Leatherup.com gear

[Rudemouthsky]

   I've been tempted to try out some of those ridiculously cheap mesh and textile jackets for awhile now..although it does seem "too cheap to be true", the reviews are glowing. Decided to bite on a pair of the Xelement perforated leather gloves and I'm extremely pleased. For $29 minus a 10% discount I feel I got an excellent value...they're stitched up extremely well, have knuckle protectors and the fit and feel is perfect. Way better than the Icon 29'er and the $100 Tourmaster's I've tried. I'd say give em a try.

[MidnightRambler]

I've bought a bunch of stuff from them over the years, no complaints yet.  Great customer service too.

[danaid]

 What is that, finger nail sliders?   

[Raux]

actually that's cool. too many times you get the end of your finger pinched

[Privateer]

where's the Xelement stuff made?

[Raux]

likely the same factory as Nike or any other brand, someone in the east

[Rudemouthsky]

likely the same factory as Nike or any other brand, someone in the east

+1. Just assuming...I'm on the road right now so I can't check.

[oldndumb]

On a related note, many who have examined some of the low priced race suits now available and have compared them to the better name brand suits, have noticed the difference in leather quality, notably the leather durability differences. With no expertise myself, I attributed the leather difference to the tanning processes. It is not unheard of for a cheap race suit to explode at the seams during an off.

While traveling, I have had opportunity to examine some leather products from Pakistan and China. The Pakistani leather was uniformly inferior to western standards. The Chinese leather quality varied, and was priced accordingly. Another item of note regarding leather products is the quality of the stitching, both in technique and thread quality. Leather quality, and stitch/seam durability ought to be considered if a product is intended to be used for personal protection.

Not saying that anything from the discussed vendor is inferior. But you can Google several of their products and get links to purchase them in large lots for ridiculously low prices. Doing so, one may also find that some of these off shore manufacturers will also produce "name brand" replicas at ridiculous low prices.

As for the logic to consider that Nike sources from some of those countries, therefore the quality ought to be considered the same is an invalid inference. The quality spectrum of Chinese products is broad, and the products are priced accordingly.

   

[Raux]

materials buyer for Nike, are we? 

[oldndumb]

materials buyer for Nike, are we? 

I wish! That would be a cool job. Oops, almost forgot that job is related to work, something that I religiously avoid. 

But, avoiding work has made me consider most options before spending money. Sometimes there is money to be saved with economical deals, and other times those deals can leave you feeling foolish. You really have to do your homework.

Speaking specifically to some Chinese products, consider some of their machine tools. The product country of origin really doesn't have much to do with it because they produce some of the finest multi axis cnc machines available in the world, and some of the worst. Some of their plants even produce similar items with different levels of quality. For example, A Grizzly branded machine will be of a better quality than the same machine produced for Harbor Freight. They will be identical, but fabricated and assembled to different standards.

Long time ago when I worked, I was in an unnamed country in that part of the world when I found that I could have "genuine" Levi jeans tailor made; they even had the Levi pocket tabs. I had three pair made for about the price of one in the U.S. Fit was great, until the stitching gave way about three months later.

As I continue to digress, I'm also remembering a terrific online deal for brake pads a few years ago. Turns out they were counterfeit, made of dubious material.

[Triple J]

Report back on how they hold up...it'll be interesting to see. I've had the seams blow out of cheaper gloves just from normal use.  Scary to think how they'd do in a crash.

Meanwhile, my Helimot gloves have survived 3 lowside track crashes, and are still in great shape. 

[Rudemouthsky]

One of the reasons I purchased them was from other people's FHE reviews, going down and these gloves doing their job. They are awfully cheap and I def don't expect them to perform like $200 gloves, but for around town and on a tight budget I think they deserved a shot. The other big plus is how comfortable they are. I may have just gotten lucky there and had the right size hands for em'.