I’ve had these gloves for pretty much a year now, Having picked them up on a whim whilst buying the Ferro Slickster from the guys at Tactical Kit. I’d say a year on is a good time to evaluate a bit of kit, often it’s too easy to pressure yourself into writing something and commenting on its build quality, but the effects of it’s passage through time is the best reflection of quality your ever going to get. As we go through this review it’ll mostly be pictures of the gloves in their present state… I’ll caption any stock or manufacturers images to show you how the item arrives.

One other important thing to note, Patrol Incident Gear consider gloves to be a specialised consumable item… Their ability to do a job well for a short period being a priority over their overall longevity. This is a concept that has fully agree with and certainly when it comes to PPE we should look at them periodically and ensure it’s still fit for purpose. PIG themselves are pretty open about this and on their website they state:

“PIG Gloves are a specialized consumable item using materials that are optimized for tactile dexterity over abrasion resistance, and are therefore not covered under any specific warranty. Please inspect your PIG Gloves for any manufacturing defects before removing the hang tags or using. If you discover any manufacturing defects before using the gloves, please contact the retailer from which your item was purchased with pictures of the specific issues to initiate the repair or replacement process.”

So bear the above in mind when I go through the review… It’s not an easy concept for many people (Certainly us Airsofters) to wrap their head around but in the real world where ability is often at the expense of lifespan it’ll become clear that sometimes a difficult choice has to be made.

So I usually order a size 9 glove which translates as a Large, the way to work out your glove size is to measure around your knuckles with a tape measure, Your glove size will be the same as the amount of inches, me being 8 3/4 I’ve rounded it up. For some unknown reason I decided to go against common sense and go down a size to Medium… I think I was looking for an ultra close fit.

So when the goodies arrived I was immediately impressed at how light these gloves are, Next to their obvious rival in the Mechanix Originals or their lighter Fast-Fit range they’re significantly lower profile.

One of the key reasons for this is a single layer structure with zero padding on the palm or knuckles. A sacrifice of a certain level of protection but giving you back that degree of dexterity that’s often missing, even with its light weight rivals.

Materials wise these are a fully synthetic glove, a bit confusing when you talk to someone who’s not aware of them and refer to the gloves as PIG or Piggies 🐷.

The materials are listed as Nylon (45%), Polyester (45%) and Polyurethane (10%) so they are certainly not what you could call flame resistant. The other materials that appear in the glove are the parachute cord loops on each glove and the vinyl pigs head that provides an anchor point for the gloves.

So starting with the back of the gloves, the majority of the back of your hand is left without protection, however the gloves are predominately made from a two way stretch material which is also extremely breathable.

The other positive is that the overall close fit and dexterity of the glove probably has a lot owed to the rear itself. The other striking feature is that if a Boars Head emblem printed in an ultra-thin textured material.

The palm is made from a ultra dense woven fabric which appears (certainly when wet) to exhibit a similar look to suede, there is only one seam line on the palm which follows the contours of the “Fate Line” around your thumb, the stitching is more than up to the task without being noticeable when worn.

The thumb and forefinger are made with a subtly different material which is touch screen compatible, a great feature for the “instahoes” and one that I’ve tested almost daily.

The interior of the glove is also adorned with a layer of grippy pads in the form of the word PIG, these are fantastic but be warned they will start to come off even upon the first wear.

After 6 months or so you’ll be lucky to have half of them still attached, this is one aspect of the disposable nature of the gloves and although they are certainly improved by the addition of these pads it’s only part of the package and certainly shouldn’t be a dealbreaker.

The sides of the fingers are made from an ultra fine mesh, these are incredibly thin and certainly contribute to their fantastic dexterity. I was concerned that they might not last long but so far I’ve seen nothing but cosmetic wear.

The fingertips are one of the most welcome parts of the design, a fold over the tip design as opposed to the wrap around design of most other gloves keeps material to a minimum and prevents that pesky irritating feeling on your nails to a minimum.

Your nails are lightly protected by the same material wrapping the vet the top, but be warned… There isn’t a lot of protection to be had… if you get hit on the nail you’ll be wishing you had M-Pacts on.

on the wrist there is no Velcro tab to pull across, no closure to get in the way… it’s a real bugbear of mine and something I absolutely hate in most gloves is their reliance on a bulky closure around the wrist. With the PIG Deltas they simply use an elastic stretch panel and the rest of the materials allow enough flex to insert and remove your hand with relative ease.

The gloves also come with a paracord loop to aid in putting them in and for storage, there’s two schools of thought with these… Some prefer to cut them off and others (like me) find them extremely useful, I’d actually really struggle to put them on without those loops.

So… the bad points? Well they ain’t cheap, £30 for an item I’m telling you is a perishable item seems a lot of money, compared to the Mechanix fast-fits at roughly half the price and you have to make a tough judgment call.

Also they have a tendency to pull a thread or two, I managed to damage mine on their first outing. It could be argued that I’d bought a size too small but they fit so well… So well in fact the term “like a glove” feels perfect for how I’d describe them.

It’s not just me whose had issues either, I know a few well respected people in the community who have had the same issue and gone back to Oakleys or Mechanix… Some have even gone outside the box and bought brands that are not usually considered tactical such as MacWet which have a stellar reputation in the clay pidgeon shooting and equine world.

The core point I want to put across about this glove is it’s sheer ability to allow your hands to do their job, the gloves are marketed as “Full Dexterity” and I’ve gotta admit that there isn’t anything that comes close as far as I’ve seen.

Overall you have to make a judgement call, if you want something that’s going to last a long long time with minimal wear, buy a heavy duty glove such as the Mechanix M-Pacts, If you want a glove that feels like a second skin, offers a small degree of protection and doesn’t get in your way then these are the ones for you.

My final note would be that despite owning 6 pairs of gloves and these being the most raggedy assed of them all, I always end up coming back to them… Take from that what you will.