Burton Gore Tex Gloves Men’s - Review 2023

Gore-Tex Gloves do everything well, but nothing exceptionally well

The Burton Gore-Tex Glove is an affordable resort gauntlet that packs considerable value into the confines of its shell. Though it’s supposed to provide impressive warmth, it doesn’t deliver. That makes this a really good glove for temperatures right around freezing.

While I certainly appreciated some of the features and amenities it offered in variable conditions, I found that it flagged slightly behind comparably priced challengers in pure performance.

Warmth

Befitting their bulky, gauntleted appearance, I found the Gore-Tex Gloves to be most at home in colder weather. The shells on their own were less impressive than alternatives in roughly the same price range.  The most obvious point of comparison is Gordini’s Storm Trooper II, which I felt did everything just slightly better and will be referencing frequently in this review.

My biggest misgiving with the Gore-Tex Glove is how much they rely on their liners. Because they’re such a critical component, expect them to come up a lot as well.  The liners themselves are great, but they feel more like a necessity than an extra feature when temperatures drop well below freezing. Total condemnation definitely isn’t fair, the trade off is modularity, I just personally find myself erring on the side of simplicity.

The coldest temperatures that I could handle skiing without the liners was somewhere in the low 20s Fahrenheit. With the liners, I felt comfortable in conditions above 0, but I have the feeling that anything colder would start to be untenable. Their limitations are visible in their build, the density of fill and overall bulk of the shell is much less pronounced than we’ve seen in similar models.

Dexterity

As with warmth, the liners are central in assessing the relative dexterity in the Gore-Tex Glove. I found the gloves themselves to be across the board average in this regard, outperforming some bulkier models given their more streamlined appearance but nowhere near what you’d want for frequent fine-motor tasks.

To give you a more concrete picture, micro adjustments to my boot buckles were easily doable, but I don’t think I could tie anything more complicated than an overhand knot. In a practical example: it’s easy enough to get your pockets unzipped, but getting things out of them is problematic.

There’s quite a bit of leather stitched onto the palms and fingers which adds considerable traction keeping ahold of hard plastic in the cold. The fingertips are touch-screen compatible, presumably allowing you to coordinate mid-mountain meetups while keeping your hands warm. They do indeed allow you to operate a touchscreen, but we’ll dig into how practical they are in the features section below.

The thin fleece liners don’t hinder dexterity at all, plus they’re also touch-screen compatible. I found myself able to do things like make fit adjustments on my helmet, fish my ski pass out of my pocket, and send off quick texts like I had nothing on my hands. Used in tandem with the wrist leashes, you have a serviceable solution to common issues presented by bulky snow gloves.

Weather Resistance

The Gore-Tex name is synonymous with high degrees of protection from wind and water in the outdoor industry. The unabashed name of the glove in question set high expectations for on slope-performance, and so far it’s delivered at every opportunity.

I’ve skied in the rain and wet snow quite a bit this season- and the Gore-Tex Glove has been my late-day insurance when all the other models I’m testing are soaked through. Unsurprisingly the Gore-Tex layer carries most of the weight in weather resistance, much more than the shell which I found held onto water a little more than models like the Storm Trooper II. Despite this, the aforementioned membrane kept water from penetrating the interior of the glove and I never felt moisture encroaching on my hands while skiing.

On a separate note, unlike the Storm Trooper II, I found the hand warmer pocket to be much less of a problem area for seepage. You’ll have to dry your shell a bit more after a long wet day with the Gore-Tex, but you won’t have to worry about potential weak points as with the Storm Trooper II. It also doubles as a vent, but I didn’t find it to make much of a difference, even on the warmer testing days.

Finally, we must once again have to address the liners in this category. In addition to adding a bit of warmth and versatility, they very effectively wick moisture away from your hands. This is a great touch on spring days, or when you inevitably get snow inside your gloves if you frequently take them off.

Durability and Materials

The Burton Gore-Tex Gloves are unanimously criticized for their lackluster durability. Faced with cheaper, garden variety alternatives that last for seasons on end (such as Kinco work gloves), their performance benefits are tough to rationalize for some.

All of the right ingredients are there to make an above-average, totally bombproof glove- 2L nylon shell, leather palm and fingers, standard synthetic fill, and of course the eponymous Gore-Tex insert. The problem lies in the way that it’s all put together, and the quality of certain materials. 

