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Swrve Cycling Apparel had their new gloves on display, featuring carbon fiber knuckle protection, passive venting between the fingers, and fingertip pads that allow you to use a touchscreen smartphone without having to remove your gloves, a nice touch for anyone who’s ever tried to answer the phone and it just won’t respond. Available in genuine leather for $75 or synthetic materials for $35.
Why is carbon fiber the material of choice for these gloves? The advantage of carbon fiber composites that they can be engineered to be very stiff in particular directions or applications while also being very lightweight. In terms of toughness it is usually pretty fragile and brittle, depending on the resin used to hold it together. I would think that something with inherent toughness, like Kevlar, would be a better material for something like this. Also, if I paid $75 for a pair of gloves I think I’d rather scrape my knuckles than the leather!
Kevlar is overrated Tyler and your comments about carbon being brittle/fragile based on resin used is also pretty inaccurate as well. Please do some due diligence before you spew.
That aside, I’m excited to see Swrve fine tune their style even more and come up with a very nice set of leather gloves. While I love the look of these gloves as is, I could see a carbon knuckle free version be sweet for use on/off the bike. Would make a fine set of driving gloves as well.