Style over Substance
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Poll

What would you want from a top end glove?

Looks Cool
- 10 (33.3%)
Best protection
- 13 (43.3%)
Nothing radical
- 3 (10%)
Something plain
- 3 (10%)
A reworked version of the same old design
- 1 (3.3%)

Total Members Voted: 30

Voting closed: October 22, 2012, 07:26:24 PM

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Author Topic: Style over Substance  (Read 6686 times)

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M77

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #15 on: October 18, 2012, 10:00:54 AM »

So if there are only 5 going to be sold, and the aim is to produce the best protective glove to improve safety - does our opinion on those aesthetics matter? As we're then not really the target market for such a product.

I'd say the voices here are exceptionally relevant regardless of wether anything i design under my own name sell more than a few units. It doesn't mean that the design isn't going to be used under a different name.

Also "target market" makes my skin itch... its always people... things like statistics in product development or for that matter any form of marketing leave huge holes. People vary even if they are the ones you feel would be potential customers... they are always people.

I'll try them out for you Marcus. I'm not afraid of something that looks different. Even if I don't need the protection.

Thanks Tim, you seem to be my first port of call for most of the items i introduce... edna says hi!  ;)

But it may seem odd that an independent would go to such lengths and personal cost, but larger companies with a following rarely break that trend of introducing the radical. This trend is slightly bucked by kooks but not through to completion. A rather brave but lazy attempt. I can tell you that glove will be one of the best for proximal, intermediate and distal phalanges on fingers 4/5 (i know the thumbs isn't strictly a finger but is gets counted all the same). The issue is that with a mounted slab with no fixing its a moving plate. Closer to a poor sparring mitt. But where it gains in protections from certain angles it loses on others and the shock value for the most common injury will be no better than a very high end three part sausage glove.

In truth most items produced in the cricket world are above most of us as players, we all have equipment that is not comparable to our standard as a player. We simply choose the best because we can or that it gives us a buzz and its something we can discuss. If it werent so, grade 3 willow would be selling very well, but we can't quite bring ourselves to use something considered by many to be a poorer quality than the man next to us.

My only argument is if this is the trend then i would like to ensure that people who will pay to have what is considered to be the best actually do so with products of safety and get substance to match the price point.

It may no be everyones cup of tea, but i wear a certain lid because it offers me quantifiably the best levels of protection. I want to see that as an option for each area of cricket protection and thank fully others do to. Hence me doing and using the polarised view of the forum to gauge the extreme/aware view of a new item along with convention testing with online research companies like Toluna.

All in all i wanted people to know that something was being progressed other than what colour swatch can i change this year and where shall i place the badge?... More can be done... so i am.
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uknsaunders

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #16 on: October 18, 2012, 10:08:27 AM »

as Tim said, if you need a tester I'm in.
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Tom

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #17 on: October 18, 2012, 10:09:32 AM »

All in all i wanted people to know that something was being progressed other than what colour swatch can i change this year and where shall i place the badge?... More can be done... so i am.
So this is just a convuluted way of advertising yourself and your soon to be launched brand?
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PedalsMcgrew

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #18 on: October 18, 2012, 10:13:38 AM »

As a man who has lots of gloves and has tried to move his obsessional behaviour away from bats (as gloves are cheaper!) I love all innovations in handwear! For me, looks and comfort are key. At the level I am playing at these days it's actually quite hard to find any gloves that don't offer sufficient protection. Obviously guys who are facing 80+mph week in, week out may feel differently but I imagine the vast majority of us on here are more interested in looks and comfort. If you need someone to test those two then I'll happily help you out!
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M77

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #19 on: October 18, 2012, 10:15:24 AM »

So this is just a convuluted way of advertising yourself and your soon to be launched brand?


Ha, not quite. I think most people know what I have been doing so it really doesn't need shouting from the roof tops and in terms of marketing myself or what i do, I don't really need to do that here.

Nope it simply is as it is... getting a little info from 'chatter'.  As experimenting with foams and accidentally cutting myself with a scalpel is far too "convoluted" a strategy even for me Tom  ;)

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EaglesCC

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #20 on: October 18, 2012, 11:20:45 AM »

This is an interesting debate.

When it comes to looks and design, good and bad are subjective. So the only real way to know is by producing something and seeing how people react. (People are after all, fickle).

