Two things that get cold on me the quickest when the weather turns chilly are my ears and my hands.  You would think this could be easily remedied, but yet I have the hardest time trying to find hats that are long enough to cover my ears or gloves that keep my hands warm.  My hands are small and get cold pretty quickly.  I typically have to double up my gloves and even that doesn’t work.  I need some serious gloves!

I was introduced to these Mizuno Breath Thermo Gloves at a running event for women last winter.  I watched as the Mizuno Rep talked about the material that the gloves are made out of and how they actually use your own body heat to help generate more heat to keep your hands warm.

Wow! I thought that this was exactly the product that would work keeping my hands warm during runs and while out walking Rocky.  I happily shelled out the $20 for the gloves.

The gloves feel no different than a basic pair of knit gloves that you can find for $1 at just about any store.  I was pretty impressed by these at first because for running I don’t really want to wear a big bulky pair of gloves.  I want something slim and form-fitting to my hand.  These aren’t exactly form fitting because I had to buy the large size as the store was out of anything smaller.  They do fit, they just aren’t as snug as I would like them to be.

After using these gloves for almost a year, I can feel confident in telling you that I can’t stand them.  They do not keep my hands warm at all.  No wait, that’s a lie.  If it’s 45 degrees F and up outside, my hands will eventually warm up during a run.  That is if I’m running.  Just out walking my dog, no dice.  Anything below 45 degrees F and they don’t keep my hands warm at all.  Unless I double up on gloves.  Again that is only if I’m running.  Double gloves while walking my dog makes no difference.  My hands still get very very cold.

What I have learned is that these gloves rely on sweat to activate the material so that it will in turn start generating heat to keep your hands warm.  And when I think back about the demo the Mizuno rep gave, she put a drop of water on the material and then the material was instantly warm.  I wish I would have put two and two together sooner so that I didn’t waste $20 on a product that doesn’t work for me.

I don’t know about you, but in the winter, even while I’m running, my hands don’t sweat.  Running in temps that are pretty cold doesn’t really make one sweat much. My core is the only thing that sweats and that is only a little bit.  Not because I’m not running hard or working it, but because it’s flipping cold outside.  You know, that winter thing tends to make things a tad cooler when working out.  I need gloves to prevent my hands from turning to icicles.  I need gloves that when I put them on they immediately start warming my hands.  What I don’t need are gloves that don’t do anything unless some sweat appears to make them magically start working.

In the winter, temps get very cold.  Early mornings can be pretty darn chilly.  It’s common for me to run in temps that are in the teens and below.  I don’t mind running in the cold, in fact I prefer it.  However, I have to rely on layering and cold weather gear that is going to keep me warm.  I’m not sure why Mizuno would design a product for winter activities that relies on the person to sweat in order for it to help keep that person warm.  A shirt or pants, okay maybe that would make more sense.  But gloves?  Not so much.

I wouldn’t purchase this product again nor can I recommend it for you to purchase.  Which leaves me still on the hunt for a great pair of gloves, dangit!