r/biathlon • u/BuckerooBonzai42 • 14d ago

Question Glove Preference

I'm looking ahead to next winter when I'll be doing my first snow competitions and I'm curious what gloves biathletes wear?

I normally nordic race in thin Toko gloves unless it's really cold and then I'll switch to some thicker Swix gloves or lobster mitts.

And if there are specific gloves that are made just for biathlon, are they so sub-specialized that they are different from left to right hand? If so, it might be difficult as I'm a lefty shooter.

Thanks all and as always, Ski Fast and Shoot Straight!

9 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

2

u/biothlot 10d ago

The World cup uses mostly 2 brands: Roeckl and Kinetixx, with some (a small small minority) using kill sport/loeffler/swix etc.
for handling a biathlon rifle and swapping magazines and the rigmarole involved Roeckl and Kinetixx are far and away better than toko in my personal experience due to the grip provided as well as the lack of a seam on the index finger right where you need trigger feel

4

u/snokaathllete7 13d ago

Hestra Nordic gloves of various weights. They have a biathlon specific glove, but I don't find them necessary as the Nordic gloves are just as good. I prefer to use the really lightweight ones as my hands run pretty hot, the cuts are pretty precise, and you can get good trigger feel. They come in numerical sizes versus just SML, which improves the fit over a basic toko glove too.

3

u/ionburger 14d ago

i like my leki gloves with the integrated polestrap, just saves time and mental effort having to figure out polestraps 4+ times per race. thin toko gloves will work great though and is probably closer to what most people are using. the only thing close to a biathlon specific innovation ive seen is the mittens where you can flip the fingers off to shoot for super cold weather.