History Question: Anyone have insights into the history of tape gloves and/or hand jammies?

I'm looking for information on the history of tape gloves and reusable crack climbing gloves/hand jammies and would appreciate any help! Either from personal experience, or if anyone happens to know someone I might reach out to with insights.

Climbers who've been around for a while, do you remember when you started seeing crack climbing gloves emerge on the scene? How did you learn to make yours? Do you recall the first time you saw reusable crack climbing gloves, either in person or in magazine ads?

I've also seen mention of "Spider Mitts" (Dave Crawford's invention?) on this forum before that may have been the earliest version of reusable crack gloves, but haven't found much information on those beyond that.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

M H wrote: I'm looking for information on the history of tape gloves and reusable crack climbing gloves/hand jammies and would appreciate any help! Either from personal experience, or if anyone happens to know someone I might reach out to with insights.

Climbers who've been around for a while, do you remember when you started seeing crack climbing gloves emerge on the scene? How did you learn to make yours? Do you recall the first time you saw reusable crack climbing gloves, either in person or in magazine ads?

I've also seen mention of "Spider Mitts" (Dave Crawford's invention?) on this forum before that may have been the earliest version of reusable crack gloves, but haven't found much information on those beyond that.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

The very first reusable, commercially available crack mitt was the Spider Mitt.  It was invented by Dave Crawford, in Boulder, late ‘80s. 

Dave gave me a few pairs to review. I followed him up some hard cracks, and I led some hard cracks. He got Alan Lester to wear a pair on a redpoint of Mile-High Comic Crack, which is fingers to hands, and on which I had to hang.

I bought some more from Dave, long after he stopped marketing the mitts, after Hand Jammies were on the market. I still use Spider Mitts, and sometimes I use Hand Jammies and Ocuns. HJs had better coverage of the thumb’s basal joint, but were less durable. Ocuns are thinner and even less durable. The ORs are even less durable. 

Crack mitts were slow to catch on. A lot of self-flattering tradsters dissed climbers who use mitts.

Here are some factual facts (as opposed to “alternative facts”).
Fact:  Some people have tougher skin than others have. Using the best technique won’t always spare your skin.
Fact:  Scar tissue doesn’t adhere to rock as well as skin. And bloody skin is slippery. 
Fact:  Removing tape from the backs of hands and wrists rips the hair out (unless you shave before taping).
Fact:  Hands (and fingers) come in all shapes, sizes and strengths. The difficulty of climbing a particular crack depends on all of those parameters.
Fact:  I have donned my Spider Mitts mid-pitch, to continue fitting a section of crack (e.g., last pitch Cloud Tower). I have removed mitts mid-pitch. I have worn mitts over tape. I have worn tape. And I’ve worn no protection (even when cupping up the first pitch of Luxury Liner).
Fact:  Wearing mitts is no more aid than wearing the best shoes for a particular climb.
Fact:  Crack mitts don’t alter the rock. 
Fact:  Tape is environmentally noxious to manufacture, and tape gloves only last for a few days. 

Acopa manufactured the Hand Jammies between 98 and 02, IIRC.

Gloves for jamming and belaying were sold in the very early 1970's in the UK.

John Long climbed Paisano Overhang in oven mitts, if the folklore recalls it correctly. 1973-ish?

George Bracksieck wrote: Dave gave me a few pairs to review. I followed him up some hard cracks, and I led some hard cracks. He got Alan Lester to wear a pair on a redpoint of Mile-High Comic Crack, which is fingers to hands, and on which I had to hang.

I bought some more from Dave, long after he stopped marketing the mitts, after Hand Jammies were on the market. I still use some, and sometimes I use Hand Jammies and Ocuns. HJs had better coverage of the thumb’s basal joint, but were less durable. Ocuns are thinner and even less durable. The ORs are even less durable. 

Crack mitts were slow to catch on. A lot of self-flattering tradsters dissed climbers who use mitts.

Here are some factual facts (as opposed to “alternative facts”).
Fact:  Some people have tougher skin than others have. Using the best technique won’t always spare your skin.
Fact:  Scar tissue doesn’t adhere to rock as well as skin. And bloody skin is slippery.
Fact:  Removing tape from the backs of hands and wrists rips the hair out (unless you shave before taping).
Fact:  Hands (and fingers) come in all shapes, sizes and strengths. The difficulty of climbing a particular crack depends on all of those parameters.
Fact:  I have donned my Spider Mitts mid-pitch, to continue fitting a section of crack (e.g., last pitch Cloud Tower). I have removed mitts mid-pitch. I have worn mitts over tape. I have worn tape. And I’ve worn no protection (even when cupping up the first pitch of Luxury Liner).
Fact:  Wearing mitts is no more aid than wearing the best shoes for a particular climb.
Fact:  Crack mitts don’t alter the rock. 
Fact:  Tape is environmentally noxious to manufacture, and tape gloves only last for a few days. 

Thank you so much George, this is incredibly helpful information! Getting firsthand information about how those versions perform is awesome. I really appreciate it; I'll send you a brief DM with some other questions/more details if you don't mind. :)

Pnelson wrote: John Long climbed Paisano Overhang in oven mitts, if the folklore recalls it correctly. 1973-ish?

In 1974, Long wore leather gloves that a worker had left at his parents’ backyard. He cut off the fingers and wrist cuffs and asked Rick Accomazzo to help apply black electrical tape. Long claimed that the jams were hardly any better than with bare skin, “but at least the gloves protected against gobies.”

I am 60 years old, and recall us making our own tape "gloves" in our teens,  in the late 70's.

We would tape our hands for crack climbing, then at the end of the day would make a single cut down the wrap to cut the glove off.

Then we would re-tape the glove back on our hands on future climbs, cut off, and repeat until they were too nasty or too thick to re-use.