Elmer Gloves

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Elmer gloves are designed in Japan, though the name comes from Gloversville in New York, where Elmer Little started making gloves in 1893. The range here runs from the Wool Pile mittens and five-finger gloves

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About Elmer gloves

The name goes back to Elmer Little, who started a glove company in 1893 in Gloversville, New York — a town that got its name honestly, having grown up around leather tanning and glove making. Elmer Little & Sons became one of the larger American glove makers before the business was eventually acquired by the Japanese company Swany. The gloves are now designed in Japan, which is where the range gets its character: bright colour blocking, unusual constructions and a general willingness to make a glove look like something rather than disappear.

Elmer Wool Pile gloves and mittens

Wool Pile is the piece the brand is known for and the reason most people find it. The outer is wool with a deep pile face, backed with an acrylic and polyester fleece inside, which is what makes them warm out of proportion to how light they feel. They come as five-finger gloves and as mittens, and the mitten is meaningfully warmer — fingers heat each other when they share a compartment, which is why mittens beat gloves in real cold regardless of what they are made from.

Most of the Wool Pile range is touchscreen compatible, so you are not taking them off at every junction.

Elmer mittens, liners and neck warmers

Beyond the Wool Pile the range splits by how wet and cold you expect things to get. The Gore-Tex Line mitten is the waterproof option and the most serious thing here. Puffy and Cover Down mittens use down fill for dry cold. Primaloft is the synthetic equivalent, which keeps working when damp where down does not. The Trigger Over Mitten is a shell that goes over a thinner glove, and the Inner Glove is the liner designed to sit underneath. Neck warmers, including the reversible ones in Elmer's own print, round the range out.

Browse all gloves and scarves at Yards Store, or try a pair on at our Manchester and Sheffield shops.

Elmer Gloves FAQs

Designed in Japan, but the name is American. Elmer Little started making gloves in Gloversville, New York in 1893, and the business was later acquired by the Japanese company Swany, which still runs it. The design and the aesthetic are Japanese; the heritage the name refers to is not.
By palm circumference rather than standard clothing sizes. Measure around the widest part of your palm, excluding the thumb: small is around 7 inches, medium around 8, large around 9. Check the individual product page, as the range is not identical across every model.
A wool outer with a deep pile surface, backed with a fleece lining. It traps a lot of air for its weight, which is why Wool Pile gloves feel light but hold heat well. It is the construction Elmer is best known for and it runs through both the gloves and the mittens in the range.
Yes, noticeably. In a mitten your fingers share one compartment and warm each other; in a glove each finger loses heat on its own. If warmth matters more than dexterity, take the mitten version. If you need to use your hands properly, the five-finger versions are touchscreen compatible.