Eddie Bauer Guide Pro Smart Heated Gloves review: electric mitts that regulate automatically

Eddie Bauer Guide Pro Smart Heated Gloves: first impressions 

The Eddie Bauer Guide Pro Smart Heated Gloves (available direct from Eddie Bauer) are made for those occasions when ski gloves alone just aren’t enough.

It’s always been a challenge for me to keep my hands warm on winter alpine starts – the early and cold days when I’m moving before the sun is up. While my legs and torso start to heat up when I start an activity like ski touring, my fingers go numb as I clutch a ski pole in each hand. It’s the same for me on cold alpine ski days, whether I’m carving downhill or sitting on a ski lift, the reason I often want to stop is because my hands are uncomfortably frigid. 

Disposable hand warmers have been very helpful, but testing the Eddie Bauer Guide Pro Smart Heated Glove this season has changed the winter sports game for me, forever. 

There are three styles available: the Guide Pro Heated Smart Glove, the Lite Glove and the Mitten. They all feature clim8 intelligent heating technology that regulates warmth based on your current body temperature and activity level. But note that while the Guide Pro Smart Heated “Lite” Gloves are touchscreen compatible on the pointer finger, the Guide Pro Smart Heated Gloves are not

You can actually charge up the gloves and they work without ever needing to download the clim8 app, but the clim8 app is where you can customize the gloves to your preferences by setting up a thermal profile (you can set your hand temp from 20-35°C / 68-95°F) and selecting an activity. This enables the gloves to regulate heat output based on your settings and the temperature outside. 

Depending on which Eddie Bauer clim8 gloves or mittens you get, prices range from $249 to $299. 

Eddie Bauer Guide Pro Smart Heated Gloves: on the slopes

I took the Eddie Bauer Guide Pro Smart Heated Glove out for several cold days of alpine skiing on Vail Mountain in Colorado. I wanted my hands to stay toasty and was able to get a few three-ish hour sessions of skiing (three different days, so eight to nine hours) before I had to recharge the gloves (getting a full charge takes about four hours). 

Even without the integration of electric heat technology, the Eddie Bauer Guide Pro Smart Heated Glove is waterproof to keep hands dry and has PrimaLoft Gold insulation to retain heat. I was out skiing when the gloves did lose their charge, and they kept my hands warm-ish, but I would have preferred to have mittens for more warmth once the electric heat was gone. On a really cold day, it’s not ideal if your gloves die on you, so make sure you get a full charge before you go out! 

The gloves are efficient in that when you pull your hands out, they turn off automatically, so no energy is wasted.

The battery pack on each wrist is pretty bulky, and the cuffs come pretty far down each arm toward the elbow. Also, be aware of the unisex sizing and size down as needed. I wear a size six in gloves, and the small is a little large on my hands, so I think I’d prefer the extra small instead.

The provided wrist straps are nice when you need to take the gloves off and be hands-free, and a cinch strap around the mid hand makes for a snug fit when needed. I often wore my Leki straps around the Eddie Bauer Guide Pro Smart Heated Glove to connect to my Leki alpine ski pole system, and it all works great together.

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