Top 3 Most Wanted and Most Owned Crack Gloves

Below we dive into why these are the most wanted and owned crack gloves from WeighMyRack users.

Wide Boyz Crack Gloves – #1 Most Wanted

We’ve been writing a lot lately about crack gloves. The main reason is that we’ve been traveling around the US for the past couple of years demoing and trying nearly every crack glove on the planet– that is, except for the WideBoyz. During the recent explosion of new crack glove models over the past few years, these crack gloves designed and built by some of the strongest crack climbers on the planet have been tough to come by and this has created quite a buzz.

Though they were technically launched in early 2021, there have been a few snags in getting the Wide Boyz gloves off the ground and out the door. The initial production run was plagued with build issues such as the wrist closure and thumb loop breaking, which the Wide Boyz were very keen to get fixed and replaced. According to Pete, they were focused on finding better facilities for producing subsequent runs when the height of the supply chain madness hit and it became impossible to produce anything new at scale. This of course only increased demand.

Outside of supply issues, the Wide Boyz gloves have a few key features that make them top this list, namely their thickness and thumb coverage. Though we have only JUST gotten our mitts on a couple pairs in Moab a few weeks ago (thanks for the hand delivered package, Tom!) we can say definitively that no glove out there has this much padding and coverage over so much of the glove. For those looking to build fat stacks, jam fists, or simply to add a ton of volume to their hand, these babies definitely seem to have a place on ‘the list’.

Time will tell how they hold up and compare across other aspects of performance, but given the pedigree of the folks who make them, we’re sure they’ll continue to be sought after. Our initial testing makes it seem that these padded bad boys would be one of the two pairs you might own (along with a thinner set like from BD, Red Chili, or Ocún, or just tape in general) versus an all-arounder glove.

Where to buy Wide Boyz Crack Gloves

As of this writing, they appear to be well in stock on the Wide Boyz website though only for the UK. Hopefully this means there are some on the way to their US distributor soon and more folks will be able to get their hands in them next season.

Ocún Crack Glove Lite – #3 Most Wanted

Rounding out the #3 slot in most wanted gloves among WeighMyRack users is the Crack Glove Lite from Ocún. (Pronounced like: Oat-Soon, btw.)

The Crack Glove Lite is actually the 3rd iteration of this particular glove in a long-running pedigree at Ocún. Though many in North America may not be familiar, folks have been climbing cracks in the Czech Republic for a long time, and Ocún has been there developing tools for crack climbing their delicate sandstone. In fact, the previous version from Ocún happens to sit tied at #2 on our most owned list.

As crack mania has swept over the globe, Ocún have definitely adapted the Lite version of these gloves to accommodate the way the rest of the world climbs– namely larger fingers, slightly more wrist coverage, wider thumb holes, and softer, stickier rubber. These changes have taken an already well-liked glove and made a stickier, less bulky, all-around glove for jamming splitters and stacks alike.

Chances are if you already have owned a pair of Ocún Crack Gloves, you have added this update to your Want It List, which we think is the best explanation for why we see it on this list.

Buying Options for the Ocún Crack Gloves Lite

Black Diamond Crack Glove – #1 Most Owned

Though it sits at #2 on the Most Wanted list, the Black Diamond Crack Glove is ALSO the #1 Most Owned crack glove among WeighMyRack users.

One point we hadn’t mentioned in our passage about Black Diamond being the Most Wanted is that BD as a brand, and this glove model, is one of the most ubiquitous and available out there. Because BD’s gear can be found in a lot more places than other brands, we should expect to see more people out there using them, thus, their spot as #1 on the Most Owned list.

This availability expands on itself: When people see others using something they like, or are able to try on a friends pair and enjoy the experience, they tend to want to buy it. So if there are a lot of Black Diamond Gloves out there being used, there are also probably a lot of people curious about them enough to add them to a Want It list.

In addition to being widely available, one big aspect that sets BD apart is that they’re the only readily available glove with thumb coverage (Wide Boyz being hard to access). They also have the most wrist coverage of any brand.

Outdoor Research Splitter – Tied at #2 Most Owned Crack Glove

As we mentioned a bit with Ocún above, sometimes being around the longest has a lot of sway as to why people choose to own a particular piece of gear. The Splitter Crack Glove from Outdoor research sits at #2 on the most owned list at least partially for this reason.

For many years if there was any crack glove you could expect to see on a shelf or a rack at your local retailer, REI, or even online site, it was the Splitter. And though they have had their share of detractors about durability due to their very thin materials, these gloves have been around and have a lot of fans – read our full review to learn more.

Crack beginners often run through a pair of these fairly quickly because they don’t hold up to a ton of pulling on the glove itself (much like how a new climber needs some time to learn to use their feet and not drag holes in the toes of their shoes) so be warned that good technique has proven in our testing to increase their longevity significantly.

On a practiced hand who simply needs some skin coverage and perhaps just a hint of padding, they offer an above average amount of coverage and when sized down a bit can be surprisingly technical in thin jams, making them an ideal addition to any crack aficionado’s quiver of gloves.

Buying Options for the Outdoor Research Splitter Crack Glove

These gloves are still available but are technically retired. Outdoor Research has put out an updated model in the past year called the Splitter II which supposedly addresses some of these issues, but we haven’t had a chance to test them out quite yet.

Ocún Crack Glove – Tied for #2 Most Owned

We mentioned above that the Most Wanted Lite version is a newer and more finger-friendly version of the Crack Glove from Ocún, but because its been around longer and has it’s own specific strengths, it stands above the Lite as #3 most owned crack glove overall.

One thing we’ve found in our testing is the Ocún Crack Gloves are great at building big, solid hand stacks. They perform quite well in offwidths and when worn slightly oversized, they handle a good amount of undertaping to supplement additional thumb and wrist coverage. (Our full review goes into all this deeper.)

Their balance of stiffness and flexibility makes them one of our particular favorites if you are looking for a single ‘one glove to rule them all’ scenario, though they can often be a bit too chunky for thinner jams.

We should also mention that because their thumb and finger holes are smaller and closer together, they have been known to tear out a bit, especially if they are being wrenched on in stacks. Some extra care and even a bit of overtaping has become commonplace for those really putting them through it.

Bottom Line

There have suddenly been a lot of gloves to choose from in the past few years, which we think is great for climbers. Because they are all around the same price, the options that most people tend to go for are the gloves that are the easiest to find from brands they see the most in the wild. For those who have already tried a particular glove, we find the most wanted gloves are the ones that either iterate on something they’ve already used like the Ocún Lite, or that are pointed at more specific uses with more wrist and thumb coverage which are found in both the Wide Boyz and Black Diamond models.