The crochet back exists to ventilate the hand. Leather does not breathe quickly enough on its own during a long drive, and a sweating palm loses grip on the wheel — which is the one thing a driving glove exists to prevent. Replacing the back of the glove with open cotton crochet lets heat escape while the leather palm keeps doing its job.
That is the whole answer. But the design has a few other features that people ask about, and each of them solves a specific problem rather than being decoration.
Why does the palm stay leather?
Because the palm is the part that does the work. Grip, feel and wear all happen where your hand meets the wheel, and nothing outperforms leather there. The back of the hand, by contrast, does nothing except get hot.
So the crochet driving glove is a straightforward piece of engineering: put the durable, grippy material where the friction is, and put nothing at all where the heat is. It looks like a style decision and it isn't.
What are the holes over the knuckles for?
Two reasons, both practical.
The first is flex. Your knuckles are where a glove bends most, and leather resists bending. Perforating the leather at exactly those points lets the glove close around a wheel without fighting you.
The second is, again, heat. The back of the hand runs warm, and perforations vent it. On a long summer drive the difference between a perforated glove and a solid one is genuinely noticeable.
Why are some driving gloves fingerless?
For feel and for temperature. A fingerless glove gives you bare fingertips on the wheel and on the switchgear — useful if you want maximum sensitivity, or if you are getting in and out of the car constantly and want to use a phone without taking anything off.
It is a warm-weather design. In winter it makes no sense at all. In August, in a car with the roof down, it is the most comfortable thing you can wear. See our fingerless gloves.
Why the short cuff and the snap at the wrist?
The short cuff keeps the glove clear of your shirt cuff and your watch. A long gauntlet gets in the way of both, and driving is one of the few activities where you check a wrist watch constantly.
The snap or button holds the glove closed at the wrist so it does not shift while you steer. A driving glove that slides even slightly on the hand loses the precision that justifies wearing it.
Where did the design come from?
From open cars. Early motoring meant no roof, no heater, and a large thin steering wheel that was cold in winter, hot in summer, and hard on the hands in every season. Gloves were not an accessory; they were part of being able to drive at all.
The crochet-backed glove is what that period settled on — ventilated where the hand overheats, leather where it grips, cut close so nothing moves. The design survived because it works, and it is now inseparable from the look of classic and open-top motoring. We call our open-top model the cabrio crochet for that reason.
Is a crochet back still useful in a modern car?
Yes, though the case is narrower than it was. A modern saloon with climate control removes most of the original problem.
Where it still earns its place:
- Convertibles and open-top cars — the original use case, unchanged.
- Classic cars — thin wooden or metal wheels, no power steering, and often no air conditioning.
- Long summer drives — the point at which any solid glove starts to feel damp.
- Sports driving — anywhere your hands are working hard and you want consistent grip.
For winter driving you want the opposite: a full leather glove with a cashmere lining, slim enough to keep feel at the wheel. Our winter gloves cover that.
Does a crochet back wear out faster?
The cotton is the softer component, so it is the part that will show age first — but it is also not the part under stress. Wear on a driving glove happens at the palm and between the fingers, and those are leather.
Cared for reasonably — dried at room temperature away from radiators, never machine washed, stored flat rather than crushed in a door pocket — a crochet-backed pair lasts a long time.
What we make
We hand-cut and hand-finish crochet driving gloves in deerskin, lambskin, peccary and carpincho, in full-finger and fingerless cuts. Our deerskin comes from Finland, our lambskin and nappa from Italy, our peccary from Peru. You can see the wider range in driving gloves.
Our family has made gloves since 1925, and the workshop in Târgu Mureș, Transylvania — once a centre of Romanian glove production — now employs over thirty people. If you want a combination we don't stock, there are no fixed limits on size, colour, leather, lining or stitching; see our bespoke service.
Not sure which leather suits you? Read our comparison of glove leathers, or check your size on the sizing chart. Questions are welcome at info@nmgloves.com.