Review : Tailing Toads Half Gloves

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jbdba01
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Review : Tailing Toads Half Gloves

Post by jbdba01 »

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Executive Summary
Ordered two sets of gloves for use on the kayak and powerboat. Customer service is top notch and well beyond what I expected. For $20 a pair I almost felt I was stealing from them. Regardless I've only field tested them once, but this thread will be a place holder for the continued review.

Details
I had been giving some thoughts to cover my hands a bit better that I have in the past and was eye balling the Buff ones at Dicks. I believe the Buff gloves go for $40. After having seen our fearless moderator wearing some as well as a couple other kaykers I decided to give them a whirl. I also IM'ed Rik to see what his thoughts were. No sense in throwing $20 away if I didn't need to. After a couple IMs I decided at $20 I really couldn't go wrong.

However, before I purchased them I decided to give Tailing Toad's customer service a shout. I'm missing a finger on my left hand and figured I might need a small and a medium to make things work. So I emailed [email protected] and waited for a response. Seeing that it was the holidays when I emailed them I wasn't quite sure what to expect - will it go into the cyber bucket? Will they reply next week?

Surprisingly I promptly received an email from Manny at Tailing Toads and she asked me a couple questions. After some going back and forth she said send me a stencil of your hands and I'll customize them for you. With out a price included I was a bit hesitant - next thing you know I own $100 gloves. She said - no extra charge. I was so taken aback that I decided to order 2 pairs. Even at $40 - could I really go wrong?

From their webpage you can order a variety of colors - I'm not a fancy guy and figured B&W and that Sideliner without much color should do it. I paypal'ed Manny with the colors, stenciled my hand and shipped it to her via USPS. I figured it would be a couple weeks before I saw them but the turn around was really fast - probably 1 week.

The gloves arrived in a USPS envelope complete with a Tailing Toad Coozie. I tried them on and well... they fit like a glove. (Pun intended). They looked pretty snazzy and I was ready to break into my best moonwalk (which is pretty lame), but I'm more into function than fashion.

Here's some shots - not my best photography work, but good enough that you get the idea. You can see the customization on the glove on the left in the photo above.

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On this shot I had a bit of the yellow seam sticking out - normally that slides right on the inside of the glove. User error.

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I tried thing out on Saturday in the powerboat - yes it was blowing 20mph, but not early in the AM. I had some reservations about if I would slip on my T-Top aluminum uprights or on steering wheel, but surprisingly I did not have any issues. Yes you do lose some grip - probably less than 10% or so, but I would say it's less than when I have just applied sunblock. I'll still keep an eye on this.

Speaking of sunblock...I'm not sure how sunblock will affect the gloves. Most of my quick-wick shirts get pretty nasty over time. We'll see how they hold up. The gloves are made of similar material to quick-wick shirts.

A couple concerns are that if you're a baitchucker these will get somewhat nasty. I've started chumming for poons and at the end of the day it looks like a murder scene on the boat. I use EMT shears or an ULU (both bought on ebay, but that's a diff review) - cut things into thirds; throw one piece on starboard, one port, one straight on the stern. That said, that's the only chumming I do - messy, but effective. I would estimate that 85% of the time I'm using artificial lures. How will they hold up to paddling and wear on the steering wheel and T-Top uprights? I'm not quite sure what to expect.

That said I fished all day and didn't even feel there was an issue with comfort or functionality. Frankly over time you forget you have them on.

So...where do I stand on them. For now I like 'em. The price was right, the customer service top notch, and they fished fine all day. Let's give them a good 3-6 months and see if they hold up to my usual fishing habits. For now I have one pair in the boat, one pair in the kayak crate.

For more info go to...

http://www.tailintoads.com/
Last edited by jbdba01 on Mon Jan 13, 2014 4:02 pm, edited 3 times in total.
JB
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Re: Review : Tailing Toads Half Gloves

Post by Rik »

jbdba01 wrote: Frankly over time you forget you have them on.
I knew you'd like them. The 'forgot I had them on' is the best part about them. They are the only gloves I've ever used where I'm not constantly aware they are on my hands.
Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley
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