Santini Alpha Under Gloves

Santini Alpha Under Gloves are made from Polartec's ultra-lightweight insulating Alpha fabric and will keep your fingers warm and your hands comfortable on cold morning rides when worn with a pair of winter cycling gloves, but there were issues with durability with our pair.

> Buy now: Santini Alpha Under Gloves for £43 from Santini

As is often the case, it is the material that's really being tested here. And Polartec's Alpha Active Insulation comes with some impressive bluster. 'The Special Operations Command came to Polartec to invent an advantage...' says the voiceover on the product video, which is edited to feel like the start of a new Netflix military thriller...

Take the gloves out of their wrapping and they are surprisingly fluffy – the antithesis of rugged military clothing. Pop them on your hands for the first time and they look like a pair of giant puppet spiders, more Jim Henson's Muppets than Steven Seagal's culinary special operative in Under Siege.

But here's the good news if you're more interested in cycling than slipping behind enemy lines... these under gloves do a really excellent job of holding in the heat and insulating your fingers on frosty morning rides.

I've worn them by themselves for morning commutes and chilly evening runs and been very impressed with their performance and breathability. There is, of course, no padding at the palm and they aren't going to offer sufficient warmth when worn by themselves in lower temperatures, but they are designed as an under glove, so I put them to the test with a full range of my winter glove collection.

Under glove... over glove

My primary year-round gloves are a pair of woollen DeFeet Grippies. Sliding these on top of the Santini Alpha Under Gloves, I headed out for a 6am departure in February for a 200km ride to Oxford and back.

Wearing a relatively tight pair of mitts means that the fluff of the Alpha Under Gloves will compress and presumably hold a little less heat in. But there is no doubt that having two pairs working together raised my comfort levels significantly.

2025 Santini Alpha Under Gloves - palm.jpg (credit: road.cc)

I rode the first hour with my right hand encased in two layers and my left in just the DeFeet gloves. This is science in action, folks... or certainly the most rigorous test I could come up with so early in the morning.

The fingertips of my left hand were definitely feeling the tingling discomfort of a chilly start, while those on my right were impressively snug and warm. And on that basis, I am going to draw the unsurprising conclusion that these liners add a good few degrees to the comfort range of any existing glove.

It was around lunchtime that we pulled in at a cafe and I was impressed to see how dry both layers were. Polartec bills this material as being highly breathable and fast drying. And this combination of gloves performed incredibly well to keep my hands dry, warm and exceptionally comfortable.

Padded mitts

With evening on its way and the light starting to dip, I wanted a bit of extra padding on my hands (I've had issues with compressed nerves at the wrist after really long rides), so I decided to pop a pair of Castelli mitts on top of the Santini Under Gloves.

The look was comical, with fluffy, voluminous black fingers protruding from skin-tight mitts. I'm sure it wouldn't meet the sartorial standards of most cyclists, but the effect was excellent. They kept my hands warm and proved to be brilliantly breathable. What's more, they ensured that I got the extra padding I needed for the final third of the ride.

And that was fine until I needed to rearrange the straps on my rain jacket. The insulating fuzz of the Under Gloves stuck to the Velcro and required some careful work to separate the two while navigating the pothole-strewn roads of the Cotswolds. This is a really small niggle, but worth mentioning. Other under gloves I have used have been made of material that doesn't have this problem.

Do US Secret Operations forces not have to deal with Velcro? Am I missing something here? Might this cause problems when trying to unbuckle weapons from a utility belt in the middle of armed combat? I guess we don't need to worry about that... Back to the cycling.

Full-on winter gloves

Over the period of some of the coldest months of winter, I tried Santini's Alphas with a range of winter gloves, with varying rates of success.

Worn with a pair of exceptionally tight neoprene gloves, I found them overly hot and uncomfortable, and I didn't feel there was enough room for the fabric to 'loft' and trap air. Clearly, this was down to the neoprene, and wasn't a wise pairing.

I found a similar problem with a slightly less snug pair of SealSkinz gloves, which hold a lot of moisture inside as sweat builds up; this affected how well the Santini Under Gloves could work, though they did at least deliver on their promise of being quick drying once the SealSkinz came off.

I also tried them with a pair of winter mountaineering gloves that I keep in reserve for really cold days on the bike, and they were just perfect. The big difference was having a little more space inside for the gloves to loft, wick away sweat and do their job properly.

2025 Santini Alpha Under Gloves - cuff.jpg (credit: road.cc)

The key takeaway is that the performance of the Santini Under Gloves very much depends on the over glove that you are pairing them with. My hunch is that they are going to work really well with a pair of lobster gloves that allow plenty of room inside and that are easy to get on and off.

If you struggle with circulation on cold rides, then these teamed up with a pair of Carnac Waterproof Crab Hand Winter Gloves (£9.99) could be a very cost-effective way to deal with the cold.

Durability issues

It was just two weeks into my review time with these gloves that I spotted a small hole developing on the middle finger of my left hand. Polartec sells this fabric with a promise of durability, but on this evidence I think there is room for improvement.

2025 Santini Alpha Under Gloves wear.jpg (credit: road.cc)

I don't know what Special Forces in the US get up to during work hours, but I assume extracting hostages from behind enemy lines is probably a little more stressful on kit than my morning commute to the station.

It could be an anomaly in the pair that I was testing, but I did note other concerns about durability on reader reviews, and I think this material, while technically excellent in terms of warmth and breathability, needs some development work to really deliver on durability when it isn't being used as internal insulation on jackets and other items of clothing.

2025 Santini Alpha Under Gloves - seam detail.jpg (credit: road.cc)

Value for money

After all, these are not at all cheap when retailing at their RRP of £43. Their performance in combination with my DeFeet Grippies gave me a pair of gloves that will cope with temperatures with a windchill of around -3°C, and that performance and flexibility feels like a potentially good investment, but there are a host of options out there at different price points, and many that are much cheaper.

George reviewed the Loffi liners (£11.50) back in 2020 and was impressed by their performance, though he wanted more bike-friendly features. With an RRP of just £11.50 they are certainly offering excellent value.

> Buyer’s Guide: Best winter cycling gloves

Even though they are considerably heavier at 36g, the fleece insulated dhb Roubaix Liner Gloves that currently retail at £20 impressed Mat, who gave them four stars.

If you are a fan of natural materials then Altura's Merino Unisex Liner Gloves come in at £25, and GripGrab offers some Merino Wool Liner Gloves for £20.

You could also take a look at Icebreakers' Unisex 200 Oasis Glove Liners (£33) which are aimed at a more general outdoor audience.

Conclusion

Santini's Alpha Under Gloves pack small and dry quickly, but I do have some concerns about their durability. They offer really excellent performance in terms of warmth and breathability, if you pair them with the right set of over gloves, but it's quite a high price to pay if they don't last.

> Buy now: Santini Alpha Under Gloves for £43 from Santini

Verdict

Excellent warmth and comfort levels, but concerns around durability for such a pricey product