How to measure your hand for gloves

Your glove size comes from one main number: the circumference of your hand around the knuckles, thumb left out. On the Ruban Size glove template, a hand of 19 to 20 cm is an M and 21 to 22 cm is an L.

A second number, hand length, tells you whether the fingers will reach the ends. Measure both: the template gives both, and the circumference counts most.

How to measure your hand

1. Pick your dominant hand, the one you write with. If you measure both hands, keep the larger numbers.
2. Open the hand flat, fingers together, thumb out to the side.
3. Circumference. Wrap a soft tape around your hand at the knuckles, across the widest part of the palm, leaving the thumb out. The tape lies flat on the skin, not pulled.
4. Read it where the tape meets its start. In inches? Multiply by 2.54 for centimeters.
5. Length. Lay the hand flat on a table, palm up, and measure from the crease where the wrist meets the palm to the tip of the middle finger.
6. Write both down, with the unit.

No tape measure: wrap a strip of paper around the knuckles, mark where it overlaps, and measure the strip flat against a ruler.

Glove sizes from hand circumference

The Ruban Size glove template runs from XS to XL:

The inches are the centimeters divided by 2.54, rounded to the eighth, the way Ruban Size shows small values. The hand lengths follow the sizes of EN ISO 21420, the European standard for gloves, at the middle of each circumference range. The template's values are typical ones; the brand's own chart is the one to follow.

Look at the gaps: 20 to 21 cm belongs to neither M nor L. A 20.5 cm hand is between two sizes, and that's where hand length, or how you like gloves to feel, decides.

Hand length

Two hands with the same circumference can have very different fingers. A glove that closes well around the knuckles can still leave the fingertips empty, or press them against the seams.

That's why some charts add a hand length row. When a chart has one, find your size by circumference first, then check that your length falls in the same size. If it points one size up, your fingers are long for your width, and the larger size is the one to try. If the chart has no length, a hand at the top of a range is the one to try on with care.

Common mistakes

• Including the thumb. The tape goes around the palm at the knuckles; the thumb stays out.
• Making a fist. A closed or cupped hand changes the reading. Keep it open and flat.
• Measuring at the wrist. That's the bracelet measurement, not the glove one. See how to measure your wrist for a bracelet.
• Pulling the tape tight. Gloves sized on a squeezed hand feel tight across the knuckles.
• Rounding with 2.5. 20 cm divided by 2.5 is 8 in; divided by 2.54 it's 7⅞. On a chart where sizes are 2 cm apart, that slip can move you across a boundary.
• Measuring only one hand when they differ. Measure both and size on the larger one.

What it means for a Shopify store

Gloves need little: the sizes, the hand circumference in centimeters with a switch to inches, and how to measure right next to the table. If your gloves run long or short in the fingers, add a hand length row. It turns a "between two sizes" into an answer.

A store with winter gloves, cycling gloves and work gloves can give each line its own chart, shown on the right products by type, tag or collection with product rules. The glove template is the starting point: Hand and Hand length, XS to XL, and the measuring steps "around your hand at the knuckles, excluding the thumb." and "from the tip of your middle finger to the crease of your wrist."

How Ruban Size handles gloves

On a glove chart, Find my size asks for Hand, and for Hand length when the table has a line with that header, as the template does. Name the row "Hand length" and it's read as such, with no setting to change. The circumference counts most; the length counts half as much and moves the answer near a boundary.

"Fit I like: Snug, Regular, Loose" works on gloves too. Take a 20.5 cm hand, right between M (19 to 20) and L (21 to 22). With Regular, the answer is "You are between M and L. We suggest L." With Snug, it's M. A 19.6 cm hand gets an M with "Confidence: high", and the line "Hand 19.6 cm: M, middle of the range."

The guide shows inches as fractions, in eighths for values under 15 inches, so a 19 cm boundary reads 7½ in. Shoppers who type centimeters into inch fields are told: "These look like centimeters, and the fields are in inches." Gloves sit with rings, hats, helmets, belts and bracelets in fit by product type: each type asks for its own measurements, with no formula to write. For the arithmetic behind the inches, see centimeters to inches for size charts.

Questions

How do I know my glove size?

Measure around your hand at the knuckles, thumb left out, and find that number on the brand's chart. On the Ruban Size glove template, 19 to 20 cm is an M and 21 to 22 cm an L.

Which hand do I measure for gloves?

Your dominant hand, the one you write with. If you measure both and they differ, use the larger numbers.

How do you measure hand length for gloves?

Lay your hand flat, palm up, and measure from the crease where the wrist meets the palm to the tip of the middle finger.

What if I'm between two glove sizes?

Check the hand length if the chart gives it: long fingers point to the larger size. Without it, choose by feel: the smaller size for a close fit, the larger one for room.