Fields & Lane Gloves - A Review and Giveaway!

I used to be one of those people who dug right in and worked about in my garden, sans gloves. At the end of the day, my hands would be dry, my fingernails packed with dirt (no shame in that, though), and I’d have a few scrapes on my knuckles. Romie would berate me, saying, “Why don’t you wear your gloves??”

Lily

After a few times with sore hands, I finally got smart and did the glove thing. Besides, we’ve got cats and you know what “cats + dirt” equals. Now gloves are a valuable gardening tool for me and I’m a staunch advocate of wearing them. I’ve got a couple of brands that I especially like and now I’ve got another one.

When Fields & Lane contacted me about trying out a pair of their leather gloves, my first reaction was, “Sure!” Then I visited their website, because to be honest, I’d never heard of them before. The first thing I do when checking out a company is to read their About Us page. Before I tell you how I liked their gloves, let me tell you about the company.

Fields & Lane

They’re a family-owned business in Oregon, with the factory that makes these gloves (from U.S. materials) in Costa Rica. Not only do they provide a quality work environment for their employees there, but they’re also committed to helping special needs individuals through their donations to organizations in both the U.S. and Costa Rica.

They set up the Bonnie Jean Laughlin Foundation in 1998, named for their daughter, who had cerebral palsy and they donated thousands of gloves to workers after 9/11 and the earthquake in Haiti. This is a company that cares.

What about the gloves?

I tested The Forester, which is a partially-lined leather glove. They feel wonderful because they’re made from goatskin. Super soft, yet extremely durable, these gloves will go the distance. No, I haven’t had time to wear them out, but as someone who has used many, many different gloves over the last few years, I can spot quality.

The Forester

Goatskin is known for its durability, yet it doesn’t dry out or crack when it gets wet (after it dries). This is important for a gardening glove, since they can get muddy and wet as you use them, and they’ll need to be cleaned from time to time. (They recommend spot cleaning.)

One of the things that has consistently been irritating (in several ways) when I’ve worn some other gloves is the seaming. Some of them have the seams in the fingers placed right where they either rub in a bad spot or they’re in a place where it affects my tactile sense. But not the Fields and Lane gloves. Ideally, a glove would have no seams, but that’s not possible in a leather glove and the seams are in a good place on The Forester.

These gloves are lined on the palm side with a soft, slightly fuzzy polyester (87% recycled), nylon, and spandex fabric that provides some warmth and comfort. The back of the glove has a narrow gusset across the back of the hand with stretchy fabric that allows for flex as you grip your gardening tools.

Sizing

I normally wear a size small in gloves, but the website has a size chart and when I measured my hand, it fell at the high end of small and low end of medium. I chose the medium, because they were leather and leather doesn’t give quite as much as fabric. When I first put them on, I thought they were the perfect size, but as I wore them and used them, I kind of wish I’d chosen the small. The leather gives more than I expected (though it doesn’t stretch out) and it starts to shape to your hand. They were still pretty comfortable to use though.

Using the gloves

I still hadn’t pruned my roses for winter, so I took advantage of the relatively nice day we had on Sunday, and did that. These gloves worked great – no thorny pricks for me!

I also needed to lay some mulch around the base of the roses as well as other plants, in preparation for winter’s cold, and though they got pretty dirty, they proved easy enough to clean. Once they dried and I put my hands into them again, the gloves were still supple.

The bottom line

The Flex

I like these gloves. They aren’t as bulky as some leather gloves I've tried and I feel like I could do just about any garden chore with them, except for weeding. I’ll always use the thinnest glove I can find for that. The company makes other gardening gloves too, and from the description, it looks like The Flex would work well for that (as well as other tasks). It still has the durability of goatskin, while being a lighter weight glove.

Now for the giveaway!!!

GUESS WHAT? Fields & Lane is allowing me to give away a prize package consisting of TWO pairs of their gloves! One lucky reader will receive one pair of The Forester and one pair of The Flex in the size of their choice. The Forester comes in men's sizes, too.

All you need to do to enter is:

• Leave a comment to this blog post, telling me if you’re a faithful glove user or not.
• Enter your information on the Rafflecopter form.   
• Sign up for the Fields & Lane newsletter via their Facebook page

Do so by midnight, Sunday, December 11, 2011. Good luck!










WINNER!! Random.org has chosen a winner, and it's Rebecca Burlingham! Congratulations, Rebecca! Enjoy your Fields & Lane gloves!


*Fields & Lane provided me with The Forester gloves, as well as compensation for my review. That said, they wanted my honest opinion of their gloves, and as always, that’s what you get here at Our Little Acre.