But when it comes to innovation, I think people like to be drip fed changes – too many changes at once makes people nervous.

For example hybrid cars; great there is a “new type of engine”, but they also initially made the cars look very different to non-hybrid models. I completely didn’t get the logic. The hybrids which look more like conventional petrol and diesel models seem to be far more desirable now. (Not suggesting Gloves are like cars but the principle of: reduced aggregate change is easier to swallow).

So in summary; if it were me, I would take the ‘popular’ designs and make some signature changes – marketing it on the safety improvements. (Over re-writing the book on gloves).

Just my 2pence worth. 
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LDifa

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #21 on: October 18, 2012, 08:38:50 PM »

Protection first and foremost!

I took one on my bottom hand tip of the thumb to a quick ball that got up a bit higher than expected in the nets last week, and though I had what I thought were good gloves it bloody hurt! The plastic cup was rotated and my thumb throbbed like a looney tunes cartoon effect.

They were slazenger £50 ish gloves, and are now in the bin
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PedalsMcgrew

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #22 on: October 18, 2012, 08:44:03 PM »

Protection first and foremost!

I took one on my bottom hand tip of the thumb to a quick ball that got up a bit higher than expected in the nets last week, and though I had what I thought were good gloves it bloody hurt! The plastic cup was rotated and my thumb throbbed like a looney tunes cartoon effect.

They were slazenger £50 ish gloves, and are now in the bin

Not sure there is a single pair of gloves on the market that could cope with the ball hitting you square on the end of the thumb....throwing away your Slaz gloves might have been a bit premature! If they beef up that area of the glove then they become unwearable.....
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LDifa

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #23 on: October 18, 2012, 09:12:34 PM »

Sorry Pedals

Should have been clearer, the gloves are/were fairly trashed, but the end of the thumb was the last straw! Plus it was just after taking one high in the ribs, before I got my act together.
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PedalsMcgrew

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #24 on: October 18, 2012, 09:19:35 PM »

Nothing to apologise for! Sounds like the gloves were due for replacement anyway! You're a rare case on here, someone who actually wears kit out as opposed to 'gets bored of it!'  :D
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Cover_Drive

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #25 on: October 19, 2012, 02:58:05 AM »

I have gone over loads of gloves over my life, have tried and used nearly every brand out there.

Personally aesthetics are extremely crucial for me. Because as we say "First impression, last forever" just like that if a pair of gloves is good looking then it will impress me and grow over me and eventually I will end up buying it, hence, I have loads of excessive pairs which are useless at the moment because I'm only struck to Salix Pod Black.

I don't know but I have always found the best looking gloves to be top of the line one because I guess the work they have put in is clearly visible.
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tushar sehgal

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #26 on: October 19, 2012, 11:19:22 AM »

Best protection is important to me but also the quality of build. I have seen some top of the line gloves where threads are hanging out or things start to go a little bit after a few times of use, usually it doesn't get any worse but it irks me that a top of the line product could have shoddy workmanship...

So M77 good protections and good quality build/finishing for me....wouldn't mind trying one out either when you release your gloves..
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Over Gully

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #27 on: December 30, 2012, 05:53:04 AM »

I'm a big fan of the split fingered designs, gives greater flexibility, but then I read most of the pros use the one piece/sausage style fingers for greater protection. I recently got a pair of GN XXX gloves and these have a one piece sausage padding on the bottom two fingers on both hands, and split thumb and split fingers for the ring/little finger. Really good quality protection at a very attractive price ($AU110 is reasonable for top end gloves from the big brands like GN/Kooka/GM, etc).

In terms of colours, I've gone with the all white cosmetics on the sweatbands/straps for my pads and gloves, etc. Looks classier and less chance of copping stick from behind the wicket about my gear. Some of the Kookaburra/Puma stuff is a bit out there for my liking, but obviously protection is of paramount importance.
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Liam-SCCC

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #28 on: December 30, 2012, 08:18:07 AM »

I think that most of the gloves that look cool are also at the top end in terms of protection, i.e.. Puma 5000 and the top Kookaburra ones
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Number4

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Re: Style over Substance
« Reply #29 on: December 30, 2012, 11:33:34 AM »

Ask the Sri Lankans what they need in a glove
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