*Click Image for Larger View*AGV Sport calls the Willow gloves "a full length sport-racing glove". The other gloves in their lineup are also race-style and they are listed from lowest to highest price as the SP7 ($99.00 list); the Dragon ($109.00) and the Laguna ($124.00).
There isn't a huge amount of obvious difference between the foursome, but there are a few styling details, including differences in the material used for the knuckle protectors and the gauntlet designs. The leather on the Laguna gloves is said to be "premium" cowhide, but the same term is used for the Willow gloves, so I'm assuming that the quality is the same across the lineup.
So which to choose? Well, this is where the 2011 hard economic times penny-pinching comes in. If you can get by with the Willow gloves, then why spend more?
Let's take a look at the features that I like about the Willow gloves and see if you agree...
*Click Image for Larger View*First of all, the "premium" leather used for the Willow gloves really does seem to have better than average quality. It has a really nice "hand" (i.e., "feel") and it's soft and pliable and it does not feel like 80-dollar glove leather to me.
In fact, if they upgraded those middle knuckle protectors and changed the rubber molded AGV Sport logo on the gauntlet and wrist strap to something a bit more elegant, I would not have been surprised at all to see a $150.00 price tag on these gloves, and that's the truth.
The inside of the gloves is just as impressive. The AGV Sport marketing material specifically mentions the lining used in the Willow gloves and rightly so. It's a type of micro-fleece fabric with just the thinnest layer of padding underneath, giving the gloves a rich and comfortable feel, more so than most/all race-type gloves in this price range.
The only possible exception to this -- and I say "possible" because not everyone who has worn the gloves feels it -- is the seam between the gauntlet and the hand. It's covered with some type of hemming material and it can feel a bit irritating where it rubs around the circumference of the wrist.
*Click Image for Larger View*The AGV Sport Willow gloves were designed with the same philosphy behind the Willow leather suit: provide all the features you need at an affordable price. This doesn't mean cutting corners, which means you don't feel like you're getting shortchanged.
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