Best Rowing Gloves (Top 3 Gloves Ranked)

If you’re looking for the best rowing gloves, you’re in the right place.

If your hands are constantly getting beat up from rowing, getting a pair of rowing gloves is one of the best ways to protect your hands.

The reason why most people’s hands get beat up from indoor rowing is due to the torque that you place on your hands as you row.

If you think about it, you’re using your whole body to explosively pull the rowing handle – your hands take the brunt of that effort. This leads to calluses and blisters, especially if you tend to have sweaty hands.

Thankfully, there are special hand protectors that can make your life easier.

Below I’ve included my list of the best rowing gloves (also known as “sculling gloves”).

1. Sculling Gear Rowing Gloves

Our top rated glove. These gloves by Sculling Gear are the best rowing gloves you can buy.

Designed by a team of passionate rowers, these gloves have everything you want in a protective glove.

First off, they come in a variety of different sizes, from extra-small to extra large. This allows you to get the perfect fit for your hands. This is important as ill-fitted gloves can cause issues.

Second, the grip on these gloves is perfect. It gives the right amount of tack to ensure that your hands stay glued to the handle.

Third, the padding in these gloves is enough to provide protection, but minimal. These gloves were designed to allow you to feel the connection to the oar while building up calluses (and prevent blister ripping).

These gloves get a 9.5/10. I recommend these for most people.

2. Hornet Watersports Rowing Gloves

These fingerless gloves by Hornet Watersports are a great pair of protective gloves. Like the gloves mentioned above, these come in a variety of sizes (from extra-small to extra-large). This is important because it allows you to get the perfect fit.

The major benefit of these gloves is that they provide a thin layer of protection over your hands. These aren’t “bulky” gloves that bunch up and feel uncomfortable.

However, with the thin feel, you give up a bit of durability. If you row a lot, you will eventually wear holes through these gloves.

That being said, they are grippy and comfortable.

Most rowing coaches will tell you that rowing with your bare hands is best, however, if you’ve got a couple of painful blisters, you’ll want to cover them so that you can continue to row, these are good gloves for that.

A thin, protective covering for occasional use.

I give these an 8/10 rating (they lose points for limited durability & padding).

3. Rowing Gloves by ProFitness

These gloves are more of your inexpensive general-use gym gloves.

These are heavily padded gloves, so they’ll give extra padding as compared to dedicated rowing gloves. However, sometimes the extra padding can scrunch up, which can be very uncomfortable.

For a low price, these gloves are hard to beat. Cheap, easy to size, and easy to use.

I give these gloves a 7/10 rating (they aren’t dedicated rowing gloves, so they don’t have all the fancy features of the other gloves mentioned).

Closing Thoughts

Wearing gloves for rowing is a great idea if you’re trying to protect your hands while getting in the rowing meters.

I hope these rowing glove recommendations help you out and keep your hands safe while you row.

Happy rowing!