Last updated: September 6th, 2023
Featured image: a big pile of sim racing gloves, new and old – all ours!
As well as a good pair of race or karting boots, sim racing gloves are (in my humble opinion) an absolute necessity over pretty much any other. In our updated 2023 buyer’s guide, we’re going to look at my favorites (all of which I own myself) and, I’ll take a look at what features of a sim racing glove are most important.
A good pair of gloves while driving the sim are an absolute must – you get a better level of grip and the racing feels more, serious. With the right sim racing gloves, you get excellent tactility on the steering wheel and lose absolutely nothing in terms of feel. You can use your shifters, rotaries, and buttons just as accurately and in some cases, more so. And with today’s selection, “touchscreen compatibility” is a given.
Critically, you can keep a suede / Alcantara rim in much better condition, for longer – I have wheels I’ve owned for years that still look brand new because I’ve never driven them with bare hands. The grease and sweat (gross, I know) can build up in the Alcantara and the end result looks pretty bad. It also ruins the resale value of the wheel.
Jump to my latest sim racing glove recommendations using these links, or continue reading.
- F33L Sim Racing Gloves
- SimHound
- Alpinestars F-Lite
- Freem
- The Best: SimHound vs F33L
- How to Measure your hands for gloves
Can you use real FIA Racing gloves in the sim?
Here’s an old photo of me using a pair of Sparco RG-7 FIA-approved racing gloves (see here):
FIA racing gloves are overkill for sim racing; they’re probably 3 times too expensive and you get hot because of the lack of airflow. They’re fireproof which I dearly hope you’ll never need in the simulator. There’s simply no use case for proper racing gloves in the sim.
On that note here is a list of our top sim racing gloves – with the revised, externally stitched SimHound Gloves and the F33L SR2’s (below) being my two favorites.
F33L SR2 Sim Racing Gloves
If you’re looking for something ultra-lightweight, then F33L’s SR2 washable sim racing gloves are worthy of consideration. Here are mine:
I chose these gloves because of the bright, bold pattern and the fact that they’re on offer from Sim-Lab, who needs absolutely no introduction to a sim racer.
When you slide them on, the inner lining feels smooth on your hands. I’d class my hand size as “medium” but actually, the small size is the better fit for me. You always want to have a tightly fitting glove, or you’ll lose that all-important tactility.
The velcro strap is super strong, once you’ve got these on, they’re not going anywhere. As you can probably see from the photos, they’re co-branded by F33l and Sim-Lab, as I understand it Sim-Lab acquired this brand last year. High praise indeed.
The F33l gloves have a slender, ergonomic design that fits snugly. Obviously, they have touchscreen patches on the forefinger and thumb (as all sim racing gloves do now – this used to be a unique selling point!
I’d say most of the time, the smaller sizes will probably offer the best fit. Even while gripping the wheel you can see (pictured above) how the material stretches to my hand without offering significant resistance. With all that grip on the palms, there’s no question of their suitability for a sim steering wheel – they’re just, really, really good gloves.
If you’re buying F33l gloves, make sure you’re going for the best fit. There’s nothing worse than gloves that are too big! Measure the circumference of your hand. During the first use, the anodized rubber may take a few hours to adjust to your hand, but you can adjust the fingers for optimal comfort. Here’s the official glove sizing chart from F33l:
The F33l SR2s are available in sizes S to XXL, refer to the size chart to find your perfect fit. Sim-Lab also provides a 12-month warranty period, which for gloves is exceptional value. According to the label, they’re washable at a maximum temperature of 30c.
SimHound Gloves
I owned the original SimHound Gloves which have since been significantly updated:
Simhound use an elasticated fabric construction that is snug fitting with a touchscreen-compatible forefinger and a nice grip pattern on the palms. This philosophy has reigned true with the latest iteration of their gloves, except they’ve switched to external stitching:
Something Simhound gets very right is in the construction. The gloves have the right amount of stretch in the outer fabric providing a nice sensation of support when you’re holding on to the wheel. The material doesn’t stretch quite as the F33l gloves do, but nonetheless, they’re grippy and very nice to work with:
The fabric is hard-wearing with a firm feeling to them and good breathability. Here they are being tested (at Sebring, in rFactor2, in the Radical)
You’ll notice a slight overstretch between my thumb and forefinger – Simhound has always fitted me like this. It’s not an issue in the slightest and these gloves are certainly a bit cheaper than the F33l gloves, so no issues for me at all.
There’s a variety of colour options on their website including these:
Alpinestars F-Lite
Cycling gloves are perfect for tactility and staying cool. The best gloves are very thin, like these Alpinestars, and usually come with touchscreen compatibility. Price wise they’re no different to sim racing gloves so if you’re a keen cyclist, maybe these are the better option as all-rounders?
If heat is an issue, try a lightweight glove like the popular Alpinestars F-Lite cycling gloves. These were most like my original Augury gloves – very light, very tactile, but likely to wear quickly in comparison to some of the other gloves we own.
Freem SIM21 racing gloves
Freem is a well-known high-end Motorsports manufacturer that has dipped its toes into the sim racing world. They’ve come up with the higher-end, higher-priced Freem Sim-glove, the SIM21. This is a photo from last year and, they’re still practically brand new:
Freem has manufactured sim racing gloves with input from the “world’s top sim racers” and have all of the features you’d hope for grip, screen compatibility, and so on. The only catch, aside from the price, is finding somewhere that has them in stock.
They’re very light, using an interesting and very stretchy fabric. A word of caution on these, though. Buy small, as they work best when snugly fitted.
As with all items from Freem, the SIM 21 gloves are made in Italy. Freem has revised the fabrics on the palm surface with what they call “L-Grip” which is intended to provide high levels of grip on the steering wheel and wheel controls.
I found these gloves to be extremely light and breathable and they fit very snugly, almost like a second skin. In total, they only weigh 32 grams! These are touchscreen compatible on the index finger and thumb. My only mild complaint with Freem’s design is that the fingers are slightly too long for my hands. So I suppose if you’re a skinny hands / long fingers type, these are for you.
Opinion: What are the best gloves for sim racing?
Well that’s the question, isn’t it? I’ve tried all of these gloves and more (my favourite Augury gloves became obsolete and wore out in the end). Personally I think it comes down to F33L vs SimHound.
(left) vs F33L
(right)
It’s a difficult choice as they’re different in a few really critical ways. The SimHound gloves have a more supportive feel while the F33l gloves are softer and stretch more. Fit-wise, for me, the F33L gloves are a slightly better match to the shape of my hand, but I’d be equally happy to wear the SimHounds for the next year or so.
If I was pushed to make a choice, I think the F33L gloves are the best choice for sim racing.
They come at a slight premium, price-wise – especially if you live outside of the EU which adds a bit of extra delivery cost. But, with all that said, the difference between the two is so marginal that I think you’d be happy with either choice.
Need a hand? How to measure yourself for your next pair of sim racing gloves
Measuring your hands to fit your sim gloves is very easy. Just measure the circumference of your hand with a tape measure:
As you can see from the diagram above, measure the circumference of your hand following the path of the red line in the image. Then take that measurement and compare it to the manufacturer’s size guide.
Each size guide will be slightly different, so just because you’re an “M” for a set of gloves from Alpinestars doesn’t mean the same thing with Freem, SimHound, Sparco, and so on. I think the safer choice is always to go slightly smaller than you think you need, not larger. And always check the sizing guide on the product page!
Whatever you choose, gloves enhance your sense of enjoyment in the simulator. I recommend all drivers choose a pair of gloves and then get onto a good pair of boots, too.