Glove Size Finder: Why Your Gloves Keep Ripping
Glove size finder · 30 seconds
Why your gloves keep ripping
It's usually the size, not the glove. Lay a bank card on your palm and slide to match.
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Tap your size
Every size has its own tell-tale rip
Pick the size you wear now. You'll see where it sits against a bank card, and the rip that says it's wrong.
Palm 89 to 99 mm. Grip-X Medium is 94 mm, give or take 5.
The smallest Grip-X, for smaller hands
- Card check: your palm sticks out about 1 cm past a bank card.
- The rip that says go up: it splits at the thumb as you pull it on, or the cuff leaves a red line. Try L.
- Card wider than your palm? M will be roomy. Try SE Premium or MaxProtect, the strongest glove we sell in Small.
Palm 100 to 109 mm. Grip-X Large is 105 mm, give or take 5.
Our best seller, and the easy guess
- Card check: about 2 cm of palm past the card. A $2 coin just about fills the gap.
- The rip that says go up: it goes pale and shiny across your knuckles when you make a fist, or splits at the thumb going on. Try XL.
- Swimming in it? Spare rubber at the fingertips catches on everything. Try M.
Palm 110 to 117 mm. Grip-X XL is 113 mm, give or take 5.
Bigger hands, or a glove over a glove
- Card check: about 2.7 cm past the card. A $1 coin fits in the gap.
- Over another glove? Measure with it on, so the outer one isn't stretched from the start.
- The rip that says go up: still splitting at the thumb web? You're an XXL.
Palm 118 mm and over. Grip-X XXL is 123 mm, give or take 5.
The biggest size we sell, and only in Grip-X
- Card check: 3.2 cm or more past the card. A 50c coin fits in the gap.
- Sound familiar? If XL splits at the thumb before the job's even started, this is you.
- Grip-X is the only glove in our range that comes in XXL.
Palm sticking out past a bank card:
Good. In 30 seconds you won't be.
- Grab any bank card and do the card trick below. No tape measure needed.
- Or email me a photo of your hand flat next to a bank card, and I'll tell you your size.
- Between two sizes? Go up. Loose costs you a bit of feel. Tight costs you the glove.
The bank-card trick
No tape measure? Grab a bank card.
Bank cards are made to one international size, 85.6 mm wide6, so the one in your wallet doubles as a ruler.
- Hold your writing hand flat, palm up, fingers together.
- Lay the card across your palm just under your fingers, one end lined up with the little-finger edge.
- See how much palm sticks out past the other end: about 1 cm is M, 2 cm is L, 2.7 cm is XL, 3.2 cm or more is XXL. Then match it on the slider.
Where your palm lands on each glove
Palm width in mm, from our product pages: Grip-X and SE Premium both give or take 5 mm. The red line follows the slider up top. Landed in a gap? Go up a size.
Why gloves rip
Too small, too big, just right
Tap a fit to see where the glove gives. The dashed line is your hand.
Stretched thin before you start
- Thumb web. It takes the strain as you pull the glove on, so that's where tight gloves usually split.
- Knuckles. Make a fist and the glove goes pale and shiny. That shine is rubber stretched thin.
- Fingertips. Jammed into the ends, with no give when you grip.
- Cuff. Digs in, rolls down and leaves a red line.
Rubber keeps nearly the same volume when it stretches3, so the stretch comes out of the wall. In a 2024 NIOSH study, stretched gloves got 16% to 40% thinner.2
Snug, not stretched
- Fingertips meet the ends with barely any spare rubber.
- Thumb web and knuckles bend without pulling tight.
- Cuff sits flat and stays put.
Get this right and the diamond texture stays where it should, instead of being stretched flat across your palm.
Spare rubber snags
- Fingertips. Floppy ends catch on bolts, edges and threads, and that's a rip waiting to happen.
- Palm. Folds twist when you grip, so you lose feel for small parts.
- Cuff. Gapes at the wrist and slides around.
In a hand dexterity test, people were about 10% slower in gloves a size too big and about 7% slower a size too small. The small ones also hurt.4
The research
Four numbers that change how you buy gloves
Two gloves can both be sold as Medium and differ by about 21% around the hand, under the main US sizing spec for nitrile exam gloves. Check the millimetres, not the letter.
NIOSH researchers, 20241NIOSH stretched nine nitrile glove models by 25% to copy a snug fit and a working hand. Six had at least one sample fail a chemical permeation test.
NIOSH researchers, 20241Thinner. That's what stretching did to glove material in a 2024 NIOSH study. A glove one size too small is stretched before you've picked up a tool.
