driving gloves and shoes?

[Tim Dugan]

I need to buy new gloves and shoes for next year what do people recommend ? Looking at alpinestar what are your thoughts? I have warn there motorcycle gear and thought they make a good product but these are 2 different worlds so speak up and voice you opinion thanks!

[gran racing]

I like the Sparaco shoes. They're comfortable and not crazy expensive. I plan on buying new ones every few seasons.

Can't help but plug one of my supporters, but I've used them well before partnering with my site... OG racing has what you need. I'd also give them a call. They have a few SCCA (IT in fact) racers who answer the lines.

[jimbbski]

I just bought a pair of Sparco gloves and shoes to match the suit I bought a few years ago. The gloves fit great and look good to.

[Matt93SE]

I bought a set of A* Z1-X or whatever gloves last year. The gloves are comfy, but the sizes run a bit small. I don't have big hands and the measurement chart on SafeRacer's website said I was right on the line between a Med & large. I bought Med hoping for a 'tight fit'. I couldn't even begin to fit my hand in there. returned them for a large, and it's still like stuffing sausages to get my hands in there. When my hands are cold and dry, they fit great. In the summer when I'm sweaty, they're a pain.

.... Because of all the tugging trying to get the undersized gloves on, I tore a small hole near a key seam about the 3rd or 4th time I wore them. I took a small piece of Nomex from an older pair of gloves and nomex thread and stitched it up. voila.

That said, The gloves are very comfy and breathe well so they stay relatively cool in the summer (once you can get them on!)

I wouldn't hesitate to buy them again, but I'd go another size larger.

[georgethefierce]

I have been going through gloves just about every season looking for something I really liked...I finally bit the bullet and bought the ZX-1's from A*'s and as said, they run small but they are the best glove I've owned to date...

as for shoes, that's a little more tricky, I've also tried a bunch and so far I haven't found ones that I am head over heals in love with...if you like a wide shoe with a big foot print that you walk around the paddock in pilotis come up cheap alot. If you like the narrow "for the car only" type of shoe I've had some Pumas which were decent and I've heard good things about the Simpson products, I'm interested in the A* shoes too but haven't been able to swallow the $200 price tag as of yet.

[Matt93SE]

I bought two pair of Impact shoes when they were on super-duper special the other day.. a low top and a mid/hi top. (I think these were some of the Impact stuff with the fake SFI stickers on them).

The sole on the low top was absolutely horrible quality and the mid/hi wasn't a lot better. they're at least more comfy than my old shoes, but nothing to be impressed with. They were barely worth the $40/pr I paid for them. I would have been pissed if I had paid $100+ like the retail price suggested they were worth and got them.

[924Guy]

Some late replies having been through a few brands...

Started racing with Autopro shoes and gloves - I think they're basically the G-Force brand now. LOVED the shoes, inexpensive, comfy, impressively durable. Got 10 long seasons out of 'em. The gloves sucked though, replaced 'em as soon as I could afford to.

Gloves... went through a few pairs of OMPs, nice enough but not spectacular and didn't last more than a couple of seasons each. Then I got Alpinestar gloves (more correctly, Valentine's Day present from my wife)... Damn awesome. I believe durability is good, but have to admit that my time spent in racecars since I bought them has been dramatically eclipsed by the time I spend under the damn cars... so can't really give good feedback about durability.

That said, we've been through a LOT of Sparco gear recently, seems like their stuff has really gone shabby, where the Alpinestar stuff seems to hold up much better...

As for shoes, after finally wearing through the Autopro shoes in 10 seasons, I replaced 'em with some Oakleys (good deal on new unused pair). Nice enough, would be fine for a door slammer, but the soles are big and thick and heavy. In contrast, just got a pair of the Alpinestar shoes, don't remember what model... damn, very nice, comfy, snug, much more suited for my DSR/P2, so I'll be rotating them into primary race usage. Probably not quite thick enough to stomp around in all day as used to be my habit, but that's not an issue, fitting in a tiny pedal box is more important...

[DaveOH32]

Another vote for Alpinestars. I use Tech 1-ZX gloves and Tech 1-Z shoes. They're awesome.

[Tim Dugan]

thanks for people being honest! this will help in the decision making

[kevin22]

I love the Sparco gloves, You don't need to get the most expensive, THe cheaper sparco gloves are fantastic. http://www.techsportracing.com/product-category/gloves/

[lawtonglenn]

personally I like the external seam gloves (I use OMP)

[Russ Myers]

I really like my cheap leather loafers.