With the brand new Total5 Range of our 1PRO Line, we take a deep dive into all the features that make these gloves the right ones for you.
Hawk Goalkeeping has always been devoted to developing the best possible goalkeeper gloves for every single person to want to play in this difficult position.
With that in mind, we have spent months developing a new cut of gloves that will offer maximum grip in all areas when catching the ball in a whole range of different handling techniques.
In this blog, we are going to take a look at why we have developed this cut.
Firstly, we're going to take a dive into what makes this glove unique, the new Total5 cut.
As the years have passed, we have seen a whole variety of developments in goalkeeper gloves, for example we saw the introduction of the Vapor Grip 3 that was patented by Nike in December 2003. This was a major development for the goalkeeper glove industry as this was far from the Roll Finger, Negative or Flat Palm gloves of the era and this was really a start to the Hybrid era that has followed.
In recent years we have seen many other developments in the industry such as the Adidas Predator strapless gloves that feature a knitted backhand compared to the traditional latex you find on many brands such as ours, this is however a debate for another time.
Back onto our topic of our new unique Total5 cut. We reached out to some of our ambassadors to test a cut that we have been working on for months which we believe will help to give goalkeepers an advantage compared to other cuts.
This unique cut features 5 wraps throughout the palm design, two on each of the pinky and index fingers, two on the thumb and a final wrap on the pinky finger side of the hand. Let us take you through each of these wraps and why we feel that these will help any goalkeeper to find their grip when catching in each technique.
Firstly, lets take a look at the two finger wraps on the index and pinky fingers. This is a wrap that we have found great success in with our other gloves such as the WRAP4 and the 1NS PRO Hybrid, two gloves that have proved to have been a great success since their introductions.
This pair of wraps provides a full range of grip in their respective fingers, leading the way to better ball handling. This is due to the way the ball sits in the hand when caught, as the fingers spread for better surface area, these wraps come into effect as they essentially mould around the ball better, whereas with a negative cut for example, the ball contact is limited due to the construction of the cut.
The benefits to these wraps is evident when looking at how the gloves naturally form when on your hand when handling. As shown in this photo here: Our goalkeeper Callum Hawkins collects the ball cleanly with the aid of the two finger wraps which mould the ball into his gloves with greater ease compared to other cuts.
As we stated before, these wraps are available on a variety of our gloves and you can find them all on our website if you follow the link here.
Onto the new features, we have taken months of research into account for all these new features and are introducing them because we feel that they will add a greater benefit to our goalkeepers, during our testing we found these features are effective in their functions and as a result we introduced them into our new unique cut.
The first new wrap that we are introducing with our Total5 gloves, the dual thumb wrap.
This is a feature that we have actively been looking to introduce into our gloves as we feel this is a wrap that has multiple benfits, both in terms of performance as well as protection.
Firstly, we take a look at the performance banfits of this wrap, with the palm wrapping around the thumb twice, the surface area of the gloves in advanced for the circumstances when the ball is not going to be caught cleanly. We as goalkeepers have all been in situations where the ball have unexpectedly moved during its flight or following a bounce which leads us to not catch the ball as smootly as we'd like, this is where a dual wrapped thumb comes into play as it gives you that incrementally more elite quality latex to handle those tricky shots.
This smootly leads us to the second benefit, the protection factor. As we all know it can be a dangerous position as a goalkeeper, so we sometimes need that additional protection when we deal with some situations. Similarly to finger protection,another removeable feature that is included in all of our gloves for your benefit, thumb wraps give you that additional protection compared to standard backland latex.
As with all of our 1PRO Range gloves the Total5 gloves feature dual latex, with 4mm of Elite quality German latex complimented with an additional 2mm of latex within the gloves that feature a unique ribbed system to help hold the hand in place.
With this being a feature in the Total5 cut, you can be assured that you have advanced protection against thumb injuries with over 6mm of latex protecting your thumbs over the majority of that area.
Moving onto the final wrap in our Total5 cut, and this is one that we believe will help goalkeepers the most during those high pressure moments.
As we all know, catching techniques guide us to using as much of the latex available to catch the ball cleanly, so why don't glove feature a wrap alongside the pinky side of the hand?
This is a question that we believed needed to be addressed as with many techniques such as the W or the Scoop techniques you utilise the whole of the palm and on the rare occasion the outside of this region. We all know as goalkeepers that it is difficult to catch many shots due to a variety of factors, one of which being deflections which can be the smallest of touches but changes the ball just enough that it flicks onto a gusset and out of your hands. This palm wrap neagtes that as our Elite Latex rolls onto the backhand seamlessly and gives you that peace of mind that no little deflection will throw you off compared to a traditional cut.
As a result of all these wraps, we believe that the new Total5 gloves will provide the snug fitting of a negative cut with the added benefit of the additional surface area, giving you the perfect balance of contact and fit.
Now we've been through the wraps that make this new cut unique, let us take a look at the other details of this new glove.
There are many details that need to be addressed when designing a new style of goalkeeper gloves, with every goalkeeper having different preferences and priorities for what they would like to see in their gloves. With that in mind, let us take you through each detail of our design and the reasons that they are included in our new design.
First of all, the backhand structure; the two piece latex design. As with all of our 1PRO gloves, we feature a two piece backhand design that offers a balance of protection and mobility.
We have strategically designed the backhand of our gloves to offer the support that goalkeepers require nowadays, especially with the innovation into modern footballs that cause them to change direction during flight. This has made protection of the thumb very important and leading to many goalkeepers opting for latex thumbs on their gloves for that extra added protection.
Moving onto the backhand embossing, our Total5 features a latex punchzone which is strategically placed with our signature diamond pattern which offers a greater surface area for punching, giving you a greater chance of connecting with a ball cleanly. In addition, our backhand embossing offers a very stylish design that is appealing to any goalkeeper, with this said embossing surrounding the flying hawk logo and incorporating it into the embossing design. Combine all of this embossing with the blue printing and the Total5 gloves will really make you stand out in your 18 yard box.
Moving forward, the strap design on the Total5 was another important feature of our design process. We experimented with a shorter elasticated cuff on the entry of our prototypes, however we found that this was not beneficial to our gloves. Therefore, like our other gloves we have opted to extend our elasticated wristband to be longer for added security for the wrist. Along with this, the strap of the Total5 is 5cm wide and offers great support to the whole of the wrist and will help to prevent any injuries in this region.
In addition to the protection, we also believe that it is important that the strap incorporates the same design as the remaining parts of the gloves, therefore many of the embossing features carry over onto the strap as they do on the main areas of the gloves.
At Hawk Goalkeeping, we believe that protection is a key factor in goalkeeper gloves because a fit goalkeeper is the best goalkeeper. Injuries are the worst, which is why we offer removable finger protection in our gloves. Many goalkeepers wear finger protection in their gloves as they find that it is beneficial in many different ways, Lukasz Fabianski has been very public about this matter and believes that they offer good protection for the fingers but also a little 'cheat code' for those finger tip saves. So whether you wish to use them or remove them, the choice is yours.
Overall, we have taken every consideration into account when designing our gloves, taking every goalkeepers needs into account and producing gloves that are suitable for goalkeepers in any position. We have many exciting prospects in future that we are looking forward to bringing to life and we hope that you all enjoy our new range, which will be out soon.
If you have any further questions or queries around our new Total5 Range gloves, please contact us via our email at hawkgoalkeeping@gmail.com.
