I have cold hands. They are the one thing I struggle with during cold weather runs. Legs, head, face, torso all are fine. I have no problem. But my hands, specifically my fingers, suffer. I’ve tried all brands and types of gloves. Thick ones, thin ones, orange ones, black ones. It wasn’t until this fall that I found two styles/brands of gloves that might just work for me. One of these is the Zensah Smart Glove. Zensah was kind enough to send me a review sample free of charge.
Sizing and fit
I wear a medium. My hand width is about just under 8 inches. Medium size range from the Zensah size chart is 7.5-8 inches palm circumference. These are true to size. The good test for me for a glove fit is to slip on a glove and then try to touch my thumb against my pinkie. If I have too much palm material bunching up, then I know I’ll have issues with holding things, adjusting hat or phone. These were perfect.
Features
Zensah bills this as their “smart glove” with three fingertips on each glove fitted with material that makes them able to manipulate smart phones with touch screens. These work wonderfully. I have no complaints and am happy they decided to have multiple fingers this way. I’ve seen “smart” gloves that only have the thumb or forefinger “smart phone ready.” They have silicon “grips” on each hand and the palm has the Zensah logo on silicon so that objects don’t slip out of your gloved hand. And each thumb has the softer micro suede nose wipe area.
Reflective material
The Zensah Smart Gloves have heat transfer application of reflective material designed to make you more visible on pre-dawn or evening runs. It works well and picks up light well, as you can see from my “dark bathroom” test below.
Performance
I’ve run in these gloves in weather ranging from 30 degrees F to 50 F. At 30F my fingertips are cold early in the run but the Zensah gloves do a pretty good job of withholding body heat so that after a mile or two my fingers and hands feel fine. They aren’t quite ready for temps below 30, a little too thin, but I’m pleased with their performance. They are the warmest light running glove I own (that’s not a mitten).
Final thoughts
The only design suggestion I have is the location of the reflective material on the glove, along the fingers. This is aesthetically pleasing, but if you think about the position of your hands when you run, with fingers curled in toward the palm, then the reflective material is obscured. A better placement would be on the back of the hands, not the fingers. Also, don’t dry these gloves after washing. Hang dry. The heat from the dryer can cause the reflective material to peel away.
The Zensah Smart Glove met all my expectations for a running glove. Not too thin. Not too thick. Warm enough for cold weather runs, yet not so warm my hands sweat. And the touch screen function is nice because there’s nothing more irritating in winter than having to pull off your gloves while answering a text.
Zensah is best known for compression, sleeves and socks. But they’ve done a really nice job with these gloves.
This Running Life 
Great review!