Review: HUUB Winter Swim Booties & Gloves

HUUB are becoming more and more renowned for their good quality kit, especially in the wetsuit and swim skins market.  Many of my athletes are asking about HUUB kit and as we are in the depths of winter gloves and socks (booties) are top of this list.  We have sold a fair few of each of these now to our regular winter swimmers, and the feedback we have been getting is fantastic.  Gloves and Socks (aka Booties by some) are great bits of kit to keep your winter swims a little more comfortable.  They are also a fantastic addition to your kit for early spring and late season, just so you can extend those distances and gain the advantage over other swimmers.Before HUUB,  my winter kit consisted of Blue seventy Socks and CSkins gloves,I mention this just for comparison.

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Socks Review – I was always happy with the blue seventy socks but this winter I found my feet getting incredibly cold as the water cooled.   I tried the HUUB socks not expecting to feel much of a difference but they out performed the blueseventy and my feet were pretty toasty considering the water was under 4 degrees.  The HUUB socks are a touch thicker than the blue seventy offering, but they are not cumbersome like non swim specific neoprene socks and booties.  The sock has a split toe design and this seems to give the sock a lot more stability (i.e. not feeling like it is going to fall off when swimming).  Because of this design I did  find it a little harder to put the sock on at first, but you soon get the method and it’s much easier to do sat down.  All in all the performance of this sock outstrips that of any other I have used in the past.  It is warm, comfortable and also light enough not to really notice whilst swimming. The HUUB product is very well constructed and better than the Blue seventy, especially around the seams.  The whole thing feels like a quality product that will last many seasons.   Now I can see why my customers have been giving such good feedback on them.
HUUB Socks are available to buy at http://southwestswim.co.uk/store-menu/huub-2/huub-neoprene-socksbooties/

Gloves  Review– In the past I have used CSkins gloves (3.5mm thick) these have been of good service but  I have always had a love / hate relationship with gloves.  As a coach they are a much needed item early and late season when coaching in the water but  I have always found gloves can become heavy when swimming and most seem to be made for general watersports rather than being swim specific.
The HUUB gloves are (again) a well crafted and quality looking product.  They did not feel quite as warm as my CSkins but being a bit thinner this was expected, and to be honest there was not a lot in it.  The major difference i found was the feeling in the water, there was very little water ingress into the glove, therefore it did not feel heavy in the slightest, a welcome change from every other pair of gloccves i have worn in the past.  The thinner material also makes handling goggles a little easier once both goggles and gloves are on.   As mentioned the choice of gloves for swimming has always seemed to be adaptations of general watersport gloves.  The HUUB gloves seem to be more focused on swimmers and swimming so are a lot easier for me to get on with for our sport.   The cuff is not as long as some other watersports based gloves but shifting the wetsuit sleeve down (if you’re wearing one) will easily resolve this.

A great glove with a focus on swimming, rather than general watersports.   That said I could imagine these gloves also being quite a good performer on a bike or a run, toasty hands!

In all another two great pieces of kit for swimmers from HUUB, available from South West Swim
South West Swim operate from lakes 12 & 32 of the Cotswolds, if you want to try these on for size or look at any other products please let us know and we can arrange, we are at lake 32 year round.