Assos Rain Gloves P1 Review: Wetsuit technology for your hands

The Assos Rain Gloves P1 are designed to be an autumn and spring piece of kit, coming in at 2/3 for Assos’ Clima Code weather conditions system, with 1 being summer, 3 being winter, and 2 being anywhere in between. So not a deep winter offering but one that positions them alongside many of the best winter cycling gloves that are designed cool, wet conditions rather than freezing temperatures.

The gloves are primarily made up of Assos’ 3-layer NeoWet material. This is incredibly similar to the material that wet suits are made out of, and aims to fulfill the same promises, too. Acknowledging that water will ingress into the gloves eventually, instead this material is designed to use that water to help maintain temperature; whereas normally wind chill becomes a factor, these gloves aim to prevent that and use your body temperature to warm any water that gets in the gloves, maintaining an appropriate temperature.

The Assos Rain Gloves P1 are in essence quite a simple product idea: a wetsuit for your hands. As mentioned, the aim here is not to prevent water ingress, but to instead embrace it and make the best use of it possible, just as a traditional wetsuit does.

A problem with a lot of waterproof kit items is that breathability tends to be sacrificed in the pursuit of weather proofing. This means sweat builds up over longer periods of time resulting in uncomfortable temperatures. To combat this, the Assos gloves make use of the brand’s own wetsuit like material, NeoWet. This allows water to enter the gloves over time, through the three layered construction. However, the gloves remain windproof, which means that even as your hands get wet, windchill is not present and able to cool them down.

Many Assos ‘A’ logos make up the grippy textured palms with zero seams on there

(Image credit: Future – Andy Turner)

Instead what happens is the same as with a diving wet suit; the gloves allow your body temperature to warm the water so creating an environment that ideally is around the same heat as your body. I did find find that these were better suited to temperatures closer to 10˚C, whereas Assos states these are a more autumn/spring piece of kit. I’ve found they’re actually pretty good in more wintery weather such is the insulation capacity of them.

This system of allowing water in does result in quite saturated hands though. You can squeeze your hands into a fist to expel a good amount of water, but once you remove the gloves be prepared for your hand to look like a prune. The gloves also have no touch-screen capacity with the construction being uniform across the gloves and no conductive materials used. I also found after putting these in the wash they take an absolute age to dry out properly, you will need to inverse them to speed this up.

I liked the grippy prints on the palms of the hands. They adhere very well to bar tape and keep your grip secure even in wet conditions. The gloves are also nicely tactile which makes retrieving items from your pockets easy, as well as operating zips. I also appreciate how far up the wrists they extend, meaning they can fit under a waterproof jacket easily, or over a long sleeved jersey.

Multi-layered NeoWet material acts like neoprene in a wetsuit

(Image credit: Future – Andy Turner)

Compared to the previous iteration of these gloves, the Assos Rain Glove P1 has actually dropped slightly in price to now £75 / $95. This makes them slightly more premium than other neoprene-like offerings from Sportful (£45), Kalas (£69) and Spatz (£54.99).

Among these direct competitors, there are some flaws compared to the Assos gloves worth mentioning; Sportful clearly offers the lowest price, but the use of seams across the palm can become uncomfortable over longer periods of time, something Assos specifically avoided. Spatz meanwhile feature no seams on the palms, but do come out a bit bulkier with less dexterity. Kalas have the most similar offering, and do undercut Assos slightly.

Then we have other rain glove options, with the likes of knitted rain resistant gloves such as the Q36.5 Rain Gloves. I really like these, but in cooler temperatures they can get colder, but do have useful features like touch screen usability and come in at £60.

Realistically, the Assos Rain Gloves P1 don’t represent the best value. There are similar performers for less cost, or significantly cheaper options that although perhaps not as good represent better value.

The cuffs extend well up the wrist

(Image credit: Future – Andy Turner)

The Assos Rain Gloves P1 are an impressive pair of neoprene-like rain gloves. Rather than aiming to keep water out, they accept the ingress and use it to maintain a comfortable hand temperature. However, they hold a premium price over similar competitors, perhaps not representing the best value. But in the NeoWet material Assos does have a neoprene like material that offers better dexterity than competitors, making operating zips and accessing pockets easier, something very useful on longer winter rides. For colder conditions and wet rides, these are impressive performers.