In Wyoming, the cold winter wind can cut through your skin like a knife. Work gloves help, but when I reach into my pouch for a tool or a nail of a certain size, or when I’m handling materials such as trim, I have to remove the gloves so that my hands can do their job without a sloppy ball of cloth reducing the sensitivity of my fingertips. It comes down to an uncomfortable choice between safety and dexterity.

After toiling in the rarefied world of work gloves for nearly a decade, Heath Mathis was struck by the lack of innovation in the market. He knew he could resolve this problem with a well-designed, highly engineered set of work gloves. “Old-school gloves did a decent job of protecting, but they fit poorly and were a hindrance to any task requiring a level of dexterity,” he says. “Then you had the new school, enamored of spandex and bright colors.” These newer gloves, cheap to make, combine springy spandex and synthetic leather to provide a second-skin fit, but Mathis reports that their protection level is poor.

Mathis created a line of gloves specifically geared toward the type of work people do, from demolition to fine carpentry. “StoneBreaker gloves articulate with the natural curve of your fingers and your palm to create a more natural fit,” he says. “We engineered our gloves to fit the hand and the workplace.” Offering protection without sacrificing dexterity, StoneBreaker gloves mean that I won’t have to risk frostbite or abrasion next winter when I need something from my tool pouch.