The Glove That Built
a Category.
Engineered Where Hand Injuries Actually Occur
Long before "impact protection" was a recognised PPE category, it was an unsolved engineering problem.
Today, the KONG® impact protection line includes over 25 active styles and has protected more than 10,000,000 hands worldwide. Each glove is quality-checked by measuring TPR hardness during production, to ensure consistent impact performance batch after batch.
US Patents: 9,241,519 · D756,039
The engineering behind those numbers is deliberate. The sloped TPR fingertip caps are angled to deflect impact energy sideways rather than absorbing it directly into the joint — a design choice that came directly out of the University of Wisconsin force-mapping data. The knuckle guard uses a dual-density TPR-and-gel-foam stack, soft enough to flex with a closed fist, rigid enough to spread a direct strike across a wider surface area. None of this is incidental: every KONG® shell that leaves the production line is hardness-tested against the original engineering spec before it ships.
From a U.S. engineering lab to oil rigs, ports, and fabrication yards worldwide, KONG®'s reputation was built one verified data point at a time. But the next chapter of this story isn't American — it's Indian.
From a Risk to a Revolution
How PSC built India's impact protection glove category — a decade before the rest of the market caught up.
In 2008, long before "impact protection" was a recognised safety category in India, PSC identified a serious gap in hand safety within the oil and gas industry. Our research showed that the majority of hand injuries were occurring on the back of the hand — caused by heavy impacts during rigging, caught-between and struck-by incidents, cuts from sharp edges, and bruises from repetitive equipment handling. At the time, these risks were widely accepted as "part of the job." We believed they shouldn't be.
That same year, Ironclad introduced KONG® globally as one of the world's first dedicated impact protection gloves. PSC brought it to India when the concept was still virtually unknown. There was no existing market. No awareness. No demand. So we built it — door to door across oilfield companies, through site visits, demonstrations, and safety discussions that educated customers on invisible, preventable risks.
Today, more than a decade later, PSC is India's largest distributor of impact protection gloves, supplying close to 10,000 pairs annually and protecting thousands of hands across the oil & gas sector. KONG® is now synonymous with impact protection in Indian oilfields.
WHY "KONG"?
Because KONG stood for King of Oil and Gas. Compared to the "polka-dotted" gloves that dominated the industry for decades, KONG® delivered significantly higher protection with better longevity — at a lower long-term cost through scale and volume. Most importantly, it closed the industry's biggest gap: back-of-hand injuries from struck-by, caught-between, and impact incidents. Today, we see only two types of customers: those who already use KONG® — and those who will soon start.
Built for Every Application. Trusted as the Baseline.
Several task-specific variants have followed — but the original KONG® remains the largest-selling model in the range.
Yet the original KONG® — the first variant — continues to provide the most balanced, dependable protection, making it the baseline glove for oilfield operations. It is not just a product. It is a standard. Below are the two models distributors and end users ask about most.
Double-layer leather palm · Breathable nylon back
DuPont™ Teflon™ shell · Reinforced thumb saddle
sales@pschandsafety.com
info@projectsalescorp.com
www.projectsalescorp.com
WhatsApp (international enquiries):
+91-98851-49412
Not All Impact Ratings Are Tested the Same Way
Three different labs, three different methods — here's what actually sits behind the numbers on a KONG® hang tag.
Drops a 2.5kg striker onto a flat sample of the glove's knuckle area only, on a rounded anvil. Result is a simple pass (≤7kN) or fail. Globally accepted and simple to read, but it tests one zone — the knuckle — and never touches a real hand shape.
Expands testing to 18 points across the fingers and knuckles, rated on a Level 1–3 scale. More resolution than EN388, but metacarpal protection still isn't part of the test, and it's still a flat sample — not a hand.
Built with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Biomechanics Lab. Gloves are fitted onto a biomechanically true ballistic manikin hand and tested at all three critical zones — fingers, knuckles, and metacarpal — with results rated relative to the actual force that fractures a human hand.
That third standard is the one KONG® was engineered against from day one — including the SDX2 and KDC5 you stock today. Both go through Ironclad's internal ballistic-hand testing in addition to whatever EN388 or ANSI rating appears on the label.
PEAK FORCE REQUIRED TO FRACTURE AN UNPROTECTED HAND, BY ZONE:
BUILT-IN QUALITY CONTROL
Impact protection only matters if it's consistent pair after pair. Every KONG® TPR component — on both the SDX2 and the KDC5 — is durometer-tested for hardness during production before it's molded onto the glove. That single extra QC step is what keeps the impact rating on pair #1 identical to the impact rating on pair #10,000.