postaski
P.R. Gear Trail Gloves ($27.98)
Mike P: I picked these up at TRE from Golden Harper, original founder of Altra. His new company P.R. Gear focuses mainly on gear and equipment which promotes proper running form and alignment. The main products are the Running Harness and some insole-type inserts as well as some foot health/recovery tools.
The Trail Gloves seem to be a side product, maybe something fun and useful that Golden wanted to develop and share. I’m a big fan of wearing fingerless gloves when trail running. I use them in winter to give some added warmth underneath other gloves, and to keep my hands slightly warmer when I need to take my outer gloves off and use my fingers for fueling/gear/equipment.
In the warmer months, I still like them as insurance to protect my hands when taking spills on the trails. It’s no fun to have a minor spill which otherwise causes no damage except for detailing with sliced up palms over the next week or so.
My pair is a size Medium - they fit me great and seem like the correct glove size for me. I seem to have a medium palm size, but perhaps longer fingers, so I often get stuck between a medium and a large in gloves. No worry about finger length in these, so if you’re in the same boat, go with the smaller end of your size range.
There are a good amount of perforations on the palm side and a large opening on the top of the hand. I don’t feel excessively warm at all in these, and actually prefer having these on to absorb and evaporate moisture as opposed to having wet, sweaty hands.
I don’t often see trail runners using these types of gloves, and to be fair, I don’t always use them either. But if you know you may be hitting tricky or scrambly terrain, I would recommend giving these a try.
Shop for P.R. Gear Trail Gloves at P.R.
Mike Postaski currently focuses on long mountainous ultras - anywhere from 50K up to his favorite - 100M. 5'10", 138 lbs, midfoot/forefoot striker - he typically averages 70 mpw (mostly on trails), ramping up to 100+ mpw during race buildups. A recent 2:39 road marathoner, his easy running pace ranges from 7:30 - 9:00/mi. From 2022-23 Mike has won the Standhope 100M, IMTUF 100M, and Scout Mountain 100M trail ultras, winning the Scout 50M in 2024. He also set a CR of 123.74M at the Pulse Endurance Runs 24H and completed the Boise Trails Challenge on foot in 3 days 13 hours, besting the previous record by 7 hours. Mike's shoe preferences lean towards firmer, dense cushioning, and shoes with narrower profiles. He prefers extra forefoot space, especially for long ultras, and he strongly dislikes pointy toe boxes.
3 comments:
I do use fingerless gloves when running and scrambling in high mountain steep rocky terrain and also if the route goes through some via ferrata sections. Then I can run and hold the cable with one hand.
But most gloves do not have durability to do this and develop holes in the palm area after some time.
Also for via ferrata sections I would prefer more finger coverage.
I did a via ferrata once, and yes, full gloves would be nice. I think the fingerless option is just nice for some protection from falls and the occasional, but not full on, scrambling. These are pretty inexpensive too.
I just bought this glove too. It's cheap and safe, but it's not very durable.
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