Assos Ultraz Winter Gloves review: premium performance at a premium price

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The Assos Ultraz Winter Gloves perform like premium winter gloves should – they’re strongly water-resistant, highly breathable (in the right conditions) and warm.

They also have an appealingly low-profile construction, which aids dexterity, and I found them comfortable to wear.

However, overall, there are better-value winter gloves to be had. While the Assos Ultraz gloves perform well, the price tag feels a bit too high given the competency of cheaper rivals.

Assos Ultraz Winter Gloves details and specifications

Part of Assos’ winter ‘Climacode’ range (demarcated by the brand’s 3/3 rating), the Assos Ultraz Winter Gloves feature a relatively low-profile construction, albeit with a strong-feeling outer fabric.

This is Assos’ AirBlock fabric, which is said to be a “more robust” version of the softshell fabric it uses in its 'standard' winter gloves. This, naturally, is claimed to be windproof and breathable.

A DWR (durable water repellent) treatment is applied to help resist rain.

The palms feature a suede-like fabric with a silicone gripper pattern on the padded upper palm and hypothenar regions, as well as the fingertips. The fingertips aren’t designed for use with touchscreen devices, though.

There’s a reflective insert on the outside of the little fingers, but in keeping with Assos’ often all-black aesthetic, the Assos logo on the back is blacked out.

There’s a nose-wipe strip on the length of the index finger, and the cuff is made from a neoprene-like material. This is slim cut and doesn’t feature any kind of fastening mechanism, although it leaves some space for jacket cuffs to fit underneath.

A pull tab is fitted to the bottom of the palm to make it easier to get the gloves on.

I tested a size XL, which fitted me as I’d expect – and in accordance with the Assos’ sizing chart.

Assos Ultraz Winter Gloves performance

The Assos Ultraz Winter Gloves are well proportioned in their shape – there’s plenty of finger length and palm space without adding much excess bulk – and they offer good dexterity.

I found it relatively easy to action a quick gear shift, although (as with most winter gloves) the seams at the ends of the fingers occasionally snagged on the brake lever.

Although quite low in bulk overall, I found them to be warm, the relative lack of insulation not significantly affecting thermal retention when the temperatures dropped to low single figures.

The lining is soft, although it doesn’t feel as soft and comforting as alternatives from Gore, Castelli and Altura.

The outer fabric also proved notably breathable – on a dry day when I was slightly overdressed, the lining didn’t wet out as much as I’ve seen others do.

Wet weather was also dealt with very well; there was no ingress through the seams or membrane, while the DWR treatment has remained effective after a few washes with a technical detergent.

The palms offer good handlebar grip and the textured fingertips make pushing against a shift or brake lever a more ‘secure’ sensation – there’s little chance of slipping off, even in the rain.

I also found the suede-like palm fabric resisted water ingress better than other gloves I've tested. The inclusion of light padding could be beneficial to you if you need it – I don’t, but didn’t find it had a negative impact on my comfort.

The index finger-length nose wipe is soft, albeit quite narrow. That said, I rarely used it because I kept accidentally wiping my thumb against my nose, through general force of habit (this is where most nose-wipe zones are located, in my experience).

The cuffs don’t tighten, so you can’t adjust the fit over a jacket’s sleeve cuff as with some others, but are still slim enough to not feel draughty. I tested the gloves with an Assos Mille GT Hashoogi Winter Jacket S11, also from the 3/3 Climacode range, as well as two others.

Handily, the cuffs are long enough to overlap practically all cycling jackets. Given they’re low-profile, the pull tabs proved useful additions to get the gloves on and over jacket sleeves.

All-in, the Ultraz Winter Gloves are very good performers, but they’re expensive – the Castelli Espresso 2 (£110 / $99.99 / €99.95) and Gore-Tex Insulated Gloves (£89.99 / $100 / €89.95) are in the same region, and put in similarly effective performance.

Perhaps more starkly, though, they feel most similar to the Altura Nightvision Unisex Waterproof Insulated Cycling Gloves, which are £45 / €55. Given there’s little to choose between them for the vast majority of the time (the Assos gloves are a little better at resisting heavier rain), for many there'll be questions over whether to spend this much money.

Assos Ultraz Winter Gloves bottom line

The Assos Ultraz Winter Gloves are great winter gloves and do everything you'd expect.

I like their relatively low-profile construction and the dexterity offered, without compromising on warmth or water resistance – and they’re more breathable than most. They feel high-quality, without question.

That said, there’s nothing here that notably raises them above the competition, and arguably there are one or two things that could be improved (such as the nosewipe zone and cuffs).

As a result, they feel like a premium purchase – they may be the gloves you want and will do a very good job, but you can get similar performance for less money.

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