Driving gloves

For a thankfully short period of time in my late teens, I wore driving gloves while behind the wheel.

Just imagine:

A younger version of me, climbing into my powder blue Toyota Tercel, pulling the seatbelt across my body, then donning a pair of black leather driving gloves before turning the key and firing up the engine.

How ridiculous. How utterly foolish of me.

I wore driving gloves back then because I was an idiot, but I was curious:

Why do people still wear driving gloves today? Are they all idiots like me?

Driving gloves first emerged in the late nineteenth century to prevent splinters from the less-than-ideal steering wheels of that era. When steering wheel quality improved, people continued to wear driving gloves through the 1950s to keep their hands warm before climate control was introduced to automobiles.

But after that? Why still wear driving gloves when today’s cars allow for precise climate control?

The reasons I found for donning driving gloves in today’s world (according to the makers of driving gloves) are thus:

Reason #1:

The tack of a leather glove offers superior grip and control over the wheel.

This may be factually true. Driving gloves might in fact improve your grip on the steering wheel, but I have never experienced a single moment in my 35 years of driving when I felt that my grip on the wheel was substandard in any way. I suspect that professional race car drivers might require an improved grip on the wheel, but civilian drivers toting children around town or commuting to work?

Probably not.

Reason #2:

Driving gloves reduce hand fatigue by limiting the vibrations from your wheel that exhaust the hand when driving for long periods of time.

Hand fatigue? If your steering wheel is vibrating so badly that you are suffering hand fatigue, you need to get your car into the shop immediately. In all of my years of driving, I have never once suffered from hand fatigue while operating a vehicle.

Reason #3:

Driving gloves preserve your steering wheel. According to the makers of driving gloves, oils and sweat from your hands can break down leather and wooden steering wheels.

But almost all steering feels today are made from plastic, vinyl, or molded rubber. Perhaps if you’re driving a classic car with an original steering wheel made from wood or leather, driving gloves might make sense, but in all other circumstances, this is just nonsense. Preserving the quality of plastic or molded rubber is not a thing.

Reason #4:

Driving gloves keep your hands warm in cold weather and cool in warm weather.

While driving gloves may keep your hands warm for the first seven minutes of your journey, gloves or mittens – which you are likely wearing if it’s cold enough to wear driving gloves – would serve the same purpose.

You could also just allow the car to warm up.

I have no idea how wearing a pair of driving gloves is supposed to keep your hands cool in warmer weather. This also strikes me as nonsense.

Either way, there are better ways to keep your hands warm than driving gloves.

Reason #5:

At least one maker of driving gloves claims that driving gloves carry a certain type of old-school charm and “make you look awesome – it’s undeniable.”

I think it’s very deniable. Eminently deniable.

I think there are many ways to look awesome, but needlessly covering your hands in cow skin is not one of them. This sounds like nonsense to me.

In fact, all of the reasons to be wearing driving gloves strike me as nonsensical, which is why when I saw someone wearing a pair of driving gloves this week while behind the wheel of a Honda SUV, I remembered my own pair of driving gloves, thought back my time spent wearing them, and cringed at how ridiculous and silly I must’ve looked.

Somehow, none of my friends made fun of my driving gloves back then, but it wasn’t because they were exceedingly kind or didn’t notice. It was probably because I was doing so many other idiotic things at the time that the driving gloves probably seemed like a footnote when compared with my mountain of other embarrassments.

If you currently wear driving gloves while operating your vehicle, forgive me. What do I know?

I’m sure they look great and serve many vital functions.