Reviews

StoneBreaker Gardening Gloves: Product Review

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation.


StoneBreaker Gardeing Gloves ReviewIt’s not always easy to find gardening gloves that fit well. Most seem to be built for a man’s hand – they’re too wide and loose for many women.

The StoneBreaker Garden Pro glove for women is built on a unique pattern that may be a better fit for some women, particularly if you have narrow hands and longer fingers.

We put the StoneBreaker gloves to the test with three women and a lot of gardening! Here’s what we found…

High Quality Leather

Goat skin leather on StoneBreaker Gloves

Strong and supple goat skin leather stands up to heavy use

The StoneBreaker gardening gloves are made from goat skin, one of the strongest yet lightweight leathers available. It’s tough, yet soft and supple, and it stays flexible even after getting wet. There’s a little “give” that allows the gloves to stretch slightly when you move your hands.

Some Nice Design Elements

The gloves have some excellent features that add to their functionality.

Elastic wrist on StoneBreaker Gloves

Elastic at the wrist keeps debris out

The elastic wrist prevents dirt and debris from falling into the gloves.

Long, reinforced cuffs allow you to easily pull the gloves on (although it doesn’t help when taking the gloves off).

Strange Design

Very long fingers on StoneBreaker Gloves

Exceedingly long fingers

The Garden Pro gloves are built using StoneBreaker’s patent pending Fit to Work platform which the company claims makes for a superior fit. Unfortunately, that may not be the case for all gardeners.

Tight Fit – These gardening gloves are intended to fit snugly and conform to your hand like a “second skin.” This may be tighter than you’re used to and can make it difficult to pull the gloves off. We found that the gloves did not stretch over time so it’s important to get the fit correct at the outset.

Short hand fit on StoneBreaker Gloves

Pulling between the thumb and index finger due to short glove

Short Hand – The elasticized wrist closure sits just below your palm. I think it’s intended to be at the point where you flex your wrist but the result is that it feels a little short and it rides up the back of your hand when you form a fist or bring your palm forward.

Lots of seams on StoneBreaker Gloves

Lots of seams, many of which are in uncomfortable locations

Long Fingers – The fingers are exceedingly long, especially the middle finger, leaving excess material sticking out well past the fingertips.

Short Hand Length – Although the gloves were properly sized according to the company’s sizing chart (see below), the distance between the base of the index finger and the base of the thumb seemed to be too short. The end result is that it was difficult to move the thumb and especially difficult to fully extend it.

Badly-Placed and Bulky Seams – These gloves have a lot of seams, particularly between the fingers and at the finger joints. This adds bulk in places where you least want it and contributes to chafing and blisters. Overall, the seams are quite uncomfortable.

Glove Sizing Chart

StoneBreaker provides a glove sizing drawing that you print out (follow the printing instructions to be sure it’s the right size). Place your hand on the drawing to determine which size glove is best for you.

The problem is that there are three glove sizes (small, medium, and large) but five sizes on the drawing. It’s not clear which hand size goes with which glove size.

Long cuff on StoneBreaker Gloves

Long cuff makes it easy to pull the gloves on

The company recommends that if your hand size falls between glove sizes, that you go with the smaller size.

Note that the gloves seem to be designed for women with narrow hands and long fingers. Our testers found that the fingers were far too long and made it almost impossible to do any tasks requiring use of your fingertips, such as transplanting seedlings, pulling weeds, or grasping smaller objects.

Only One Color

There’s only one color choice – an attractive combination of pale blue and a warm grey-beige (although it’s not so appealing after it gets dirty).

Seams Unraveled

Seams coming apart on StoneBreaker Gloves

Seems starting to come apart after a few weeks of use

Although this wasn’t a major failure, we did notice that on one glove some of the seams started to come apart after a few weeks of use. Given that the seams were double stitched, this didn’t cause a hole in the glove but it might in the future.

Recommendation

There’s a lot to like about the new Garden Pro gardening gloves for women from StoneBreaker. However, there are also a few design issues that prevent me from recommending these gloves for all female gardeners.

