- Find the best drum gloves!
- All price-points covered
- Learn about the gloves the pros use
Seeing top-level pros like Dave Grohl, Vinnie Paul, and Stewart Copeland using gloves might have you thinking about trying out a pair yourself. What are the best drum gloves to help you keep a grip on your sticks and protect your hands, though?
Today we’re rounding up the best drum gloves to save you the hassle of doing all the research yourself.
We’ll evaluate the gloves based on value, durability, comfort, and features.
What are the Best Drum Gloves?
The Ahead Drum Gloves are one of the best all-round pair of drumming gloves available on the market. They’re just over $25 but they’re tough, breathable and comfortable.
The best premium gloves are the Vic Firth Vic Gloves, which are just under $35. They’re well-ventilated and have extra grips on the thumb and forefinger.
The best budget option are the Meinl Drummer Gloves, which are around $25 and come in fingerless and full finger designs!
The lineup of drumming gloves we’re looking at is:
- Ahead Drum Gloves (Our Pick)
- Vic Firth Vic Gloves (Best Premium)
- Meinl Drummer Gloves (Great Fingerless Option)
- Zildjian Touchscreen Drummer’s Gloves (Touchscreen Compatible)
- Tama Drummer’s Glove (Most Sweat/Element Proof)
- Pro Mark Drum Gloves (Ultra Premium)
Ahead Drum Gloves
Ahead drum gloves are used by top drummers, such as Tommy Lee and Arejay Hale, and are built to last twice as long as other gloves. They feature shock-absorbing wrist supports and reinforced pads at the thumb and index finger for a rock-solid fulcrum.
The Ahead Drum Gloves are the best drummer’s gloves in terms of value for money, and they can be picked up for just over $25. These full finger gloves are made of spandex and thin soft leather.
Features
- Reinforced pads at thumb and index finger
- Flexible and ventilated
Review
The selling point of the Ahead Drum Gloves is the heavy-duty construction, which is designed to make them last twice as long as regular drumming gloves.
Ahead are mostly known for drum sticks but they’ve done an excellent job on these drum gloves too. They’re very affordable but they are indeed built to last and have consistent quality.
Ahead offers a limited 30-day warranty which has you covered if there’s any initial problems.
The Ahead gloves are flexible and ventilated to keep you cool while playing.
There’s also built-in wrist support with adjustable Velcro, as well as reinforced pads on the main contact points at the thumb and index finger.
There’s a range of sizes available, with Ahead offering S, M, L and XL. Overall there’s a lot to love here given the very competitive pricing of these high quality gloves!
Vic Firth Vic Gloves
You can expect better grip and control over your drumsticks when you wear Vic Firth Drummers' Gloves. They also protect your hands from scrapes when you're setting up your drum kit onstage.
The Vic Firth Vic Gloves are excellent full finger gloves that can be picked up for under $35. They’re made of premium cabretta leather with ventilated synthetic mesh palm and back.
Features
- Ventilated mesh palm and back
- Good range of size options
Review
The Vic Gloves from drumstick experts Vic Firth are one the best drum gloves at the premium end of the market. With the Tama and Pro Mark gloves coming in at over $40, the more affordable Vic Gloves could still be seen as a bargain.
They come in a range of sizes (S, M, L, XL) so all players are catered for.
In addition to the leather and synthetic build, there’s synthetic rubber grips on the thumb and forefinger, while the ventilated palm and back will help keep your hands cool.
The location of the grips are placed for matched grip players (the most common grip), not traditional grip. It’s worth noting that occasionally the rubber grip has been known fall off the thumb and forefinger though.
Meinl Drummer Gloves
Remember as a drummer your hands are important assets and it's paramount to look after them properly. Meinl Drummer's Gloves can protect your hands from splinters or blisters, provide proper support for your hand and also provide a supernatural grip on the sticks.
The leather Meinl Drummer Gloves are very affordable and are available in fingerless or full finger versions.
Features
- Fingerless and full finger versions available
- Keep your hands ventilated!
Review
Cymbal kings Meinl have put out a great quality, affordable option here.
Both the fingerless and full finger Drummer Gloves are available in M, L and XL – Sorry people with small hands! The Velcro strap allows you to adjust the fit to taste though.
Most companies don’t offer a fingerless drumming glove, so the Meinl Drummer Gloves are one of the only options available if you find full finger gloves too hot.
However, the fingerless version is a bit on the short side and may not cover one of the main contact points on your forefinger.
If that’s a problem you can pick up the full finger version or add some drumming tape to that area to cover it.
Note that these are on the cheaper side so it’s possible you may run into problems like stitching coming out or the dye coming off on your skin. That said, even top-level premium gloves have been known to fall apart in short order in some cases.
