It was an impulse buy at the Particle Accelerator bike flea market. I can always use gloves—they seem to wear out all the time. The ones labeled “Grippp” looked interesting and felt good when I first put them on. I don’t remember how much I paid. They would have been worth it even at full price

The leather on the inside is so soft and supple—more so than any of the countless other mountain bike gloves I’ve ever worn. On the trail, these gloves offer truly unmatched grip. Your hand practically sticks to the handlebar grip. That might also be because the manufacturer originally produced golf gloves before applying its expertise to cycling.

The Hirzl brand was completely unknown to me until then. And I’ve hardly come across it since this purchase. It originated in Switzerland; the company’s communications department couldn’t tell me whether the hill named Hirzel on the border between the cantons of Zurich and Zug has anything to do with it. The company is headquartered in St. Gallen. However, the gloves are marketed from Isny in the Allgäu region.

Specially tanned kangaroo leather

The secret behind the soft and grippy leather lies even further away. It comes from the kangaroo. The leather gets its properties thanks to a secret, multi-step process, explains Jan from the distributor ESBT. This gives the Grippp “up to three times more grip in dry conditions and up to five times more grip in the rain than comparable gloves.”

Kangaroos remain very common in Australia and, with the exception of a few subspecies, are not endangered—partly because the government strictly ensures that this remains the case. Like wildlife populations in Alpine countries, the kangaroo population in Australia is kept stable through hunting. When there are particularly large numbers of animals in a region, the Australian government even pays bounties for their culling, as is currently the case in South Australia. One thing is clear: even if their meat and skin were no longer used industrially, kangaroos would still be killed because their numbers would otherwise grow so large that they would threaten other animal and plant species.

For those who reject animal products in general, kangaroo leather gloves are, of course, still out of the question.

It’s amazing that even after years, these gloves are still more supple than others are right after purchase. Plus, they’re so well-made that they’re still completely intact even after countless hours of use. Only the colors aren’t quite what they used to be. Nevertheless, I’ll be buying another pair soon, if only to have a spare in case my first Grippps aren’t available.