It’s difficult to give the StoneBreaker Garden Pro gloves a rating; so much depends on whether the design fits your hand shape. If you have narrow hands and long fingers, these gloves may be a good choice.

But for those whose hands are shaped differently, I wouldn’t recommend these gloves, in spite of the lovely leather.

Where to Buy

The Garden Pro women’s gardening gloves are available on the StoneBreaker website for $27.99, as well as on Amazon.

Now over to you – Which are your favorite gardening gloves? What did you like or not like about them? Let us know in the comments below.

And if you liked this review, why not [OptinLink id=1]sign up to get reviews by email[/OptinLink].

Disclaimer – GPR would like to thank StoneBreaker for giving us a free pair of gloves to review. There was no expectation that it would be a positive review and we received no compensation for writing it. All opinions expressed here are those of the author based on personal experience using the product.

Please note that the Amazon links above are Amazon affiliate links. Should you choose to purchase products through these links, GPR will make a small commission (at no extra cost to you) that helps to support this website and our gardening product reviews. Thank you!

Enjoyed This Review?

If you liked this review, please sign up for our email updates with reviews, how-to articles and gardening videos!

4 Comments on StoneBreaker Gardening Gloves: Product Review

  1. Sounds like they’d be good for really rough work, like doing slash piles & firewood, pruning roses, and moving rocks, but not so great for anything else.

    My favorite gardening gloves are the Atlas nitrile gloves- they aren’t actually made for gardening, but they are made of a knit fabric that fits snugly and has the nitrile coating on the palms and insides of fingers. They fit me well, the fingers are the right length, and I can even handle seeds with them which I can’t with any other pair I’ve found. I do wish the nitrile came up a little higher on the fingers, though, as your hands get wet if you have to grab anything in the wet, even wet leaves or in tall wet grass.

    They don’t last all that long- I tend to use a couple of pairs a summer. It’s always the same thing that gives out- the tips of the fingers. I spend most of my outside time pulling weeds.

  2. Helen Balliet

    Thanks for the information Monica. I have a pair of each of their garden gloves and love them. The full leather is my least favorite b/c a full leather glove just simply isn’t the most functional for gardening (especially when I can use their Rose Gauntlet that comes all the way up the arm) but I actually love these do fit better and last longer than any other garden gloves that I have had…I guess the fit does somewhat depend on finger length, but I love them.

    • Thanks for the input, Helen. I’m so glad you’ve found gardening gloves that really work for you. I’m always surprised by how differently gloves can fit – seems like there are so many ways to build a gardening glove! The good thing is that there’s one out there for everyone 🙂 Like you, I also loved the feel and quality of the leather in the StoneBreaker gloves. It’s good to know that their other gloves are similar.

  3. Heath Mathias

    Hello Monica-Thanks so much for reviewing our gloves. I just had this sent to me (I’m the President of StoneBreaker Gloves) and I apologize for not reading it sooner (I don’t spend a lot of time reading my own press – good or bad – ha) but wanted to reach out regardless.

    From the pictures, it looks like we got you a pair that didn’t fit very well and would love for you to have some more. Moreover, we really do take the feedback of our customers very seriously. Our goal in creating StoneBreaker gloves was to give the user a better fitting item; i.e – a glove that conforms to the hand by creation and sewing rather than just b/c the material is form fitting. By using a better pattern, we can use real materials (leather etc…) to give the user both protection and dexterity…at least that is the goal b/c in the workplace or garden, most hand injuries occur b/c gloves were not being worn…not b/c they weren’t available, and the biggest reason they aren’t worn, is b/c they don’t fit.

    In recent months, we’ve experimented with different thread strenghths and thread materials as well as the composition of our womens line specifically b/c our seam construction is complicated to sew and in the smaller sizes requires way more skill than that of a standard work glove and all of our new product pipeline and “old” product improvement is driven by consumer feedback…so please keep it coming.

    Again, please let us know if we can get you a few more pairs AND Happy Holidays to all.!!!

    Happy Gardening!

    Heath

Comments are closed.