MotoReview- Unik Int'l Full Finger Gloves
Let's get right into it...
Customer Service
Before I review the gloves themselves, I want to be clear that these are not the gloves that I initially ordered. Shortly after placing my first order, I was contacted by their Sales Executive, Fawad Khilji from Dover, NJ (USA), who informed me that I would be getting a full refund for my order, as the gloves that I ordered had been discontinued and the order could not be fulfilled. But, Fawad was very friendly and helpful (and super fast on refunding my money), and within a few moments, and after a couple of emails, I found another pair of gloves to try. He verified that they had them in stock and in my size, then he had them sent out within an hour of placing the new order. As far as I'm concerned- that is first-rate customer service.
The Gloves- First Impression
The gloves arrived quickly via UPS and upon my initial inspection, I was impressed. The first thing I noticed was the feel and smell of them. These are real leather, and they smell like it. Leather, coffee and the smell of bacon sizzling in the pan are some of the best odors to grace our nostrils, so it's fair to say that I was pretty happy smelling leather when I opened the bag, instead of the chemical odor that sometimes accompanies new gear. The gloves have a nice weight to them- they aren't cumbersome, but they are just heavy enough that you feel like they are made of good materials. The fingers have small perforations, which I would assume are intended for breathability. The holes are small, inline and don't detract from the look, but I'm not sure how much they will help in keeping your mitts cool in the summer- only time will tell on that one. The palm of the gloves have reinforced areas and the design fits my hands well. The reinforced areas aren't bulky and over padded like you find in some gloves; these feel natural when my hands are on the grips. The backside of the gloves feature 3 knuckle pads, which seem to be effectively placed and some reinforcement stitching across the flat of the hand, which, if I'm being totally honest (and I am), give the gloves a Mickey Mouse kind of look if you think about it too hard. While I don't know why they only put three, instead of four, knuckle pads on these gloves, the design works and I feel like the pads are placed in such a way that my knuckles would be protected in the event of a strike, and the gloves don't look silly or over-designed.
A quick look inside the cuff and I noticed a label that said "Made in Pakistan" and a very nice, soft lining inside the gloves. The lining, made with DuPont Kevlar fiber was a happy surprise for me, since that wasn't listed in the description. A good weight leather outer shell with palm reinforcements, paired with a Kevlar lining means these gloves should offer pretty good abrasion protection, and the velcro adjustment strap at the wrist should keep the gloves from sliding off your hand, in the event of an unplanned slide.
First Ride
On the website, one of the features noted is the "touch technology" in the fingertips and, upon initial testing with my phone... it seemed to work pretty well... until the first ride. Now, I don't seek out this feature on gloves since I intentionally try to avoid electronic devices while I ride my motorcycle. Having the ability to navigate a touch screen does help, though... as I just added a Quad Lock to my Road King, and I like to listen to music through my Sena while riding. For other folks, especially those riding the newest Harley-Davidson Touring bikes with giant touchscreen displays, touch tech in gloves would almost be a necessity.
Donning the gloves for the first time, I noticed that the cuffs were a bit tight for my hand to get into them, but they fit extremely well once on. Getting a larger size might make putting the gloves on a bit easier, but then the glove would be too big, so I'm sure that they will break-in over time and with continued use. The fingers were a bit longer and fatter than I like (see photos below), but the reality is, there is no standard for finger lengths and widths, so in designing a glove, a company has to make the most logical size to accommodate most hands, so I'm not put off by this... I'm simply making an observation. The gloves felt good and I wore them all day, on a ride of just over 250 miles.
The first thing I noticed when I stopped for gas, which was just a few miles into the ride, was that the "skin" on the index finger and thumb for the touch technology was already coming off (see photos). Again, this isn't a deal breaker for me, but I also don't have a touchscreen display on my dash either. For full transparency- I am currently running Avon Custom Countour grips on my Road King and stock levers. The grips have a textured surface, but the levers are smooth- neither of which should have abraded the tips of these fingers enough to remove this "skin", so I assess this to be a manufacturing flaw. Not great, considering this a featured selling point for these gloves. It didn't take long for the skin to be completely worn off, rendering the touch tech feature completely useless.
Final Thoughts
For full disclosure- as part of being a newly chosen brand ambassador (which might get revoked after they read this review), I did get these gloves at a pretty decent discount. Not to mention, they were also listed on sale, for 50% off of their list price of $59.99. With tax and shipping, I had less than $30 bucks out of the bank account for these gloves, which is a pretty decent deal for a pair of genuine leather riding gloves. These gloves aren't perfect, and the touch tech was a bit of a disappointment, but I've spent almost as much for a pair of Mechanix brand gloves that don't offer a fraction of the protection as these and are made of synthetic leather-like materials, instead of real leather like the Uniks.
The bottom line? Well, for these, I say... to each their own. I can't in good conscience recommend these gloves to just anyone, but I can recommend them to anyone who doesn't need touch technology in their gloves. The leather itself is worth the price I paid for these gloves. Add in the knuckle protection, the reinforced palms, the quality of the stitching and the overall comfort and wearability of these gloves, $30 is a deal. With that said, my recommendation to Unik, is that they leave these on sale at 50% off until they can get that fingertip issue resolved, as I would be highly agitated if I dropped $60 for a pair of gloves that had touch technology only to see it flake off in the first 15 miles of the first ride with them. My other recommendation for Unik is that they drop the touch technology "feature" on the listing, and list the Kevlar lining as a primary feature, instead.
I'm sure that, with their exceptional customer service, I could have had my money refunded, or had the gloves replaced within a few days, but to be honest, I really don't care that much- I don't need touch tech and I didn't buy these gloves for that feature. I chose to buy gloves as my first purchase for a couple of reasons- first, gloves are relatively inexpensive compared to jackets, vests, chaps, etc. Second, gloves require complex stitching, the right combination of materials and the right design elements to make a quality product. Quite honestly, you can learn a lot about a company's quality control standards, material selections and design priorities based on a pair of their gloves.
Overall, I give these gloves a thumbs up for quality of stitching, overall design and comfort. I rode all 250+ miles with these gloves on and my hands stayed comfortable all day. For the touch tech feature- if you specifically want, or need, touch technology to control or adjust your digital touch screen display, look for a different pair of gloves, but be prepared to pay significantly more for them.
As I've said before, I'll never recommend a product or service to my MotoReaders that I wouldn't personally use, so if someone at Unik reads this review and decides that I'm not the best person to have in their brand ambassador program, then so be it. Until then, if you want to snag a pair of gloves, or any other leather gear from them, hit the logo on the right side of this page
(or click here) to get 15% off of your order.
Stay tuned for more reviews... until then,
Ride safe and make good choices!
