Thought $9 work gloves were junk until my crew's order got short 400 pairs
We had a rush job in Akron last spring and the regular gloves were backordered, so I grabbed the cheap ones at the hardware store just to keep the guys moving. A full month of framing later, only 3 pairs had blown out, and now I feel dumb for paying triple for the name brand. Anyone else got a cheap item that outlasted the fancy one on a job?
Cheap gloves have their place, sure, but a month of framing is not a fair test. Gloves fail on the jobs you can't predict, like wire rope, rebar, wet leather, or a guy grabbing a spinning blade. The name brand costs triple because the odds of a blowout are lower when it matters. Three pairs out of a big order sounds fine until one of those blowouts happens on a ladder or next to a saw. You got lucky with the batch and the work. Run that same cheap order for another six months through winter and see if you still feel dumb.