Universal Colours Deep Winter Gloves

Winter cycling gloves tend to err on the side of bulk, and sometimes this is out of necessity to keep your hands warm. Universal Colours’ Deep Winter Gloves promise to cut the winter chill without making you feel like you’re wearing a spacesuit and to a great extent they deliver on that.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room: the brand name and the gloves don’t quite fit together. They’re black. Black is the absence of colour. While Universal Colours’ other products come in a variety of pigments, these come in black and black only – although that is very much the standard for winter gloves.

Nomenclature pedantry aside, they really do look great. The branding is subtle and you could wear them off the bike in more casual settings without anyone batting an eyelid. On the business side of the gloves, the grips are similarly subtle, but provide just enough to ensure a tactile connection with your handlebars. There’s a little padding to keep your ulnar nerve happy, and I can say that mine was perfectly content after an eight-hour ride.

If there’s a downside to this minimalist design, it’s visibility. The small logos seem to have a little retro-reflective material applied, but it’s not really enough to get your hands noticed as you indicate to turn. Winter cycling, especially commuting, takes in dark mornings and evenings, so it would be nice to have a more eye-grabbing design. But we get it, they wouldn’t look quite as cool.

I would take issue with Universal Colours’ Deep Winter moniker. They definitely sit towards the shallower end, but I guess Waist-Level Winter wouldn’t quite have the same ring to it. 

Between 5 and 10°C, they can take a little bit of time to warm up, but once you get into that second kilometre your digits become toasty, and stay that way. But once the mercury goes below 5°C there is some definite bite around the fingertips, which becomes especially noticeable by the sixth hour of a long-distance ride.

Cold isn’t the only inclement weather cyclists have to deal with in winter. Universal Colours boasts that the gloves’ eVent membrane and a Sympatex glove bag makes them waterproof. In practice, they shrugged off rain and stayed completely dry inside, without any clamminess, which is exactly what you want. There’s no nose/glasses wipe material here, although personally I’ve always found these kind of disgusting anyway.

A nice touch, literally, is the way the entire palm, rather than just a tiny smidgen of the fingertip, is compatible with touchscreens. In fact, it’s good enough to be writing this paragraph while I’ve got the gloves on. Not having to take your gloves off and expose your hands to cold weather when you message fellow riders or fiddle with your Garmin is a boon.

What’s really astonishing is that Universal Colours has managed to pack so many features into gloves that are so light and dextrous. For context, my go-to Pearl Izumi winter gloves make use of the same Primaloft insulation and offer a similar level of protection, but they weigh twice as much and add thick padding. Universal Colours’ Deep Winter gloves provide a lot more flexibility, making it easy to shift gears, and they can pack into a jersey pocket if needed.

In terms of sizing I’m technically a large according to Universal Colours’ size guide, and they did feel tight but not restrictively so. I’d definitely consider sizing up if I was buying them, if only for the option to add liners for a little more warmth when temperatures trend towards freezing.

Value

There are definitely better options if you want a true deep winter glove. Rapha’s Gore-Tex Insulated Gloves (£110) will happily cope with temperatures down to –4°C, although they are difficult to get on and off. (Word has it that reviewer George Hill is still wearing them to this day.)

> Keep your digits toasty on the bike: the best winter cycling gloves for riding through the colder months

Decathlon’s Van Rysel 900 Winter Cycling Gloves also provide superior cold weather performance for even less money (£30), but they’re frankly not as sexy as the Universal Colours gloves. 

A closer performance comparison would be Gorewear’s C5 Gore-Tex Thermo Gloves (£65), which provide a similar level of midwinter performance. 

Conclusion

At £85 (although currently £65 online) Universal Colours Deep Winter Gloves are definitely at the high end of glove pricing. They certainly look like expensive gloves, but their minimalist design, lightness and packability has also come at the cost of decent insulation for really cold days.

Verdict

Premium gloves with a premium price tag, but they’ve got all the right tech in all the right places

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