Clean white gloves with red paint--why?

December 3, 2008 2:51 PM

Why use white gloves with red paint?

I have seen people wear white gloves with red paint on them. The paint is just splotched on, not entirely on one side or anything. I first saw them used by people cleaning up a Chinatown bus in the Northeastern US. It was creepy until I realized they weren't cleaning up an "incident." I've seen cashiers use them as well.

I've seen them for sale in discount stores, brand new white cotton gloves with red paint already splotched on them. The gloves are clean but look dirty or even blood splattered.

Does anyone know why the red paint? Is there a practical purpose for the paint? Is there a reason they use red instead of another color? I saw them again recently at a grocery store (on the cashier's hands) and am stumped.

posted by cherie72 to grab bag (13 comments total)

Is the red stuff some kind of grippy/rubber-like traction stuff perhaps?
posted by taff at 3:09 PM on December 3, 2008

If not, I've noticed style (at least where I'm from) has shifted towards a faux-blue-collar, peudo-proletariat hodgepodge of people wearing overalls, half-jumpsuit things with paint splotch stains, and big utility boots they show off at the bar to make it look like they just finished some demanding manual labour at an underground mine/construction site.
posted by ageispolis at 3:12 PM on December 3, 2008

One theory which doesn't seem to have occurred to you: these gloves are being sold off at a discount because they got accidentally splashed with whatever it is.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 3:21 PM on December 3, 2008

Are they work gloves?
posted by unknowncommand at 3:21 PM on December 3, 2008

i think unknowncommand has it right. i too have seen these things before and wondered.
posted by citystalk at 3:55 PM on December 3, 2008

Yes, you can get those in various colors like blue. It's just a rubber coating that gives you a better grip, some minimal protection against sharp objects, and prevents the glove from getting wet when you touch something wet.
posted by dhartung at 4:14 PM on December 3, 2008

I bet ambrosechapel is right- or at least, that's how the style ageispolis describes was formed. Painters buy white gloves so they know when they have a stained glove. They discard the stained ones, they are laundered, and sold cheap to cleaning services and whatnot.
posted by gjc at 4:42 PM on December 3, 2008

Nope, unknowncommand and taff have it right. They're el-cheapo white cotton gloves, crudely splashed iin the palms/fingers with red rubberizer, and manufactured by the brazillion. Useful for messy work, cheap enough to be disposable, but sturdy enough to stand up to industrial-grade, 8-hour-shift labor.
posted by IAmBroom at 5:16 PM on December 3, 2008

Just happened to ask a guy unloading a truck in Manhattan today what was up with the gloves. He said something very difficult to understand because he had an accent and also a big huge bite of a bacon egg and cheese snadwich in his mouth along the lines of "for protection" or "fuck you" it was hard to tell.

+1 unknowncommand.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 6:06 PM on December 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Yeah, unknowncommand is right. They're pretty universal world-wide, I've notice.
posted by suedehead at 7:21 PM on December 3, 2008

noticed.
posted by suedehead at 7:21 PM on December 3, 2008

Hah, I was just wondering this myself! I saw a pic on some raccoon-removal-company website, with a red-splattered white glove pointing at some raccoon hole in a roof, and thought "Wow, those fucks are VICIOUS! I'm calling someone else to sort this problem out."
posted by FatherDagon at 12:17 PM on December 4, 2008

Thanks all. I guess what I've seen were the factory-seconds version of the gloves linked by unknowncommand. The gloves were much cheaper-looking, and paint splashed haphazardly--far moreso than in the photos.

I wish there was a different color to use. It looks so gruesome when they are handling my groceries.
posted by cherie72 at 2:15 PM on December 4, 2008