REASONS TO BUY
Price
Water resistance
Dexterity
Features
Durability
REASONS TO AVOID
Average warmth
Outdoor Research Revolution Review
One of the best gloves for the price; while it faced stiff competition, it offers incredible dexterity and feel
Outdoor Research Revolution Gloves
Credit: Outdoor Research
RELATED: Best Ski Gloves of 2024
Our Verdict
The Outdoor Research Revolution is an excellent value and is the winner of our OutdoorGearLab Best Buy Award. The Revolution faced stiff competition, mainly from the Gordini GTX Storm Trooper II, which is marginally warmer, but the Revolution snagged the award for its superior dexterity and weather resistance. With so much competition in the $60-80 price range, it's tough to buy a better all-around glove without shelling out more money. The Revolution features a durable leather palm and a surprising amount of insulation, especially for its price. The lining is a super soft, cozy fleece liner, which felt pleasant on cold days. The liner also helped warm up our hands quickly, and the gloves were easy to put on, even with wet hands.
Our Analysis and Test Results
Our pick for the best ski and snowboard for the money, the OR Revolution offers the right levels of warmth, weather resistance, and dexterity to meet most resort riders needs without breaking the bank. Even when compared with much more expensive gloves the Revolution remains competitive in performance but at often half the price. Our whole review team loved this model, but we feel it's worth noting that this model only barely won this award over another standout model: the Gordini GTX Storm Trooper II.
Performance Comparison
While you could get gloves that were more feature rich or a little warmer, the Revolution was easily the most weather resistant, among the most dexterous and offered extremely functional features like its gauntlet closer, that were super easy to use and effective.
Credit: Ian Nicholson
Warmth
The Revolution is surprisingly warm for its price. This contender uses 333 grams of OR's proprietary EnduraLoft on the back of the hand, 200 grams on the palm, and 133 grams on the gauntlet. This is certainly above average as far as the volume of insulation goes (found in gloves that we tested).
Our testers felt that this glove was comfortable enough to use in temperatures that reached 10F or lower if the weather wasn't too stormy while riding lifts. If you were to use this glove for resort riding in temperatures above 20F, it would provide optimal warmth and allow for an enjoyable experience.
We found that the OR Revolution was kept us warm down to temperatures of around 10F. While there were a handful of models that offered more warmth, it it was particularity stormy or we were skiing deeper snow (as seen here) the Revolution would keep us warmer than other similarly price models because it did a better job of keeping the snow our and would keep our hands drier-longer, resulting in keeping them warmer longer.
Credit: Ian Nicholson
If resort riding and warmer temperature are what you're after, this Best Buy Award winner will provide! If your main interest is riding or climbing in the backcountry, we felt comfortable wearing them in temperatures around 5F.
The Revolution's super comfortable and soft brushed polyester fleece lining adds to its warmth. Not only did this soft liner feel fantastic against our hands, but it helped our hands warm up quickly, and these gloves were easy to pull on - even when our hands were wet.
Dexterity
The Revolution performed above average in dexterity, making it one of the most dexterous gloves that you can buy for under $100. During our side-by-side testing, we were able to buckle ski boots, pull zippers, open locked cars, and even write to a certain extent, albeit in a sloppy manner. Our testing revealed that the Revolution offered a step up in dexterity when pared against the Gordini GTX Storm Trooper II.
The Revolution gives exceptional dexterity for the price but doesn't live up to the Arc'teryx Fission - which also happen to cost you much more.
The Revolution offered fantastic weather resistance particularly when compared to other gloves in its price range. Both in our real-world testing (as seen here while out on a boarder-line raining Pacific Northwest day) as well as in our side-by-side bucket-of-water tests. Not only did this glove offer excellent weather resistance but its leather palm was soft from the beginning but more durable than most.
Credit: Ian Nicholson
Water Resistance
The Revolution uses Outdoor Research's proprietary Ventia Dry insert, which is covered with a nylon shell and a water-resistant leather palm. This contender scored slightly above average during our bucket of water testing and performed similarly during our real-world use. These gloves proved to keep our hands drier than most gloves in a similar price range, especially on stormy and near freezing days. The leather palm held its water resistance longer than several other models we tested, such as the Dakine Titan.
Our testing determined that the Revolution provided a touch more regarding water-resistant capabilities than other models in our fleet, like the Hestra Leather Fall Line and Dakine Titan. Its performance was on par with the Gordini GTX Storm Trooper II. While this contender's weather resistance was decent, it did not last as long as some of the more expensive gloves found in our test.
Durability
Without knowing the cost of this glove, we'd say it's one durable competitor. It's one of the better-priced gloves that features a goat leather palm, and also proves to be more durable than any of the synthetic options, like the Dakine Titan. Its nylon outer shell offered exceptional performance during all of our activities, and the overall water resistance held up well, proving to perform on a higher level than most of the proprietary waterproof fabric options. This glove is tough.
As we used all of the gloves in a similar fashion, we noticed cuts and nicks in both palms of the Dakine Titan. Armed with this information, we concluded that the Revolution was more durable than either of the options mentioned above and it offered comparable performance to the Gordini GTX Storm Trooper II.
The gauntlet closer and opening system on the Revolution was among our testing teams favorite. It was easy to operate one handed and we appreciated the included, low-profile, (and removable) keeper-cords.
Credit: Ian Nicholson
Features
The Revolution doesn't come packed with tons of (possibly not needed) features; instead, our testers appreciated its removable wrist leashes, huge pull loop (we loved this small feature), a softer fabric on the back of the thumb for wiping goggles and noses, a wrist cinch strap, and an easy and effective gantlet closure. While a few other more expensive gloves included other extras, the Revolution costs $70 and has all of the features that our testers liked the most, allowing this model to have incredible ease-of-use.
Best Application
This contender is an awesome all-around option for mild to colder temperatures, in both the resort and the backcountry. If we were constantly riding in environments like the upper Midwest or New England, we might go with something like the Black Diamond Mercury Mitt or the Hestra Army Leather Gore-Tex. For the majority of people, this glove will provide more than enough warmth, allowing for optimal dexterity. In fact, our testers wore the Revolution for fall mountaineering applications on some of Washington's Cascade Volcanoes.
Value
The OR Revolution is an excellent option, offering some of the best performance for the price; it's currently one of our favorite gloves in the $100 and under price range. Compared to other gloves that are similarly priced, it is slightly warmer, significantly more water resistant, and much more dexterous.
Conclusion
In addition to its great value, the Outdoor Research Revolution features a goatskin leather palm, which adds to its durability - all for $70. The Gordini GTX Storm Trooper II was a close contender for this award, and our review team found it challenging to choose between these two. We think the Storm Trooper is marginally warmer, equally as water resistant, and close in durability; however, its stiffness didn't offer as nice of a feel, nor was it as dexterous.
—
Ian Nicholson
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