The LS2 Snow gloves don't live up to their wintry name, but make strong three-season gauntlets

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Helmet brand LS2 expanded into the rider wear market for the 2020 season and now have an impressive range of gear to suit touring, urban and sports riding, for both men and women. Made in China within LS2’s own factories, the brand offers a high level of specification and quality. These Snow gloves are waterproof textile sports-touring three season gloves to suit autumn/winter/early spring.

How comfortable are they?

With a name like ‘Snow’, I was expecting a bit more bulk from these new LS2 gloves as they are fairly thin for winter gloves. The Snow rely on a combination of their close-fitting design and super-soft brushed polyester lining (which is so soft and comfy, it feels almost like fleece next to your skin) to retain heat, which they do up to a point.

Teamed with a pair of heated grips, they’ve kept my hands reasonably warm at single digit temperatures, and without heated grips they work OK at around 5-10°C – although fingers do start to go numb… This means that they provide decent enough performance for milder British winter temperatures, but aren’t really warm enough for sub-zero rides.

That said, the Snow offer excellent feel for the bars and controls via the mock-suede palm, and the Velcro cuff fits easily beneath all of my jacket sleeves.

Owing to their fairly narrow sizing, however, I’d recommend trying a pair on before you buy; I found size Small to be spot on for me, but those with broader palms may find them a little snug.

Do they look good?

The styling is subtle but classy, with grey panelling and red details breaking up what would be an otherwise plain black winter glove. There’s a reflective logo on the cuff which feels a bit redundant given the fact it’s so small and also that it’ll be covered by sleeves if you choose to wear your gloves inside your jacket. The Snow are also available in black, and black/dark green, too.

Are they high quality?

Not so much as a stitch out of place, the Snow are really nicely made using good materials and a branded ‘Hipora’ membrane. After some pretty grim winter rides, they’re still looking as good as new and retaining their shape, meaning that they’ve not become baggy and thin – and I’m pretty confident they’ll still look as good after another 1000 miles.

The Hipora waterproof membrane works perfectly. They’ve endured some pretty relentless rain recently and have so far performed brilliantly, with zero leakage.

Despite its matt-look, the outer textile is impressively water repellent meaning that the backs of the hands and fingers can take a proper dousing before rain saturates through to the waterproof/breathable membrane beneath. This quality allows the Snow stay warmer for longer when riding through rain and means that they also dry pretty quickly, too. The suede-effect material on the palm, however, does get saturated quickly meaning this area of the glove takes slightly longer to dry.

So far, the lining has stayed inside the glove when I’ve taken them off, although it remains to be seen whether warmer temperatures and stickier hands might cause a problem in this area.

The visor wipe on the left-hand index finger is a nice thought, but in reality doesn’t work all that well due to the rubber flap not quite being stiff enough, meaning that you need a couple of swipes in order to clear your visor thoroughly. The Snow also have touchscreen-sensitive fingertips.

Protection and CE ratings

While most winter gloves feel somewhat lacking in protection, the Snow buck the trend by boasting features that you’d see on a sports glove. Rated to EN13594 as 1KP, they meet the lower (but most common) protection standard for motorcycle gloves and also feature hard knuckle armour.

The palm has been reinforced with a synthetic suede patch and has extra padding on the heel of the hand as well as a plastic palm slider/scaphoid protector to help prevent injury to the wrist. Again, due to their structured fit, they feel very secure on my hands – a feeling that’s amplified further by the reassurance of the Velcro wrist strap (my only criticism of which is that it’s much too long).

I’ve every confidence that they’d stay in place in an impact. The only area where they lack protection is in the fingers, which don’t have any hard armour – although the little finger features a wrap-around suede panel along the outer edge complete with two areas of padded protection.

Do they offer good value?

At £69.99 the Snow sit firmly in the mid-price point for full-textile gloves, and in terms of the build quality and performance, I’d say that’s a fair price. However, with LS2 being such a newcomer to the clothing market, some riders may feel that their money may be better spent on a more established brand, in which case a glove like Richa’s Summit Evo, which pack the same all-textile construction and features (albeit minus a visor wipe) might be worth a look, especially as they’re £20 cheaper too.

Just for a bit of context, at the upper end of the winter glove market sit models like Held’s £224.95 Cold Champ Gore-Tex gloves, which are a mix of leather and textile, backed up with Gore-Tex waterproof/breathable membrane, hard armour, 3M Thinsulate lining as well Thermoplush fleece across the backs of the hands, not to mention a five-year warranty.

Other options to consider

The bottom line

The Snow are beautifully made, look great, offer loads of feel and boast excellent waterproofing, plus they’ve got the added bonus of hard knuckle armour, palm slider, visor wipe and touchscreen-fingertips. However, in terms of their outright warmth they don’t quite live up to their name, as they don’t have the thermal protection to keep your hands warm in the frozen depths of a proper winter and would perhaps be more suitable as autumn/spring touring gloves. Their £69.99 price tag also feels a bit expensive, especially as there’s no leather or 3M Thinsulate used, and that LS2 are perceived as something of a budget brand.

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