Why I Still Use & Love My 15 Year Old Gloves

Rider type: Both
Product type: Gloves & Mittens
Sex: Unisex
Product Year: Classic
Brand : Hestra
Product Name: Dominique Perret Pro Model Leather Gloves
Owned Since: 12 Oct 06
Used for: 200+ days

I brought these gloves from a long since defunct London ski shop. Until this point, I’d owned a load of different gloves over the years, all of which I’m sure claimed various levels of warmth, durability, waterproofing, blah, blah, blah, etc, etc. None of them had lasted more than a season, or two at most. The gloves I unhooked from the shop peg that day, immediately felt different. I don’t remember them having any marketing blurb attached, I didn’t even notice the name of the pro skier stitched into the side of the thumb material. What I did notice was the feeling of solid design, durable looking leather and a shaped grip. These also came in a host of different sizes, not just the small, medium or large most other brands were offering at the time.  

Roll on 15+ years and these gloves are still going strong. During that time they’ve been my longest serving and most faithful skiing companions. They’ve been ridden really, really hard. It’s not just the day to day gripping of my ski poles and handling of all my kit, they’ve also; dug snow pits, pulled me out of tree wells, pushed through seemingly impenetrable undergrowth, ski toured up and around mountains, performed avalanche rescue drills, recovered buried skis, picked up all of my 5 kids when they’ve needed a helping hand and even built the occasional snowman. 

I have to admit that they are no longer my ‘go to’ deep winter gloves, I have a new pair of Hestras for those days. They are now mainly used for spring skiing. A decade and a half of abuse has left the loft somewhat compacted, so they’re not as warm as they once were. They’ve also suffered the occasional bit of damage to the seams around the fingertips, which were easily fixed with a strong needle and thread. It’s not all been one way traffic though, I’ve shown them some love too, usually in the form of detailed application of leather balm ahead of each season.

We’ve shared hundreds of epic and a few terrifying moments together, something I like to give thanks for every time I pull them on.

Front Country  ✔   / Slack Country  ✔  / Side Country  ✔  / Back Country  ✔ 

All mountain, all winter days. 

They’re really ergonomic, comfortable, warm, waterproof and super durable. The large range of sizes means you can get the perfect fit which really helps when securing a solid pole grip. They came with wrist cuffs, which lets you pull them off whilst letting them hang, allowing you to easily take care of fiddly tasks that need your bare hands. They don’t make this model anymore but anything leather in their pro range, with an ergonomic design will almost certainly perform like these have for me.