Saucony ViZiPro Utili-Mitt (Photo credit: crossn81)
I’ve been wearing the Saucony Ulti-Mitt for over 3 years now. I initially got a pair to review for Saucony and have been a little late in doing so!! I posted a picture on 11/11/10 3 days before my daughter was born!! I got the orange vizi-pro ulti-mitts to review.
Oddly, for the past three years I’ve been calling them the wrong name! I kept calling them the Utili-Mitt. They have many uses and I thought utility was a good descriptor, but ulti(mate) is also a fitting descriptor. Over the last 3 years I’ve worn them quite a bit in a variety of conditions, including below zero temps and windchill up into the 40’s.
The glove itself doesn’t feel much thicker than a nice liner glove, but the glove has kept me plenty warm. The wind shield/mitten adds to the versatility helping keep the hand/fingers warmer at even lower temperatures. It is hard to believe that such a thin piece of wind resistant fabric can keep you so warm. At the start of the run you can wear the mitten and has you warm up you can pull the mitten part off. I tend to let it flap in the wind because more often than not I’ll put it back on. However, you can easily tuck it into the little pocket and pull it back out later if you want.
In March of 2011 one of the finger seams split which was disappointing but at that point in the season wasn’t a big deal. I had worn them on pretty much every run since I had gotten them, washed them several times, wore them on the bike, and more. I continued to wear them even in the winter of 2011. We had gone home to visit family over the holidays and some how the bright orange glove got lost. I came back to MN with only one glove!!
I really needed gloves and found a pair of Pearl Izumi Shine Wind Mitt that were similar to the ulit-mitt but were on sale. I bought them in January of 2012. That was a big mistake. They were a different fabric and not as comfortable. The New Balance windscreen was much tighter and while they were pitched as an “electronics friendly” glove they didn’t work consistently well. The Ulti-Mitt allows you to easily pull your thumb and index finger out of the glove to quickly manipulate your device keeping the rest of your hand toasty warm! I bought a second pair of the Saucony Ulti-Mitt in April 2012.
The one thing that I never really used was the USB light. I understand their intent with the Vizi-Pro line of making you as visible as possible and adding a small flashlight to one of the gloves was a good idea of adding visibility. Unfortunately, the light wasn’t super bright. It definitely couldn’t be used to illuminate the path ahead of you so I doubt it really added much visibility of you. The gloves have a reflective Saucony logo on the mitten and the bright orange. I didn’t feel like the light held its charge for very long and I never remembered to charge it back up. I think I still have the light but never use it!
They don’t work super well on the bike as there is more wind at the colder temperatures, but in the moderate temps (above 40) when you need a glove they worked great. I did like the high visibility that they provided for signaling turns etc. They don’t provide any padding for the bike either!
One other random note about these is that the shell material for the mitt doesn’t absorb liquid so they make great snot wipers!
I wore these gloves this past week for a run in -11 windchill and my fingers stayed toasty warm. I will say that I can’t remember having taken them on a run longer than 5 or 6 miles in that temperature. I would highly recommend these gloves!
These gloves are between $35-45 and worth every penny.
From Amazon:
- Polyester 92%/Spandex 8%
- DryLete glove with wind- and water-resistant SonicLite shell mitt
- Convertible thumb and forefinger
- USB LED light holds 2 hours of charge
- Stash pocket to secure mitt when not in use
- Plush cloth wipes and reflective logos
