POW PHOTOG GLOVE REVIEW

Words: Carsick John

POW or Prisoner Of Winter is a brand that was well below my radar until recently, especially as I’m not that into ski or snowboarding, so a bit of research through the magic of Google and I found out that a fellow called Dustin Goss started POW in 2002.

Nowadays the company is celebrating its 10^th anniversary and seems to focus mainly on performance gloves for the winter sports industry using high quality production and materials. Apparently, “POW has worked hard to become a legacy brand and achieve a company heritage that can be seen and felt globally.” That was comforting to find out.

Despite the ‘legacy brand’ stuff, as soon as you touch the Photog gloves you can feel they’re well made; the material, the stitching even the weight provides this conclusion. They have a quality feel to them that is sadly lacking from a lot of biking gloves on the market.

The Photog glove is aimed at the extreme sport movie/photographer type, so they have some really useful design features built in; a zipped SD card pocket on the back of each glove, and a thumb and forefinger that can be peeled back to expose peep holes for your digits, presumably for when you need to start snapping at the half pipe.

These features cross over very well to mountain biking, both for the intended photographic purpose or alternatively as you can use the SD card pocket for easy access spare change (essential for a mid ride cake or bun) and the finger peep holes are perfect for quick access to your iPhone and Strava.

The material is softshell and neoprene, with a very secure neoprene cuff. The palm is in thin Clarino synthetic leather with a silicon McTartan red printed grip design. Not my favourite design but not that offensive either. They’re also available in a more conservative grey on black design.

Minus temperatures again on the test ride and whilst these gloves are not as effective a cold barrier as the last gloves I tested (Glacier Glove), they are much better than a conventional glove at keeping your fingers alive.

POW’s Photog glove is not too bulky in your finger gussets when on the grips and feels very similar to a good quality winter MTB glove, in fact better, if you didn’t know the heritage of POW you could easily think it was a MTB specific glove.

Sizing is a little snug for a medium, but I like my gloves to be well fitted. If you have bulbous fingers you probably want to size up and go for a large.

As a cross over product and with the extra features that the Photog glove has these could easily become a glove of choice for bikers who want some innovative good quality gloves in the unpleasant winter months.

Innovative features
Quality construction

Slightly dubious McTartan print

Price: £49.99
More information: POW Photog Glove
UK distributor: Surf Sales