All Agloves are made with REAL silver.
It’s how we get our name. “Ag” is the symbol for silver on the Periodic Table of the Elements, so it’s kind of like silvergloves. But it’s not just because silver is beautiful that we use it to make our products. Silver happens to be a very powerful metal. So while it does cost our company a lot of money to purchase the amount of silver necessary to produce our gloves, the end product is packed with benefits.
First, in terms of touchscreen-compatibility, there is not a better material to use than silver.
Silver is the single most conductive element on the Periodic Table, which means it does the best job at transferring electricity — and the most touch screen-friendly. Better than copper. Better than gold. This is important because capacitive touch screen devices, like the ones found in your iPhone, Android or tablet, work like this: humans conduct electricity (bio-electricity) and touchscreens have an electrical charge (or field). When you touch the screen you distort the screen’s electrostatic field at the point (or points) of contact which triggers the intended action, tap, swipe, scroll, is understood. In order to have gloves that work on your touchscreen, you need to conduct that bio-electricity across the glove membrane to communicate with the screen as your bare hand would. We do this with silver because, naturally, silver is the best as conduction.
Furthermore, since we’ve put silver into the entirety of the glove, we tap into the entire surface area of your hand. This is a simple surface area equation. The more skin the silver is exposed to, the more potential bio-electricity the metal can use. Our gloves work like your bare hand because they are using the bio-electricity of your whole hand. If you put silver in just the fingertips of the gloves, as some of our competitors do (The North Face’s E-tips, IsoToner SmarTouch) you just get a little bit of conductive potential. This results in a less-functional glove.
But going back to why we use silver…
The second most important quality to silver, after conduction, is warmth.
Silver traps heat back to it’s source. It is considered a natural thermoregulator. So while the electricity conducts through the glove, your body’s heat is trapped inside the glove. For an example, think of a marathon runner. After a race, marathon runners are wrapped in aluminum blankets to help keep their body heat in so that the body does not go into shock. Silver works in a similar way, only better. Columbia Sportswear makes jackets with silver-based materials. According to their research silver increases warmth by up to 20%.
Third, silver is antimicrobial.
Agloves have been independently and fairly tested in a lab for antibacterial finishes on the glove’s surface. Findings showed that Agloves reduced tested contaminants by 99.9%. (Testing was completed by Manufacturing Solutions Center, an independent testing center. This is a L-A-B Accredited ISO/IEC Testing Center. Contaminants involved in the study were a strain of Staph and Pneumonia)
So for these reasons, Agloves chooses to use silver in our products. It’s the best metal, and results in the best touch glove.