Soccer Cleats 101 Soccer Cleats News and Reviews
In a slightly unusual twist, this review will cover the SoccerLoco brand goalkeeper gloves. We normally don’t see retail stores produce their own gloves, but SoccerLoco took on the challenge and sent these out for us to review. I have since had the opportunity to wear them for several top training sessions and one team training 7v7 session.
Along with the gloves, the company sent me a letter describing the gloves as “…quality, durable goalkeeper gloves for competitive players…meant to be comparable to middle market models from other soccer brands but at a lower price point.” They also emphasized the look and aesthetics of the gloves, feeling as though keepers would love the appearance. They were definitely some interesting gloves! I will say that I needed to keep in mind that these were not the top of the line upper-class gloves I had been trying out so far!
Find these gloves at SoccerLoco.com.
#1 – The look
Soccerloco went with a flashy design for the look. The palm is a solid bright orange, with the backhand having the soccerloco emblem in the middle with blue and white trim. I actually like the colors, and think blue and orange look good together with the white. The wrist strap said soccerloco on it, which I was not a huge fan of, given the huge emblem right above it. I feel like the name is not respected enough by keepers yet, and that if they just had the emblem it would have been solid. People know companies by the logo!
Also, I feel like the solid orange palm made the gloves appear a bit more cheaply made. Like the backhand, not the palm and extra soccerloco name on wrist. The look gets a 5/10.
#2 – The Cut
The cut of the gloves is a flat-palm, which basically means the palm is a single piece of latex connected to the backhand by gussets, or essentially thicker stitching. The fingers were slightly rounded on top, and the 3MM latex went from edge to edge.
The cut gets a 7/10, as I think it will appeal to most keepers.
#3 – The Durability
Durability is typically wear you see some cheaper gloves bow out. However, the soccerloco gloves held up pretty well. I was training on semi-decent grass, no turf, and the gloves are still very usable.
I liked that the grip maintained itself well, surprisingly, and was able to feel confident putting the gloves on by the 3rd training. Durability gets a 7/10.
#4 – The Feel
The feel of the gloves is where you could really tell they were made for middle-market. They felt very thin and bendable, which I do not necessarily mind if you were not too concerned with feeling like you had nice, solid thick gloves on your hands for a match. The gloves were very flexible, which is always a plus, but I just am not a huge fan of paper-thin gloves. However, keeping in mind that they are made that way on purpose, I would probably have to test some other middle-market gloves and see the feel there, but it is not my preference.
With all that being said, I will say that the wrist being flexible was solid, and I give the feel a 6/10.
#5 – The Grip
Lastly, the grip. It was not bad. The gloves came with a good amount of conditioner on them, so I had to wash twice through thoroughly to get the desired usable feel.
The gloves were pretty grippy throughout most of the training, however I noticed that if I got any dirt on the palm they had to be re-wetted and rubbed together (keepers you know what I mean by this!). I was surprised by how decent the grip was! Grip gets a 6/10.
Summary
Overall, the soccerloco gloves would be a solid rec/amateur league or 7v7 keeper set of gloves to pick up for use. I myself would probably never use them in training, but for a local young kid or recreation league player, or indoor player who wants a cheaper pair of gloves, these would work.
I would be interested to compare to bigger company, ie Nike, Adidas, Reusch, Aviata, etc, mid market gloves and see how they stacked up. However, I know that soccerloco is huge down here in San Diego so I think they will do just fine!
Overall these mid-marketers get a 6.2/10!
Again, you can currently find these gloves at SoccerLoco.com.
Remember, we did not choose the glove life…the glove life chose us!
Keep ballin!
AP
I will say this. I am not a keeper by trade, but I am a third string keeper simply because I use to play when I was younger. I remember that I never liked having gloves that were too thick or too thin, and that I didn't like having finger protectors. I think for a company that doesn't have really any significant popularity, they have come out with a decent glove. If I played keeper way more often, I would buy these as a solid backup glove. Good thing I play defender/midfielder now.