Rinat Asimetrik Goalkeeper Glove Review

I have had the privilege of testing out some new keeper gloves over the past few weeks. As every keeper knows, there are several key factors when determining the right glove to buy and go with. After all, once that glove is selected, the bond should be like that of an Avatar and its horse or flying creature—super strong and to the death. A keeper’s glove can be the difference between feeling confident and feeling like you have grease all over your fingers. Also, whether we say it or not, unless you have a glove sponsor who produces unattractive gloves, we all want to look dashing in goal!

I believe the key factors in reviewing a glove are these, in no particular order:

1. Look
2. Cut
3. Durability
4. How they feel on your hand during training/a match
5. Grip, under all conditions

I am going to try and write the reviews as if a young man or lady was reading, keeping it very simple and straight-forward. No one is going to understand if I begin going on about the foam being made in Taiwan but developed in Germany but processed in a micro-fiber plant in Bangladesh. I want the reader, you, to feel as though you have the gloves right there in front of you, so your decision and knowledge about the glove is as good as it will get without clicking buy or handing the cashier your card!

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The first glove I am going to review is the Rinat Asimetric. The Rinat Asimetric definitely is a one of a kind glove. Big, loud and thick are words I would use off the top of my head to describe the glove. Let us now explore the 5 aforementioned factors for the review.

Find the Rinat Asimetric at soccer.com.

#1 – The look

The look of the Asimetric is interesting, to say the least. Each finger is a different color, and the palm is a bright orange. Literally on one pair of gloves you have orange, black, red, purple, green, blue and pink. If you are a keeper that wants gloves that do not draw attention to you, or will not attract any aircrafts, bulls or insects, do not buy these gloves. Furthermore, one wrist strap is orange and the other is pink. This is all not to mention that there is a giant number 1 on the backhand and on the palm. To be quite honest, that bothered me more than anything because I can not remember the last time I was the number 1 on a team, and having a number not matching my jersey number would throw me and my slight OCD off. However, I will say this. The look grew on me. I found myself looking forward to wearing them, and a lot of people stopped to ask about the gloves, based purely on look.

Although I like the way other gloves look better, I would give them a 6/10 on look.

#2 – The Cut

The gloves have a roll-finger cut, which I happen to love. The fingers are wide and rounded, and I feel like you get a solid feel on the ball in a lot of different angles. A lot of keepers I know do not like rolled fingers.

However, I for one am a fan and really like the cut of this glove. I give this a 8/10.

#3 – The Durability

The durability of the glove initially was in question. The first training session I wore the gloves for, I immediately had some tearing of the foam on the fingertips. Although it was minute, I was questioning the foam and its durability from the get go. We all know keepers are using their hands not only to save shots, but to get up from the ground after making saves. So there always will naturally be some tearing do to use. However, I have been quite amazed that after 3 weeks of solid training with the gloves, the tearing has been very minimal. I have not used them on turf, which is the demise of most gloves as it is, but after several weeks of use the tearing is minimal, and the Velcro is still going strong.

However ladies and gentleman, ALWAYS remember to wash your gloves in cold water ever few days and let air dry for maximum usage! I give the durability a 7/10.

#4 – The Feel

This aspect of the glove is where I have some issue. There is a fine line as a goalkeeper with their gloves where you want some padding and some grip, but still want to be able to feel the ball in your hands. I would assume the same goes with cleats and feeling the ball on your foot. (sidenote: wearing toe-shoes is going too far no matter what, just IMO). The Rinats are a little too thick and padded for me. I felt like on certain saves and catches that I could not tell when I fully had handled the ball and had safely caught it. The foam on the glove and the way the inside of the glove felt was a little too much barrier between hand and ball.

Although the glove held up well, and I loved the long wrist strap, I would not be too keen on wearing them in a big game due to the simple fact that I want to feel my hands do the work more, and these big guys just do not allow for that. I give them a 4/10 in this aspect.

#5 – The Grip

The last thing I will review is the grip of the gloves. All keepers love the feeling of sticky, tacky gloves. I did a good job of keeping the gloves washed and dried for training, and I must say the grip was good when the gloves were used on a normal sunny day. However, anytime water or wet grass was involved, the gloves instantly lost a little bit of their grip. If you are playing somewhere where it is always warm and dry, they are great.

However, I would not feel confident with the gloves in extreme conditions. They get a 5/10 in this aspect.

Summary

Overall, the gloves were decent. I think the company did a little too much with the coloration and thickness, but then again, bright is in right now and their must be some demographic of keepers that like that thick foam and mesh. Last little side note, I mentioned this a little, but I really like the long, sturdy wrist wrap. I do not like gloves that have a small wrist closure. It makes me sad.

So while there are some things I do not like, the gloves have become solid training gloves for me and have held up pretty decent. I would give them a 6.5 out of 10 Overall, also factoring in that they are priced around $100. I would not buy these gloves on my own, but if someone is looking to make a statement and get crazy with their choice of gloves, these may just be for you!

Right now, you can find the Rinat Asimetric at soccer.com.

Remember always….We did not choose the glove life, the glove life chose us!!

AP