Warm hands. What can be better? Especially for a day on the slopes. Or out hiking or snowshoeing. Or even just around town doing the things we still do despite freezing temperatures.

So you need to find some gloves. But does the row after row, bin after bin of gloves, mittens, and liners make your head spin? Not to worry.

Avie’s Ski / Sports certainly has a head-spinning array of gloves and mittens, but selection is simplified. There are super insulated gloves and mittens for those days on the slopes. Moderately insulated for hiking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing. Lightly insulated for around town.

The North Face and Kombi are familiar to Avie’s shoppers, and offer a diversity of ways to warm your hands. New this year is Auclair.

Auclair hails from the north in a land where winter cold means really, really cold—Canada. Gloves and mittens manufactured by Auclair all use premium insulation materials, have durable outer layers—many using leather—and just plain look good. Check out the Auclair line of gloves and mittens, you will be sure to find something that you—or that someone you are gift hunting for—will simply love.

Mitten or Glove?

Got kids? Go mittens. Easier to get on and off, and warmer overall. Avie’s Ski / Sports has a wide palette of kid-friendly colors in mittens. Kombi provides a great selection at really great prices. Get 2-pair. And get bright colored—easier to find when they get tossed or dropped. That 2nd pair is for when you hear “I don’t know where I put them.” Not that kids do that…

Got teens? Skip the mittens and go to gloves. Teens look at mittens like they are for kids! That’s because you had them wear them as kids! You may have a practical-minded teen who knows mittens are warmer, and craves warm hands, and if that’s the case no worries. Otherwise think style.

Teen guys might like the workman-like looks of the Auclair “Mountain Ops” gloves. They resemble (and might be) the gloves that the lift attendants, ski patrol, and other mountain ops folks at the ski resort wear. Or maybe race inspired gloves. That’s a look few teens can resist.

Those young ladies are looking for fashion. And you will find that at Avie’s Ski / Sports for sure. Leather is classy. Bright colors and color ways are showy. And fashionable. But don’t rule out mittens. Teen girls tend to be more level-headed than your average teen male, and know that mittens are warmer. And by the way, you can find good styling mittens. That way you can feed their enhanced sensibility at the same time as their sense of style.

Got adults? Lots to choose from at Avie’s Ski / Sports. Auclair has a great selection of adult gloves and mittens covering the gamut of fashionable to working-man. The North Face provides the same. But mittens or gloves?

Glove or Mitten?

Personally, I am not a fan of mittens. I don’t like the feel of my fingers hanging around together in that big open space. It just doesn’t feel right for some reason. Their extra bulk and loss of dexterity are other downsides, for me. But I also know that mittens are much warmer than gloves, mainly because my fingers are hanging around together in that big open space. Maybe it’s some latent dislike from having to wear mittens as a kid. Would therapy help?

I found a solution—without therapy. The North Face “Montana” mittens. They have finger sleeves inside so I feel like I have my hand in a glove. And they are much, much warmer. I still don’t like the loss of dexterity and the extra bulk, so I only wear them on days when it’s really, really cold on the slopes. Those days when temperatures are single digit, for instance. Auclair has mittens with finger sleeves as well, so be sure to check them out.

Personally, I like gloves best, and I like leather gloves best of all. I like the suppleness they provide, and the great grip leather provides. I like the durability also. One thing I always do with new leather gloves is warm them in the oven, then treat them with “Sno-Seal,” and let them stay in the warm oven a while. The Sno-Seal penetrates the leather, making them extremely supple, and waterproof. Retreating them at the start of every season keeps them that way. Check out some of the Auclair leather gloves. And guess what? Many have a packet of Sno-Seal included so you can waterproof and soften those new gloves.

Regardless your preference—mittens or gloves—or who they might be for, Avie’s Ski / Sports has a large diversity of hand-warming apparel in stock. They make incredible gifts, and yes, they fit nicely into that holiday stocking.

Auclair, The North Face, Kombi. If you can’t find a glove or mitten you like at Avie’s Ski / Sports, or that will be liked by that someone you are gift-hunting for, then it simply does not exist.