The Meinl Drummer Gloves are made of leather on the palm side and have breathable mesh covering on the top. There’s also additional padding on the stick contact points.
Zildjian Touchscreen Drummer’s Gloves
Touchscreen Compatible
Zildjian Touchscreen Drummers' Gloves
Get a better grip on your drumsticks with Zildjian's Touchscreen Drummers' Gloves! These touchscreen-compatible gloves offer Zildjian's classic hand protection and enhanced stick control with thumb and pointer fingers that work perfectly with phones and tablets.
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Get a better grip on your drumsticks with Zildjian's Touchscreen Drummers' Gloves! These touchscreen-compatible gloves offer Zildjian's classic hand protection and enhanced stick control with thumb and pointer fingers that work perfectly with phones and tablets.
The Zildjian Touchscreen Drummer’s Gloves are an affordable full fingered option at under $30. They are touchscreen compatible so you can use phones and tablets while wearing them.
Features
- Great for using devices during gigs
- Breathable
Review
The Zildjian Touchscreen Drummer’s Gloves are the best drum gloves for players who need to cue up tracks on a device during shows due to their touchscreen compatibility.
These affordable mitts are lightweight, and the palm is made of soft lambskin while the back is breathable fabric.
The size options are S, M, L and XL, and there’s a Velcro tab to adjust the fit.
Tama Drummer’s Glove
During a vigorous set you’re going to sweat, which can make your hands wet. So, TAMA designed this set of drummer’s gloves with hard-hitting, gigging drummers in mind.
The Tama Drummer’s Glove is the second most expensive option on the list at over $40. They’re specially designed for durability and to deal effectively with sweat and water.
Features
- Over $40
- Soft and durable synthetic leather
- Black and white versions
Review
Tama are well known for their high quality drum kits but they’ve also come up with an excellent pair of premium drummer’s gloves here.
The Tama Drummer’s Gloves are made of soft and durable synthetic leather along with stretch mesh on the top to provide ventilation.
They’re specifically designed to prevent slippage and to be sweat and element-proof.
There’s a black version with red trim and a white version.
The black gloves can be picked up in M, L and XL sizes, although strangely the white gloves are only available in M and L.
Pro Mark Drum Gloves
The ProMark drum gloves are made from thin-cut Cabretta leather featuring 8 specially-placed pads on the four fingers and three on the palm for vastly improved grip. Extra padding is used on the thumbprint area, fingertips, and knuckles to increase the glove lifespan by slowing down the wear-through process.
The Pro Mark Drum Gloves are for those that want to spare no expense – depending on the sizing choice, the price range for these gloves is between $45 and $65!
Features
- Costs between $45 to $65
- Eight pads for extra grip
- USA-made
Review
The Pro Mark Drum Gloves are made from thin-cut cabretta leather, which is also used for the Vic Gloves.
The selling point for these gloves are eight pads to aid grip. These are placed across four fingers and the palm.
There’s extra padding on the thumb, fingertips and knuckles to prolong the life of the gloves.
On the top of the gloves Pro Mark included a breathable mesh to keep you comfortable.
The gloves are also washable with a mild detergent so you can keep them fresh.
The size options are S, M, L and XL, although the price significantly increases as you move to the large sizes, with the biggest size being almost $20 more expensive than the smallest size.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Why does Dave Grohl wear gloves when drumming?
Dave Grohl sweats a lot and he turned to drum gloves to help keep a grip on his sticks.
Photos from his Nirvana days never show him wearing gloves, but he can sometimes be seen wearing them while playing for Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures.
There’s not much info out there about which gloves Grohl uses, but on the Foo Fighters Twitter he can be seen wearing Zildjian drum gloves.
The snap is from 2014, but apart from the red logo the gloves look very similar to the current Zildjian Touchscreen Drummer’s Gloves.
What kind of gloves does Stewart Copeland wear?
Stewart Copeland wears golf gloves when playing drums, specifically Nike Tech Extremes. Copeland has a very physical playing style and also sweats buckets. Early in career he used tape to deal with these issues but later moved over the Nikes.
The leather Nike Tech Extremes can be picked up for around $20, which is cheaper than most (or all) drumming gloves. So the Nikes are an option if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to drumming gloves.
Does drumming give you calluses?
Yes, drumming absolutely gives you calluses. The biggest callouses build on the points where the stick contacts your skin on the thumb and forefinger.
Once you build up calluses it gets easier to play for long periods without tearing your skin up. Also, after playing daily for years mine never really go away even if I take long breaks from playing.
Now that you’re all caught up on drum gloves, check out the seven best drumsticks for beginners here!