How an Upper Austrian family business holds its own in the global glove business and helped the Austrian battle tank crews to the world championship title at the “Strong Europe Tank Challenge” – a visit to the Eska company in Thalheim near Wels.
Paul Loos doesn’t know how many times he has put on gloves in his life. “Tens of thousands of times, I’m sure,” he says and smiles. “Maybe even more often.” Regardless, the senior boss of the Upper Austrian family business Eska, based in Thalheim near Wels, has no time for arithmetic games right now. The 78-year-old is just slipping his right hand into the “Tarius” sniper glove specially developed for the German army and begins to explain. No, rather to rave about it. About the precise fit, the fine stitching, the materials used (“the shell is made of a special knitted fabric with IR emission protection”), the digital leather donning aid and the perforated shooting finger with a movement fold and tightening device, which ensures a secure feel on the trigger and therefore perfect use of the weapon. “We’ve really achieved something great,” he says at one point and you can tell that the “Tarius” is much more than just a glove for him, it’s a matter close to his heart.
“Of course,” says the charismatic Upper Austrian and smiles again. “After all, we put a lot of heart and soul into the development of every glove. The demands on tactility, protection and functionality are very high, especially in the military sector.” This is also demonstrated by the “IdZ” glove line, which was also developed for the German Armed Forces, as junior boss Paul Loos, who shares his father’s name, reveals during a visit from Militär Aktuell: “We started development around ten years ago as part of the German infantry modernization programme ‘Infanterist der Zukunft’ (note: hence the abbreviation IdZ). Product development alone took six years and included numerous tests, including in the mountains in Afghanistan. We kept making changes and improvements.” An effort that is now paying off: the kit has already been introduced in small numbers to the Bundeswehr, and all German soldiers are to be equipped with it in the coming years.
Did company founder Josef Eska have any idea in 1912 that the glove factory he founded in the Sudetenland and which is now run by Paul Loos Junior in the fourth generation would one day manufacture special sniper gloves and that products would be tested for their functionality and suitability for use thousands of kilometers away in the Hindu Kush? Probably not, although military gloves were already part of the range alongside classic leather gloves. However, the products were certainly not as technically sophisticated and well thought-out as they are today. At best, military gloves differed from street goods in terms of color; depending on the customer’s wishes, they were delivered lined or unlined.
Today, the selection is completely different with around 1,500 (!) different models and the manufacturing process is much more complex: a pair of gloves consists of up to 160 individual parts.
Instead of using only deerskin as in the past, robust high-tech materials such as Nomex, Gore-Tex, Kevlar and ultra-modern coating material techniques are used today. They are hydrophobic (water-repellent) and antistatic, making the gloves fire-resistant, waterproof and windproof, while Kevlar cut protection lining and anatomically pre-shaped hard-shell knuckle and palm protectors increase protection. In addition to firefighting and protective work gloves, the range also includes winter sports, multifunctional and motorcycle gloves, elegant leather gloves and special gloves for the police and military. The latter make up around half of the 400,000 to 500,000 pairs of Eska gloves produced each year, with most of the production taking place in Hungary. Product development, production for small series, logistics and the warehouse are all located at the headquarters in Thalheim near Wels with its 30 employees. All materials are meticulously checked for possible defects before use, as there is no room for mistakes, especially in the public sector, says senior boss Paul Loos during a tour of the warehouse. Quality is paramount. “We have practically no product returns,” he says between large rolls of lining and outer fabrics. “We haven’t had a single complaint about the more than 150,000 pairs of combat gloves supplied to the army in recent decades.”
Speaking of the Austrian Armed Forces: in addition to combat gloves, Eska also supplies pilot and alpine gloves to the red-white-red armed forces. In 2017, the company’s products were even part of the successful Austrian contingent in the “Strong Europe Tank Challenge” provided by Tank Battalion 14 in the Hessen barracks in Wels. At this unofficial tank world championship organized annually by the US Army at the German Grafenwoehr training ground, tank crews from several countries compete in various operational scenarios such as offensive and defensive shooting, reconnaissance, precision driving or caring for a wounded soldier. “We have developed special gloves for the Austrian soldiers that are precisely tailored to the competition, with high tactility and breathability, exact sizes and long fingers in some cases,” says senior boss Paul Loos with obvious pride. “For example, we have reinforced the right edge of the shooter’s glove with memory to enable the ammunition holder to be struck in quick succession without any loss of performance.”
In addition to the German Armed Forces, Eska gloves are also very popular with other armed forces: smaller quantities have been supplied to numerous armies worldwide, while the French (Paul Loos senior: “Quality is paramount there.”), Slovenian, German and Australian armed forces in particular rely on “Made in Austria”. The deal in “Down Under” is thanks to the high-quality Eska firefighting gloves, which have been in high demand among the firefighters there for years, as junior boss Paul Loos explains: “At some point, the army also became interested in our products and the situation is now similar in China, where our firefighting gloves are also a kind of entry ticket for us into the local market.”
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