Five Kansas gloves in black

 

It was a cool glove, with the same kind of hard knuckle as the Kansas, but most tellingly from a design perspective, the same centre zip running up the back of the hand. Back when custom bikes and The Bike Shed were the big new thing, everybody copied that glove. Truth be told, the original glove was never particularly high quality. The same could be said of most of the copies too.

 

The Kansas from Five, however, is notch or two above the others. The leather is more supple. The seams on the fingers are externally sewn for extra comfort. The hard, leather-covered knuckle protector is backed with foam. There are rubber bumpers on the fingers. There's another, larger bumper pad on the palm. You get concertina banding on the fingers. There's extra leather running down the outside of the hand. On the back of the hand, around the zip, there's stretch for added comfort. On both hands the forefinger is touchscreen sensitive.

 

In design terms, there's nothing even remotely different or new about the Kansas. It's simply a cool-looking, all-leather glove. (It's a pure summer glove, so there's no membrane). But what can be said about the Kansas is that it's probably better put together, and nicer to wear, than all those other gloves that look like it.