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Cold weather hats, gloves and socks have long been a major part of and navy store’s business. But global warming has begun to make its mark on sales of cold weather apparel and accessories.

Bob Broner of Broner Hats and Gloves reports a decline in the market for heavyweight gloves.

“We are not selling as many big, bulky gloves as we used to,” he said. “Global warming has scared retailers away from heavy gloves. Today merchants are carrying lighter weight commuter style gloves.”  

The heavy glove market, however, is still strong among skiers and snowboarders, a customer base who favor large gloves with nylon shells, waterproof bladders and Thinsulate® lining.

Sales of winter hats have been more consistent for Broner. The wool watch cap remains a perennially strong seller, and beanie style watch caps without cuffs have emerged as a fashion item. Many of the latter are decorated with crosses, skulls or tattoo art.

In the winter of 2008, the trooper hat was Broner’s biggest seller and Bob Broner expects to repeat the performance this year.

While all Broner troopers have fake rabbit fur trim, they are available in several shells including oil skin, nylon and wool. The warmest is the rag wool trooper, said Broner.

But global warming has impacted his business.

“Retailers don’t want to take the risk and are buying closer to the season,” Broner observed, noting that, in particular, face mask sales are down.

“The face mask business is no longer pre-booked at the beginning of the season,” he said. 

Global warming has had less impact on Caiman Gloves, a company that specializes in winter outdoor gloves, as well as high quality work gloves. The winter outdoor line features Heatrack, a proprietary lining.

“It is a multi layer micro fiber thermal. It has insulation that fits almost like a glove within a glove,” said company spokesman Paul Sung.   

Although Caiman produces a line of gloves for mechanics, the company does not produce a cold weather glove designed for manual dexterity. But Sung notes that softer leathers such as deerskin on some of the winter gloves allows for greater flexibility in the cold.