The North Face Denali Etip Gloves Review

What do you prioritize when you’re on the hunt for the best winter gloves? Do you need it to keep you warm for hours in sub-zero temperatures or just in the time it takes to walk from home to the car to the office and back? Even the warmest mittens won’t do you much good if you keep taking them off to answer calls, navigate to your destination, or take photos, though, which is where The North Face Denali Etip Gloves come into play.

The “Etip” in the name refers to the fact that you ought to be able to leave them on while using your phone and other touchscreens, whether the tip screen in a New York City taxi or the shutter button on your phone’s camera app. We’ve been let down by promises of touchscreen functionality before, though, so we’re curious to see how these hold up. And would you survive Denali’s damp cold while wearing them? Unfortunately, we couldn’t book a trip to Alaska to find out. Instead, we tested them around Detroit, Michigan, and Columbus, Ohio, throughout December, so we think we have a good idea of how they hold up in freezing temperatures. So, let’s find out.

The Rundown

To be fair, The North Face only rates these gloves at their first warmth level of “warm” (the three-level rating is followed by “warmer” and “warmest”), so maybe the designers were planning to visit Denali in the spring. It can get damp there, though, so we’re happy to see a PFC-free DWR (durable water-repellent) coating on the recycled nylon material on the back of the hand. However, the same repellent isn’t on the recycled polyester fleece on the remaining portion of the glove, nor the recycled polyester tricot lining.

The back of the hand also features a prominent The North Face logo and a chunky YKK zipper with a long fabric pull (also featuring The North Face name) to keep the gloves in place without the need for elastic cuffs. The zippers work well, although you have to remember to undo them before trying just to yank the gloves off.

We’re testing TNF Black, but at the time of this review, you can also get them in Smokey Brown and White Dune. If you do, the back of the hand, the zipper, and the palm will remain black. The only material that changes colors is the fleece.

Let’s chat about the palms now, shall we? While the portion of the gloves’ undersides from the bottom of your thumb to your wrist is the same fleece as the remainder of the glove, the actual palm features nubby little grips, which also extend most of the way up the index and middle fingers. If you’ve ever tried to hold a slippery phone with fleece gloves, you’ll be glad for the extra help grasping it, but we do have to say that, at times, it was a little too much when trying to make turns while driving. That’s not to say that we want the steering wheel to slip out of our hands, but one of our testers occasionally drives a large truck with a wide turning radius and sometimes had an issue with the gloves sticking to the steering wheel while doing so. Smoother leather-like palms usually provide enough grip while still allowing you to slide over things when necessary; that “slide” is what’s missing here. It’s not a big deal, and we got used to it quickly, but it’s something to keep in mind before wearing them on a road trip.

However, what does work well is the Etip on the thumb and index finger of each glove. Even if your fingers don’t quite reach the tip, it somehow makes a connection, allowing you to open apps, text, and take photos. Texting can be a little more difficult if you have a smaller screen since you’re dealing with fatter fingers than usual, but it still works with a little patience.

This wouldn’t be a review of winter gloves if we didn’t talk about warmth, though. The Denali Etip Gloves certainly feel thick enough to take on the worst winter weather; however, like many fleece gloves, they aren’t quite as warm in practice as they feel. They feel super soft, which we love, and they can comfortably handle temperatures around the freezing mark. However, if you dip too far below that point or stay out in the elements a little too long, you may begin to feel the cold creep in.

Much of this will depend on your body, though; one of our testers has trouble staying warm and didn’t find the gloves toasty enough while walking her dog in 40-degree F (4 C) temperatures, while our other tester, who doesn’t have that issue, found them comfortable on a 10-minute walk to the theater in the 30s (-1 C). Hopefully, that gives you a good idea of their warmth factor, depending on if you lean more toward the “cold as soon as it dips below 50 (10 C)” or “can stay comfortable into the 20s (-6 C)” end of the spectrum.

Packability

Maybe it seems silly to discuss packability when it comes to gloves—how big could they be? But we’re all about packing efficiently here, so we will.

Between the fleece, the nylon, and the lining, these aren’t super-slim sleek gloves that lie perfectly flat, but they’re not as chunky as ski mittens, either. They’re a fairly happy medium, and we find they fit nicely into the pocket of a coat or travel daypack. They have no issue sliding into those slim mesh pockets on the lids or compression panels of rolling carry on luggage, either, if you’re flying from sunny Florida to visit family in Michigan and want to be prepared.

What’s also nice is that they each have one side of a snap on the interior cuff so you can connect them. That makes it easy to hang them over a hook and ensure you don’t lose one in the bottom of a big travel backpack. On the other hand, that might mean you lose both … but we digress! The snap doesn’t affect how they feel when they’re on your hands—i.e., it doesn’t press up against the inside of your wrist—and it’s a nice addition that you don’t have to use if you don’t want to.

Fit Notes

As to fit, The North Face has a size guide on its site that calls for you to measure the “max length” of your hand. We take that to mean from the wrist to the tip of your middle finger, and when doing so, the gloves run pretty close to size. Our tester with a men’s size medium hand (i.e., 7.7 in. max length) says that the gloves fit, well, like a glove. However, he also found that to be a little too tight for his preference, so if you like a little wiggle room, you may want to order a size up.

Even if the gloves are too big and the tips of your fingers don’t reach the ends of the gloves, we’re happy to say that the Etip on the thumb and index finger still function properly. So you won’t have to forgo functionality for a little extra breathing room. These aren’t the touchscreen gloves of old where your skin had to make firm contact with whatever conductive technology was there, which is great news for keeping warm. Indeed, the connectivity with these gloves is some of the best our testers have seen, so if that’s what’s important to you and you don’t mind a little extra bulk or have naturally freezing hands, they could be a good option. Even if you do tend to run cold, these are a great addition to your packout because, if you can fit them under bulkier mittens, you’ll still have something on your hands when you need to text your bestie to bring you hot chocolate.