Featured Image: Kent Malm
Hestra cut their first glove in southern Sweden in 1936. They got into the ski game a year later, when a slalom slope first opened in the town of Hestra and they started making gloves specifically for skiers. Some 85-plus years later, the same family still owns and operates Hestra and their certified master glove cutters are still making some of the best gloves around.
If you run amongst a circle of skiers, chances are either you, or someone in your crew, rocks a pair of Hestra Fall Line gloves. The Fall Line has been one of Hestra’s top-selling SKUs in the US for years because it is built for the bulk of skiers. For the core skier, it should cover you for 85-percent of your days on the hill—it’s a midweight glove with high dexterity and is burly enough to get you through several long seasons. The Fall Line has been around for over a decade and has remained relatively the same. Well, that’s about to change…
The current Fall Line glove has a fixed liner—meaning the liner can pack out over time and lose some of its insulation quality and there’s not much you can do about it. For the ‘22/’23 season, the Fall Line glove will feature a new removable liner providing versatility and sustainability.
“We’re taking a big risk with the Fall Line series and putting a removable liner into it,” Hestra Gloves North American Marketing Manager Drew Eakins said. “We think that this change brings one of our best product designs in line with our biggest ethos of sustainability. It makes me proud because we’re putting our money where our mouth is.”
Environmental stewardship is also at the heart of the Hestra brand. Last year, they released a 36-page sustainability report that revealed the working conditions in their factories, where they source their materials from and the upstream and downstream environmental effects of their production. Hestra has sought out and adopted environmentally friendly waysof tanning leather by pulling chromes and dyes out of the process. Adding removable liners to the Fall Line glove continues Hestra’s commitment to sustainability.
“If you build a good glove, it is going to last a really long time,” Eakins said. “Liners, however, don’t have the same lifespan. Building gloves where you can pull those liners out, gives you a lot of benefit. It makes your glove more versatile because you can switch liners. You can extend the glove’s life by replacing liners once they pack out. It really gives customers versatility and a low-cost alternative to buying new gloves.”
Cody Townsend, putting his Hestra gloves through the ringer. | PHOTO: Ming T. Poon
The new liners are constructed with Hestra’s proprietary G-Loft insulation—a polyester material that is great at regulating temperatures as it can maintain and shed heat. It is the same material that is used in Hestra’s popular Heli Ski line, which has been used to summit Everest over a dozen times. While you can easily get multiple years out of these liners, replacement liners will also be available starting in ‘22/’23.
“Different types of liners really bring versatility to your kit,” Eakins said. “Just like you might switch out your midlayer or baselayer depending on the temperature or if you’re skinning in the backcountry versus skiing the resort, you can now switch out your Fall Line liners to something more lightweight or a heavyweight wool for extra warmth.”
Additional changes to the unisex Fall Line glove for ‘22/’23 include a cleaner aesthetic on the back of hand. Hestra is also offering a new red/purple colorway to the Fall Line that they call “Bordeaux.” The new cleaner lines and colorway mirror what was brought into the women’s-specific Fall Line for the ‘21/’22 season. While most Fall Line gloves are made of cowhide, they will also offer a white goat leather version.
Just like the tried and true Fall Line gloves of the past, these new gloves will wear in over time and will fit your hands better after each use. Unlike the previous Fall Lines, once the glove packs out all you have to do is pop a new liner in to get additional years out of it.