“Sport” HEMA fencing gloves
Padded leather gloves with short cuff
“Sport” leather fencing gloves
Padded fencing gloves with short cuff
ArmStreet is all about what we love. ArmStreet crew experience in western martial arts, LARP, SCA, and all types of swordplay probably includes thousand of years cumulatively with people participating in events and fighting with swords all the time, in every country and every city we have our branches or representatives.
A little bit more than a year ago a couple of our team members joined HEMA, rapidly climbing to the top domestically and going internationally, and this is where the new chapter begins. These gloves are standing on the foundation of our WMA and SCA gear but adjusted and redesigned to be the best gloves possible for the HEMA rapier and smallsword combat. We also tested them successfully with a spear. They are flexible enough in a wrist, have a thin plastic insert integrated into the cuff, EVA-protected fingers, thumb, and outer part of the hand. We also solved some problems like ventilation adding perforation between fingers.
You also have to know that if the size is chosen properly, they could be a little bit snag in the beginning, the leather is soft enough to get stretched after a couple of days. We also didn't solve the problem of black dye, which means that if you choose a black leather version your fingers will have visible black marks from leather dye, especially in the beginning. We consulted and tested some gear from other industries, it's a common problem, just in fencing your hands are getting very warm and sweaty so it's more visible. Buying light-brown or beige gloves is one of the solutions, from our own experience it is getting better with black gloves when you use them regularly.
Short cuff gloves like this could be an aesthetic choice and also a better solution for those of you who use some sort of bracers, and a longer cuff version is recommended for those who normally don't wear bracers, so it provides some extra protection. We also love the sport-style design we offer here, but for true traditionalists the Heritage version is available.
We tested these gloves on our own hands, clubmates, top domestic and international tournaments and even provided them as awards on the international HEMA tournament, carefully gathering feedback to improve the design, so there is no way you wouldn't love your new ArmStreet fencing gloves.
To check how to measure yourself please click here.
Please contact us if you have any additional questions.
- Genuine gloving leather;
- EVA;
- Plastic.
- Length of the cuff: 7-8 cm (2 ³/₄ – 3 ⁵/₃₂'');
- Perforation on fingers and wrist;
- EVA padding;
- Perfect flexibility and grip;
- Plastic insert in the cuff;
- Contrasting design.
This item is part of the “Modern Swordsmanship” collection View collection
Well made, look great. True to size so if you find yourself 'between sizes' I'd strongly recommend rounding up to the bigger size. Gloves were lighter than I was expecting (the layer of padding is very thin) but that's fine, I have a Darkwood English rapier hilt which is very protective (https://rapiers.darkwoodarmory.com/product/english-rapier-hilt/ -- note the extra bars that cover the fingers). I wouldn't recommend using a hilt without AT LEAST a knucklebow, however, so Thibault enjoyers should probably look elsewhere and if you're using a swept hilt with an open port I'd suggest some caution, although you could get away with it if you're good at protecting your hands. One possible improvement is that the fingers strongly taper and so won't accommodate plastic fingertip protectors of the sort you get in eg. Superior Fencing gloves. My old rapier gloves were a pair of cheap SupFens and I wanted to transfer the fingertip protection over to these, but no dice, which was disappointing. Since Armstreet works with plastics they could enlarge the size of the finger 'boxes' and provide additional finger protection as standard, which would be a major upgrade, or just enlarge the finger boxes and allow people to bring their own. Four stars since the finger thing is a no-brainer improvement and should have been implemented already, but if you've got a protective hilt/are happy with a light level of protection and want to get lots of nice complements about how cool your gloves look these are a great option.
Hello. I would agree with you about the repairs with a knucklebow, we mostly use those so I can't say anything about different types of rapiers. It's hard to judge someone else's level of protection evaluation, rapier is not my main weapon, but my recent experience with these gloves included three international tournaments (Oslo, NHK, and Mortslag) including two 3-round finals, and I never had a problem with those and never saw someone complaining around. I use DW papenheimer rapier. I see what you're saying in regard to plastic tips, but I wouldn't do that - plastic tips change the grip essentially and I don't like it (although I use them for two fingers in saber with different gloves) so I would say it's a matter of taste and personal preferences. However, thank you for the idea and your feedback, we can potentially make a different model with tips and more protection, so thank you very much.
Incredibly, immensely, insanely unprotective. These are great gloves if you do not plan to get hit in the hands ever. Biggest issue is the thin, costume-grade yellow leather around the wrist - one of the most fragile parts of the hand, completely unprotected. Might be fine for no-contact fencing. Iffy even for SCA thrust-only rapier. Wildly unacceptable for SCA cut-and-thrust rapier. Completely unsuitable for any other weapon, although may be acceptable for HEMA smallsword if you can get past the ventilation holes in the wrist cover.
These gloves have been used for years by many HEMA fencers in the Eastern European HEMA environment which is on average much more competitive and intense than SCA cut&thrust. The thing is that you're supposed to have a gambeson under them, and the edge of the sleeve of the gambeson is supposed to be under this thin yellow thing. This way you have reasonable mobility and good protection. We wouldn't recommend using these gloves w/o gambeson and we generally think that the gambeson is an essential part of your fencing kit
Loving the dexterity provided for hemma fencing