The Complete Handbook of Fencing Gloves & Cuffs
A practical guide for fencers, coaches, equipment managers, and resellers
by Alumigogo Books
non-fiction
The complete reference for understanding, choosing, maintaining, and doing business with fencing hand protection equipment.
About this book
Fencing gloves are not generic athletic gloves. They must protect the hand and forearm from weapon contact while allowing sufficient dexterity for precise blade work, and they must meet specific regulations that vary by weapon and competition level. Whether you're equipping a club, managing a rental program, or building a reselling business, you need to understand the actual performance differences between glove types, how to evaluate construction quality, what maintenance keeps them safe and functional, and how competition rules shape equipment choices.
This handbook is written for the people who make fencing equipment decisions: coaches selecting gloves for their fencers, equipment managers maintaining inventory, club directors running rental operations, and entrepreneurs looking to enter the fencing equipment business. It cuts through marketing to explain function, offers concrete guidance for real purchasing decisions, and identifies the technical knowledge and supplier relationships that create competitive advantage in fencing equipment management.
Reader Reviews
Brian Thomas
★★★★★I manage equipment for a mid-sized fencing club with about 80 members, and this handbook actually answered the questions I've been figuring out through trial and error for years. The explanation of why foil and épée gloves are constructed differently, and what those material differences mean for durability in a rental program, finally made sense. One minor thing: I wish there was a more detailed troubleshooting flowchart for deciding when to repair vs. replace a glove, but the chapter covered the main failure modes clearly enough. Definitely the most practical resource I've found on this topic.
Jason Jones
★★★★★Solid reference work, and I appreciate that it's not trying to sell me anything. The anatomy and protection function sections are genuinely useful, and Chapter 3 gave me a clear framework for choosing gloves for my team. That said, I found the business chapter a bit shallow if you're actually trying to start a reselling operation—it identifies opportunities but doesn't go deep into supplier negotiations or margin modeling. Still, for what I needed (equipping our club and understanding what I was buying), this delivered. Worth the price.