Glove Size Converter

In short A glove size is the circumference of your palm in inches, and that is the whole system. Size 8 means an eight-inch hand — there is no chart behind it and nothing is being converted. Measure around the knuckles of your dominant hand with the thumb left out and the hand relaxed, take the figure in inches, and that is your size; in centimetres the same hand is 20.3, because 8 × 2.54 is 20.3. The scale is French in origin, which is why French and most other European makers use the identical number rather than a national one of their own. The part that does cause trouble is the letters, because men's and women's ladders sit roughly a size and a half apart: a men's medium is about an 8 and a women's medium is about a 7, so an unlabelled "M" tells you almost nothing. Wherever a listing offers the number, use the number. Two practical adjustments are worth knowing. For work gloves, ski gloves and anything worn over a liner, take the larger of two sizes — circulation matters more than precision and a tight glove is a cold one. For driving and dress gloves, take the smaller: leather is cut to stretch across the palm within a few wearings, and a glove that starts loose stays loose and bags at the fingertips. Length is a separate question the number does not answer at all, which is why some makers publish a finger length alongside the palm measurement.