It’s true, I saved my winter with $9 gloves. The West Coast is still going through the harshest winter in thirty years. Workers missed hours, landscape plants suffered and it’s been a struggle to stay warm in minus 7 post-Christmas temperatures.
My Stihl boots were warm enough on most days, my work pants with long-johns worked fine; I own many good toques and layering up top was easy. I did add an “ugly” reflective fleece jacket when it was reduced by 50% at a nearby Industry Workwear store.
Hands
What’s left? Hands. My poor hands. In minus 7 it was a nightmare keeping my finger tips warm. I tried doubled rubber gloves, and other combinations. Our trucks also have latex rubber gloves for rainy days but they didn’t help.
Lucky $9
Then I got lucky at a local industry work wear dealer. They had $9 Boss Arctik Extreme gloves on sale. Two crucial points: solid rubber covering and warm liner inside. Sold.
I tested the gloves at work from mid-December 2016 to February 2017 and they passed! I remember feeling my finger tips only one day. It was colder than minus 7.
The rubber held up to abuse from tools and plant handling. Minor cracks developed in the lower thumb section but that happens to all of my gloves.
On some gloves the warm “fuzzy” liner inside can be pulled out if your hands get wet or sweaty. Exit the gloves carefully. The extreme gloves don’t have this problem.
Review
BOSS arctik extreme glove.
- abrasion and slip resistant
- knit wrist
- fully coated foam nitrile
- Acrylic-Terry lined nylon shell provides maximum warmth
Meet the BOSS
When I was buying the gloves, I had no idea what kind of company BOSS was. I was more interested in the $9 cost and protection for my finger tips. Considering the cold outside every morning, $9 retail was a bargain.
It turns out, BOSS has been making gloves out of Kewanee, Illinios, USA since 1893. Crazy. They have a huge line of work and garden gloves.
They produce the CAT gloves for the Caterpillar brand. Not bad. Michelle Obama also wore BOSS garden gloves while working at the White House vegetable garden. They are called Boss dirt diggers, in green, of course.
Michelle Obama wrote about the garden gloves in her book “American Grown“.
If you work outside in winter, the BOSS arctik extreme glove is a bargain at $9 retail. I will buy more if we have another crazy winter at the end of 2017. Well done BOSS. Made in the USA! Available in Canada!
