Glove Review: 08-09 Swany X-ceed Skintex

Intended Purpose: Winter glove for women on the mountain.

Sizing: I have typical women’s hands. In Swany, I wear a women’s large which doesn’t feel too bulky. I can still tighten the wrist and the cuff fits under my jacket. The glove portion fits me better than the inner liner which is a little looser on my hands.

Features: The skintex inner liner is the most prominent feature, it actually softens your hands when you are wearing them. You receive a spray and after several times wearing them, you spray it up and it continues to work it’s magic. Quick release strap, hook & loop tab with neoprene cuff, rolled finger construction are other features that come in handy. For me the strings are the best feature, I need to have them around my hands so I don’t lose my gloves when I’m taking video or photos on the mountain.

Just on it’s own, the inner liners I could keep on my hands and still stay warm when the gloves were off.

Durability: The shell features Schoeller herringbone nanosphere & metalic touch fabric, Smooth Grain LeatherShield with digitized trim & FlexShield. If you don’t understand that tech talk, it’s okay neither do I. On the top of the hand is the mixture of tweed, leathershield and metallic fabric. All 3 of those do fine in the snow, I didn’t have the fabric getting snow covered and feeling any less durable in the snow. On the palm of the hand is a mixture between leather and flex fabric with a smooth grippy portion in the palm of the glove so you can grip things better.

Location: I received the gloves earlier this winter and have been using them in colder weather days with the majority of the days here in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I also spent time at Keystone with them at the on-snow demos.

Conditions: Typically snowing on the mountain or below 10 degree days is when I have been wearing them.

Thoughts: To be frank, I really wasn’t sure about gloves that would make my hands beautiful and I’m not the girl who buys into that sort of beautify yourself products. Beautifying myself is a shower, chapstick and some sunscreen.

It was fun to take the gloves out on the snow and test the “softness” with my hands. Before I put on the gloves for the first day, I had my friend Amy feel my hands and then when we got back, she felt my hands again. I also made some random shop guys and co-workers feel how soft my hands were as well.

The only thing I wasn’t impressed with was the appearance, it reminded me of my mom’s tweed purse she had years ago. It wasn’t my style in terms of appearance but I got over it and kept rocking them because they worked. Appearance is always a personal preference.

In terms of the gloves, they were fine for riding the mountain with. Everything I want from a glove was on them: the strings so I can dangle them without losing them on the chairlift, the nose wipe area and being able to have them fit me without being too bulky on my hands, and my hands stayed warm and dry. The bonus was the moisterizing the hands and making them soft while riding, I noticed it and thought the concept was cool.

On-snow photos
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Swany X-ceed Description