The Safest Glove Leathers for Abrasion, Ranked

Kangaroo is the strongest glove leather for its weight, which is why race gloves from Held and Alpinestars use it, and we do not sell a single kangaroo product. Cowhide comes next because you can get it thick, horsehide after that because it is dense and ages beautifully, then goatskin, and then deerskin, which is the softest and most comfortable of the group and the one we build most of our gloves from. If you came here looking for us to put our own leather at the top, this is not that article.

The reason this ranking is worth reading is that leather type is only one of the three things that decide how a glove survives contact with the road. The other two are thickness and construction, and either one can beat the hide. A thin panel of cowhide will lose to a thick panel of goatskin, and any leather will lose to a seam that bursts open in the first metre. That is why we rank hides here in general terms and then tell you what to look at on the actual product page.

About These Rankings

This ranking reflects how each hide behaves at a given thickness, drawn from decades of what riders report, from what race and workwear makers choose when abrasion is the whole job, and from handling a lot of leather ourselves. Where a hide is used in certified racing gear, that is a strong signal and we say so. Where it is chosen for comfort instead, we say that too.

These are editorial ratings and not measurements. We do not run abrasion machines, we hold no test data, and we will not quote you a number of seconds against a belt or a Cambridge rig because we did not produce one and neither did anyone on our behalf. No leather here is a substitute for certification, and nothing we sell in deerskin, goatskin or horsehide is armored or CE rated. Prices verified August 2026.

1. Kangaroo, The Benchmark Nobody Beats by Weight

Kangaroo has a fibre structure that runs unusually uniform through the hide, which lets a maker use it thin and still get strength that heavier leathers need bulk to match. That is the entire reason it dominates road racing gloves, where the rider needs feel at the lever and the glove still has to survive a slide at speed. You will find it in the top of the range from Held and Alpinestars, both of which certify the finished gloves under the European motorcycle glove standard. We are not a dealer for either and we sell nothing in kangaroo, so this pick costs us money to include and belongs at the top anyway.

• Price: sold elsewhere, not in our catalog

• Score: 9.3 out of 10

• Best for: race and fast road gloves where feel and abrasion both matter

2. Cowhide, Thickness You Can Actually Buy

Cowhide wins on availability and on sheer mass. It is the leather most protective jackets are cut from because you can specify it heavy without paying kangaroo money, and a heavy full grain cowhide panel is a serious piece of material. The costs are real: it is stiff when new, it takes a long break in, and a thick cow jacket is a workout in July. We do not make gloves from it, which is worth saying rather than glossing over. If you want the most protective leather per dollar in a jacket, cowhide is the sane answer and plenty of good ones exist outside our catalog.

• Price: varies widely by maker, we do not stock cowhide gloves

• Score: 8.7 out of 10

• Best for: jackets and pants where you can carry the weight

3. Horsehide, Dense, Tough and Built to Age

Horsehide is tighter grained than cowhide, which makes it feel harder and slicker in the hand and gives it a reputation for both wind resistance and long life. Front quarter horsehide is the good stuff, and it is what BECK, a separate American maker we carry as a dealer rather than a house line, uses in the BECK 732 Northeaster horsehide jacket from $815. It breaks in slower than cowhide and then outlasts it, which is why jackets built from it get handed down. It carries no certification and no armor as sold, so treat it as excellent material rather than as a safety system.

• Price: from $815 for the BECK 732

• Score: 8.5 out of 10

• Best for: jackets and vests you intend to own for thirty years

4. Goatskin, The Best Compromise in the Group

Goatskin punches above its thickness because of natural lanolin in the hide, which keeps it supple while the fibre structure stays dense. That combination is why it shows up in military flight jackets and in a lot of work gloves. In our range you get it in the Bad Billy Black Goatskin Gloves at $99.99 and in the Flying Fortress A-2 goatskin flight jacket at $415. For a rider who wants a hide tougher than deerskin without the stiffness of cow, goatskin is the pick. It is still unarmored and uncertified in every form we sell.

• Price: $99.99 for the gloves, $415 for the jacket

• Score: 8.2 out of 10

• Best for: riders who want durability and softness in the same hide

5. Deerskin, The Comfort Champion, Not the Abrasion Champion

Deerskin is what we build most of our gloves from, and it earns that on feel rather than on abrasion. The fibre structure is loose and elastic, so it is soft from the first ride with no break in, it moves with your hand, and it dries soft after a soaking instead of turning to cardboard. Those same properties mean it stretches and it does not match a dense hide for scuff resistance at the same thickness. The Classic Short Wrist Touchscreen Deerskin Gloves at $120 and the welted Haymakers Super Welted Deerskin Gloves at $125 are the two I would point at, and both are unarmored with no CE rating.

• Price: $120 and $125

• Score: 7.6 out of 10

• Best for: comfort, all day wear, and gloves you will not leave at home

Reading a Leather Spec Without Getting Fooled

The hide name at the top of a product page is the least useful thing on it. Work through these instead.

• Full grain or nothing. Genuine leather and split leather are the weak grades, made from the layers underneath the good part of the hide. Full grain keeps the tight outer surface.

• Thickness beats species. A listing that quotes millimetres or ounces is telling you something real. One that only says premium leather is telling you nothing.

• Look at the seams. Welted or outseam construction keeps thread off the surface that hits the road. Exposed inside stitching fails first regardless of hide.

• Count the panels. More seams means more places to burst. A palm cut from one piece is stronger than the same palm made from four.

• Certification outranks all of it. A CE mark with EN 13594 on a glove label means the whole glove was tested, not just praised.

• Maintenance matters. Dry leather cracks and cracked leather tears. A little leather conditioner once a season keeps a hide performing the way it was meant to.

Common Questions

What is the safest motorcycle glove leather for abrasion resistance?

Kangaroo, which is why it is used in racing gloves, followed by heavy cowhide and then horsehide. Kangaroo gets there by being strong at a thin gauge, so the glove keeps enough feel to ride hard in. We do not sell any kangaroo product, and we would rather tell you that than pretend the leather we do sell wins a contest it does not enter.

What is the most durable leather for motorcycle gear?

Horsehide for long term durability in a jacket, cowhide for durability per dollar. Horsehide is tightly grained and dense, so it resists wind and wear and softens into shape rather than wearing out, which is why front quarter horsehide jackets get passed down. For gloves specifically, durability is more about seam construction and hide thickness than about which animal it came from.

Is deerskin bad for motorcycle gloves then?

No, it is a deliberate trade of peak abrasion resistance for comfort and long wearing life. Deerskin is soft immediately, stays soft after rain, and is the reason a lot of riders keep a pair for a decade. If your priority is maximum abrasion resistance you should buy a certified glove in kangaroo or cowhide, and we will keep saying that even though we do not sell one.

What I Would Buy Off This List

If abrasion resistance is genuinely your first priority, buy a certified kangaroo glove from a race focused maker and stop reading here. Nothing in a leather ranking outranks a glove that has been tested as a finished product, and we do not sell one of those.

If you are shopping within what we do sell, goatskin in the Bad Billy Black Goatskin Gloves at $99.99 is the tougher hide, and deerskin in the Haymakers Super Welted Deerskin Gloves at $125 is the more comfortable one with the better seams. Compare both against the rest of the USA made glove range before you decide, and buy for the riding you actually do.