Klein Tools has launched new welding gloves on Amazon.
Shown above are their new TIG welding gloves, featuring cowhide leather palm, hand, and fingers.
The gloves also have a flame-resistant cotton lining and reinforced outer wrist.
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Klein Tools also launched MIG welding gloves, featuring split cowhide construction for the entire glove.
Price: $23 for the TIG gloves, $26 for MIG
Apparently Klein Tools also launched a welding jacket.
It’s interesting to see Klein enter the welding accessories industry, although it’s not quite clear what they can offer end users that can’t already be found from existing brands.
Klein had previously teased that “automotive” tools were “coming soon,” but it doesn’t look like that has happened yet.
I wonder what product categories Klein Tools will enter next. What I do know is that I never would have guessed “welding accessories.”
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Jerry
I prefer pigskin, deer hide, or elk hide for gloves over cowhide. If you do a lot of welding when it is hot, your sweat will cause cowhide to stiffen after it dries out, the leathers I listed will not (well, pigskin a little, but not nearly as much as cowhide).
Bill
Thanks for the interesting insight and information I was not aware of.
fred
In our remodeling and plumbing businesses, we had the habit of buying work gloves in bulk – based on price – but from reputable USA brands. In our fabrication business – my old inventories seem to indicate a preference for the Tillman brand of welder’s gloves. Amazon lists the Tillman 850 (elk skin) for $54 – so these Klien’s are less than half the price
Al-another-Al
Both manufacturers obscure the country of origin on their web sites. Some re-sellers list COO, so best I can see: Klein 60912 = Pakistan, Tillman 850 = China. There is more than just labor cost (material, quality, branding), but India, Vietnam, and Pakistan have been getting more manufacturing because they are significantly cheaper than China.
For piece-work (at least in Pakistan), kids are big money makers. Bundles are delivered to homes for the whole family to work on, versus doing everything in a factory setting. There is a saying about Adidas in Pakistan: Little fingers make little stitches. (Adidas makes top-level balls in PK.)
KMR
Just as an add-on to this comment.
Our federal laws / regulations should be amended that COO needs to be available to the consumer at the point of sale. This means every website, selling to consumers based in the USA, would need to show COO somewhere on the product’s web page.
Right now, the requirement to label product packaging or the product itself, is largely an insufficient measure given how much business is conducted by e-commerce now. Most of my competitors, in violation of US regs, do not even bother putting COO on their goods (or packaging of) sold in the USA. Annoys me to no end.
COO is default field on our inventory labels, in addition to many of the items I manufacturer having the COO on the body of the item as well. Our website also features COO in the product information section. If we have an item with multiple COO, we list all of them with a note about multi location / supplier sourcing.
Bonnie
Sometimes I’ll look up a tool or product on Home Depot’s Canadian website, since that almost always includes COO. It’s not 100% assured it’s the same for the US version of the product, but close enough most of the time.
Stuart
@Bonnie,
I asked Home Depot 16 YEARS AGO why HomeDepot.ca shows country of origin info for most products but not HomeDepot.com and never got an answer.
fred
Grainger and their subsidiary Zoro – usually list COO – but always seem to have an enjoinder that its subject to change.
I’ve noticed on some items that Acme listed the COO as China, when the item arrived the packaging may have said Vietnam or Thailand. I figure that Acme’s listing may just not have caught up with some of the pivoting that has been going on to either reduce the impact of tariffs or switch out of China for less expensive venues.
Matt_T
Agreed on anything but cowhide.
Regards the Tillman 850 it’s a premium stick glove so it’s gonna be expensive compared to TIG and MIG gloves. And amazon appear to be charging at least $15 extra for the “free shipping”. Comping like for like these Klein gloves aren’t cheaper than better options from Tillman.
fred
The last batch of Tillman glove in my records were bought in 2010 – so any info I have about cost or COO is woefully OOD. I’m pretty sure we did not buy them via Amazon – but Amazon’s “free Prime shipping” is invariably a myth – and seldom works out if you are looking to buy in bulk – where single-item shipping costs are usually just multiplied into your final cost.
Wayne R.
I was thinking that TIG & MIG gloves was just labeling, but is that a thing? I’m genuinely curious…
MM
They are very different.
TIG welding normally doesn’t generate that much heat but you want a lot of dexterity so TIG gloves are very thin, they feel more like fashion or driving gloves rather than “work gloves” in terms of the texture of the leather. They usually have a very short cuff.
Stick welding gloves are typically the thickest with heavy leather and often extra heat insulation, this means they have little dexterity due to the very thick construction. MIG gloves are somewhere in the middle. Both MIG and stick gloves tend to have a long “gauntlet” style cuff that goes halfway up the forearm.