What the manufacturers say:

Totally waterproof, breathable and windproof. Heavy-duty cycle gloves designed to provide warmth, flexibility and grip in extremely cold and wet conditions.

• Totally waterproof, breathable and windproof
• Heavy-duty outer shell with Primaloft® insulation for warmth in the coldest conditions
• Gel pressure point padding and soft, durable synthetic palm for great grip

Material composition:

• Outer Shell: 88% Nylon 11% Spandex
• Micro-pourous Membrane
• Inner: 100% Polyester

Sealskinz Extra Cold Winter Cycle Gloves - Stu Thomas

As I may have mentioned on this site somewhere before, when it comes to cycling, I'm a roadie. For many roadies the holy grail of kit is finding the right shorts. Not me. I know mine. Found them easily. I won't say which ones but if a certain expensive Swiss company ever need a reviewer the editor knows where I am.
No for me my holy grail is gloves that fit. Like all roadies I have puny wrists but I also have massive hands. Yeah yeah keep the smut to yourselves. I have difficulty finding summer gloves that fit, even from cycling specific companies, so when the Sealskinz Extra Cold winter gloves arrived I approached them with trepidation. I was delighted to find they actually “fitted like a glove”. The neoprene wrist and Velcro closure were wonderful. Very easy to enclose the wrist of a jacket and snug as a bug in a very snug rug.

"The neoprene wrist and Velcro closure were wonderful"

Sadly this initial joy was short-lived. First test ride on a cold damp day on my normal commuting road bike and it may apparent they weren't ideal. Like all heavy gloves they just don't work well with STI shifters, just too cumbersome which left me with difficult shifts and no feedback from the bars. They also seemed to really dislike gripping the hoods and I never felt comfortable in this position, which to be honest is the pretty stock position whilst riding. Another gripe was the integral gel pads. On gloves this padded they are pointless. They move around creating friction which creates hot spots which on all bar the shortest rides is a major pain in the hand.
Now we move on to my major negatives. On the thumb is a seam. This faces forward when riding on curly bars. This let in wind and worse water. To be fair the primaloft kept me warm but this shouldn't happen and this was on both gloves by the way. Next we had the age old issue of putting gloves on wet or with wet hands. The lining was an absolute nightmare. It twisted, stuck to skin etc. Putting on gloves with wet hands is a reality of cycle commuting, taking 5-10 mins to put on gloves is just not acceptable in this price range sorry.

The final issue was the build quality. The plastic backing on the Velcro on both gloves came away. Again not good enough at this price point.

Velcro backing came apart on both gloves

However I would like to finish on the positives. The gloves are warm, very warm. The wrists are the best I've ever seen on winter gloves. They actually look really nice and the snot wiping pads on the thumbs are softer that a very soft thing from the land of soft. All the problems on the road bike melt away when using flat bars. The thumbs are out of the elements, although the gel pads are still pointless.
They are a very good commuting glove. Just not for roadies..

After  talking with Sealskinz and comparing performance with other Sealskinz products we understand there may have been a fault with this pair that would make the review unrepresentative We will, therefore, be retesting with another pair of the same gloves (Ed.)