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My Video Review

Price ~$49.99 usd

Rating Overview:

• Dexterity - Fail
• Durability - Not fully tested (see below)
• “Thenar Webspace” test - Fail
• Comfort - Fail
• Ergonomics - Fail

Good

• Touch-screen material on thumbs works... kind of

Bad

• Poor dexterity
• Sizing issues
• Does not pass the “Thenar Webspace” test
• Poor palm ergonomics
• Problematic side seam on index fingers between Proximal InterPhalangeal (PIP) and MetaCarpoPhalangeal (MCP) joints.
• Weak pull tab
• Product tag is HUGE and obstructive
• Poor breathability

One small note before we dive into the deep analysis of these gloves... I wore these for maybe, at most, a couple of days of outdoor hard-use, but given issues with a design flaw regarding the side seam (which I will go into detail in the negatives section) I didn't dare take them to the range for live-fire training.

Positives

So, the only real positive, and its a stretch, is that the touchscreen material on the thumbs works... like 75% of the time. I did run into some failures to recognize the actual touching on the screen, but, for the most part, it worked.

Negatives

First and foremost, the general sizing seems incorrect, even when compared to other Vertx gloves. I took measurements based on the official Vertx websites instructions and it gave me the size of XL (which is the normal size I wear in tactical/next-to-skin gloves). As I have mentioned before, I have larger hands with longer and slightly more slender fingers then the average male my size, but I still think that the sizing that Vertx uses may just not work for the Assult 2.0 gloves.

Despite the Opisthenar (back of hand) material being cloth, the gloves are really not breathable in hot or humid whether.

The pull tabs on the gloves are dinky and, in general, useless. I found myself just ignoring them all together and using the cuff of the glove to pull it on and off.

There are a number of issues that the sizing causes, but the biggest, and the most critical reason to avoid these gloves, has to do with a design flaw regarding the way the seams are done on the gloves. Specifically, on the index fingers, the seam that connects the palm material to the Opisthenar (back of hand) material. The seam is unusually large and thick, to the point that it actually pushes into the skin of your hand. This is at its worst between the Proximal InterPhalangeal (PIP) and MetaCarpoPhalangeal (MCP) joints. When I tested these gloves, it was in the summer during pretty hot and humid whether. This, paired with the aforementioned lack of breathablility, caused rapid (minor) swelling in my hands, which caused additional pressing against the seam. The ultimate result of this was that in less than 10 minutes my index fingers, thumbs and all the way up to my forearms, went completely numb and began to pretty severely hurt.

These gloves also failed the “Thenar Webspace” test... They were not the worst I have tested, but they were still pretty bad. For those that do not know, the “Thenar Webspace” is the fleshy webbing between the thumb and index finger. This area is essential for proper combat shooting and in general, acquiring and maintaining a tight grip on anything.

The combination of the weirdly designed stitching, the material choices and placement and the overall lack of dexterity provided by these gloves creates a decent sized space between the Thenar Webspace of your actual hand and the Thenar Webspace of the glove itself. This does affect grip and trigger control, even if you are able to get past the numbness and pain that the seam design causes.

There are a number of other smaller issues with these gloves that I am not going to go into depth on since its my opinion that these gloves should be avoided at all costs, but I will briefly mention them here for the sake of being complete in my analysis.

The overall dexterity of these is just trash. I regularly found myself struggling to make a complete fist, even before the numbness and pain set in. Overall comfort... well, just assume there will not be any comfort with these gloves. Tightness in all the wrong places, looseness, also in all the wrong places. The palm has pretty much no functional grip... The tag... well, its just absurd (watch my video review to see just how absurd it is), which also causes comfort issues.

One last note on durability... As I mention in the intro note, I did not put these through a significant test like I normally do, due to the severe design flaw described above. To that end, even for the small amount of time I did wear them for, I had to wash them since the seam actually, at one point, caused an open wound in my skin and I wanted to wash any blood off them. Immediately after washing, the materials on the palms started to slightly erode. I cannot imagine these lasting in any sort of operations where you are in, even light rain for any extended period of time, given the result of the rather gentle hand washing that they received. Maybe I'm wrong given that I did not fully test this aspect, but I really don't think I am.

Final thoughts on the Vertx Assault 2.0 Gloves

All of the aforementioned issues combine, creates a pair of gloves that are absolutely not conducive to ANY of their intended use cases.

The 5 imperatives of combat shooting are; Stance, Grip, Sight Alignment, Sight Picture, Trigger Control. The poor design of these gloves directly negatively impact your ability to operate a firearm, let alone be effective in your shooting.

I am not 100% sure what Vertx was trying to do with these gloves. They are not marketed at any one end-user and as a generalist glove, they really fail. Action gear should always be utilitarian first, and these gloves are not even remotely so. They fail in pretty much all of the basic requisite areas and as such, they are a hard pass, especially when for just a few bucks more, you can get Vertx's vastly superior Course of Fire Gloves.