Soo and colleagues, 20242Wider. Your palm, measured along its main crease, with your fingers spread instead of together. Snug on a flat hand means tight the moment you work.
NIOSH researchers, citing Griffin and colleagues1General information from lab studies, not a rating for any glove. Working with chemicals? Follow the safety data sheet and wear the glove type it recommends.
The 30-second fit check
Glove on? Five checks, 30 seconds
- Pull it on in one goIf you have to fight it on, or it splits at the thumb as it goes on, it's too small.
- Spread your fingers wideYour palm gets about 15% wider.1 The glove between thumb and pointer finger shouldn't pull tight or go see-through.
- Make a tight fistNo pull across the knuckles and no pale, shiny patches. That shine is rubber stretched thin.
- Check the fingertipsThe ends should meet your fingertips with barely any spare. Floppy tips catch on everything.
- Check the cuffIt should sit flat and stay put. If it digs in, rolls down or leaves a red line, go up a size.
Failed one? You're in the wrong size. Email me what happened and I'll point you to the right one.
Buying for a crew
Not everyone's a Large
Large is our best seller, and ordering all Large for the whole team is a common sizing mistake I see. Smaller hands swim in them, bigger hands split them, and everyone blames the glove.
- Do the card trick with the whole crew at smoko, write everyone's size on the whiteboard and order to the spread.
- Send me the list and I'll check the split before you order.
Safe Work Australia: “If you give your worker an allowance, it is still your duty to make sure the PPE is the right fit, comfortable, and protects the person wearing or using it.”5
Working out how many boxes your crew needs? Try the glove calculator.
From the tools
What a good fit feels like
“These are perfect. Didn’t believe how durable and how much they stretch. Great product. Not like anything else on the market”
“Workers report the thicker rubber and textured grip also improves comfort, hold on items and ease of putting gloves on”
Which glove
Got your size? Here's your glove
Grip-X for jobs where the glove has to last. SE Premium, 100 a box, for jobs where you change gloves all day.
Grip-X Black
50 gloves a box because they're thicker · M, L, XL, XXL · diamond-textured grip · touch screen compatible
See Grip-X
SE Premium Black or Blue
100 gloves a box · S, M, L, XL · textured fingertips · sized a touch wider than Grip-X
See SE Premium BlackPrefer blue? See SE Premium Blue
Still stuck between two sizes? Email me a photo of your hand flat on a table next to a bank card and I'll tell you which one. I read every message myself.
Tarents, Hygiene Hub30-Day Money Back Guarantee. Dispatched from Melbourne within 1-2 business days.
Sizing questions
Quick answers
Are glove sizes the same across brands?
No. Under the main US sizing spec for nitrile exam gloves, two gloves can both be sold as Medium and differ by about 21% around the hand.1 That's why we publish a palm width for every size. Check the millimetres, not the letter.
I'm between two sizes. Up or down?
Up. A glove that's a little loose costs you a bit of feel. One that's a little tight is stretched thin before you start, and your hand gets wider again the moment you spread your fingers or grip.
Is Grip-X sized the same as SE Premium?
Close, not identical. Grip-X M to XXL is 94, 105, 113 and 123 mm. SE Premium S to XL is 85, 95, 106 and 116 mm. Both are give or take 5. Re-check your width when you swap between them.
Do nitrile gloves stretch to fit?
They give a little as they warm to your hand, but not enough to fix the wrong size. Buy the size that fits at the start of the job, not the one you hope it relaxes into.
Sources
- Fisher EM and colleagues (NIOSH). Assessment of glove stretch and storage temperature on fentanyl permeation. J Occup Environ Hyg 2024;21(8):529-538. stacks.cdc.gov
- Soo J-C and colleagues. Development of an experimental technique to determine the barrier performance of medical gloves when stretched. Ann Work Expo Health 2024;68(8):811-819. stacks.cdc.gov
- University of Exeter. Measuring Poisson's ratio. exeter.ac.uk
- Chatterjee A and colleagues. Hands deserve better: a systematic review on surgical glove fit and provider performance. J Clin Med 2025;14(21):7695, reporting Drabek T and colleagues (2010). Funded by Mölnlycke. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Safe Work Australia. Personal protective equipment (PPE), model WHS laws. safeworkaustralia.gov.au
- ISO/IEC 7810:2019, Identification cards: ID-1 card size 85.60 by 53.98 mm. iso.org
- Royal Australian Mint. About our coins ($2 coin 20.5 mm, $1 coin 25 mm, 50c coin 31.65 mm across flats). ramint.gov.au
- Palm widths and tolerances: our Grip-X Black and SE Premium product pages.