I’ve seen frequent complaints about the quality of the stitching. I agree that it has an unpolished, mass manufactured feel to it, but in my opinion, the bigger issues were the materials themselves.

The leather used on the palm was particularly problematic and I would avoid these gloves if your home resort has any kind of rope tow situation. A few weeks of casual skiing caused the palms to start wearing down– I can’t imagine they would hold up long under any kind of working conditions.

Above all, longevity is my biggest worry about the Burton Gore-Tex Glove. It has an unfocused, mass-produced feel that other gloves from large manufacturers did not. This durability issue raises questions about value- and makes me hesitant to recommend the Gore-Tex Glove to anyone who hits the mountain more than a couple of times a season.

Features

Fleece Glove Liners

By far my favorite part about the Gore-Tex Glove, the liners completely stole the show, much to the detriment of the package as a whole. They’re warm, moisture-wicking, and nimble enough to accomplish most any fine-motor issue you should encounter on the mountain. They also feature a very competent touch screen fingertip, similar to those on the main shell we’ll discuss below.

The only issue is they’re just glove liners, and alone shouldn’t be a make-or-break feature for the Gore-Tex Glove. There are plenty of options out there if you want a pair to match with any set of gloves on the market.

Touch Compatible Finger Tips

Touchscreen compatibility is a major boon in cold alpine environments where you want to keep your fingers toasty. While the Gore-Tex Glove does indeed feature effective touchscreen capabilities, they’re limited in their usefulness.

For my part, I had a hard time doing anything more complicated than answering a phone call- forget about sending a text or even dialing a specific number. They’re a nice feature, but better conceptually in the liners than on the gloves themselves.

Hand Warmer Pocket

On a personal level, I am vehemently an anti-hand warmer guy. I’m of the opinion that if you feel like you need them, what you really need is a better pair of gloves. That being said, the pockets included on the Gore-Tex Gloves are the best executed that I’ve come across yet.

They’re high capacity and have a hidden slot where you can tuck their zipper’s tab. According to Burton, they can function as a vent if left unzipped in warm weather, though I didn’t notice any appreciable difference during my testing. Most importantly, they’re less prone to leaking than similar pockets I’ve seen in other models.

Detachable Wrist Leash

Wrist leashes are a dime a dozen in performance snow gloves. In the case of the Burton Gore-Tex Glove, they’re a great feature to have and they pair very well with the glove liners. You can just let them dangle while you do X-Y-Z without worrying about dropping them off the lift.

The wrist straps on the Gore-Tex Gloves are unfortunately little more than elastic bands with some sliding cinches. They feel like an afterthought, and look unpolished compared to features like the liners and the hand warmer pockets.

Conclusion

The Burton Gore-Tex Glove has potential as a savvy purchase for skiers who are looking for something plush and feature-rich to take out a couple times a season. Among the most affordable performance gloves, it’s warm enough for most days on the mountain, and comes with some undeniably neat amenities like the liners and touch screen fingertips.

Positives acknowledged, there were a few details about the Gore-Tex Glove that lacked the refinement I look for in a daily use glove. But by far the biggest issue concerns durability. While I think the Gore-Tex Glove checks out for a couple of brief ski trips, those who ride a few times a week or are hard on their gear should steer clear.

It’s a great resort glove, but competition these days is pretty stiff. Fortunately there are plenty of options that are spiritually similar to the Gore-Tex Glove, but that I feel perform a little bit better.

The Competition

I’d venture to say the biggest appeal of the Gore-Tex Glove is it’s apparent value. Between the included liners and the extensive feature set, it offers quite a bit at the surface level. The Gordini Storm Trooper II doesn’t come with quite as many supplemental features, but it’s verily identical to the Gore-Tex Glove. In places where we found issues with the Gore-Tex Glove, the Storm Trooper shines. It’s a top pick for warmth and durability- and it’s also only slightly more expensive than the Gore-Tex Glove.

Warmth is a big consideration for any piece of winter gear. Mittens, by default, have a leg up on gloves with similar fill density- and the warmest mitten I’ve tested is the Hestra Army Leather Extreme. Riders at all concerned with cold fingers in resort conditions should consider this the gold star point of reference. The expedition-ready Black Diamond Guide Glove is a little warmer but is major overkill for most recreational skiers and boarders.

Kinco Work Gloves with a liberal application of weather treatment are an excellent option for boarders on a budget. They’re not the warmest gloves on the market, but they’re tough as nails and waterproof with a little upkeep. I have several seasons in my pair and expect many more.