Dakine Camino Review

An all-around well-performing glove with a stellar price tag. This earns a recommendation from our team thanks to the combination of its low cost and surprisingly good performance on the ski hill.

Performance Comparison

Warmth

The Camino isn't the warmest glove option out there, but it performed fairly well when we tested it in temperatures hovering around freezing and even down into the teens. It is built with 100% polyester insulation, packing in 350 grams at the back of the glove and 150 grams at the front, which improves dexterity while still keeping your hands warm. It comes with a removable liner, which is essentially a very thin glove that fits snugly inside the larger package and offers a little extra insulation when the temperatures get cold.

While Dakine claims this is one of their warmest models, it lands about mid-range among the options we tested from other brands. It'll keep you warm for the majority of days on the mountain but is a far cry from the warmth of several top-performing gloves and pretty much any mitten. The lofty insulation is surely warm enough to keep you mostly toasty at the resort (assuming you've dressed appropriately), while the breathable design moves moisture from, particularly sweaty hands, out of the glove. While it's not the warmest glove on the market, one member of our testing team notes that it is usually enough, saying, “The Camino kept me warm on most days of the winter, both sitting on a chairlift and in the backcountry.”

Water Resistance

In our field tests, this glove kept our hands nice and dry in wet weather, even when hiking up mountains on our skis. While these gloves, at first glance, seem to offer great water resistance, they didn't do as well in our submersion tests. While the glove's exterior is constructed of a nylon shell and a leather palm with equally good water resistance, the seams at which these materials come together are not well constructed and allow water to seep into the glove.

Our water tests consist of putting the glove on, dunking our hand in the water while clenching and releasing our finger for two minutes, and taking weight measurements before and after to see how much water makes it into the glove. “During this test, while squeezing my hand, I felt water seeping into the seam between the shell and leather palm,” said one of our testers. While the material itself offers great weather resistance against snow and light rain, it's important to know that these seams did fail in full submersion. As a result, it's not a waterproof glove.

In addition, it absorbed a whopping 8.25 grams of water, which was quite high for the test. However, in the field, it performed just fine with the water beading on the material and wicking away rain and snow. While it's not the highest performer, it certainly does the job on the ski hill, as long as you're not dunking your hands in puddles of water. It's just not our first choice to buy for super wet climates, but for dry ones, like in Colorado, it's a great choice.

Dexterity

We were overall pleased with the dexterity of this glove, though again, it wasn't the top performer in this metric.

It offers a thinner construction, with most of the insulative material packed towards the back of the glove. We normally wear a size medium and purchased the glove in this size for our testing. With the liner added, the glove feels a touch smaller, but without it, it's just perfect. While using the included liner, dexterity goes down a bit with the added thickness. While it doesn't offer the same great mobility that super high-performing options offer, we are surprised that we can still do everything we need to with our gloves on. Overall, we found a good fit, and we were still able to do things like transition our skis, zip up our jackets, and buckle our boots. If you're unsure about sizing and plan on using the liners, consider sizing up.

Construction Quality

The construction of this glove seems to be at the lower end of the spectrum, which isn't surprising given the price.

The stitching on the seams is solid, but given its performance in our water tests, there is evidence to suggest that the construction isn't as bomber as other gloves we tested. There is also a lot of decorative quilted stitching on the back of the hand, which could be prone to pulling out over time.

However, we haven't noticed any serious problems in our testing period, and after a couple of months of regular use, the warmth hasn't deteriorated either. All online reviews seem to be positive, so we suspect that the durability of this glove is about average in the glove world but on the lower end compared to our curated selection. To help increase longevity, be sure to treat the goatskin at least once a year, and don't be surprised if the Durable Water Repellent (DWR) treatment wears off from the nylon over time. To prevent this, we recommend getting an at-home DWR to apply at the beginning of each season.

Features

It is not as fully loaded as some others, but the Camino has everything you could ask for in a resort glove. It has a double-glove construction, which gives you the option of using the liner that it comes with or not, your choice. The liner itself is just a very thin glove that we like to use for everything from skinning up the ski resort to running in cold weather. It's not waterproof or very insulative, but for high-intensity activities like this, that's a plus.

The thumb comes loaded with a goggle wipe that resembles a miniature windshield wiper to get that freshy white goodness off your goggles when the winds are blowing hard. We also appreciate the single-pull gauntlet closures which are easy to use with the other glove still on. Each glove also has a removable leash that any resort skier or snowboarder will appreciate. If you've ever had to say goodbye to a single glove halfway up your lift ride, you'll understand why this feature is so valuable.

One of our testers emphasized, “I also love that the liners are smartphone-compatible!” We simply removed the shells of the gloves (letting them dangle from our wrists) to text and communicate without a problem. This is huge; our bare hands were never exposed to the cold while hanging out on lifts and communicating with friends and family. More gloves would benefit from this feature.

Should You Buy the Dakine Camino?

The Dakine Camino is a versatile ski glove built for the resort, and we appreciate that it is sold at a reasonable price. The breathable design offers good performance and warmth in most conditions, making it suitable for other winter activities and even backcountry skiing. The fit, with the liner in, is a little small, so be sure to size up, and definitely do so if your fingers are on the long side. While this glove isn't the best compared to the higher-rated models, it is comparatively affordable — and we can't stress how much we like the addition of a liner glove, which is uncommon in this price range.

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