"The research task is very demanding," explains Hans-Helge Böttcher, a scientist at the Technology Center Knitting Technique at the DITF in Denkendorf. "The textile material not only has to protect the fingers from extreme stress, it also has to be flexible and not restrict sensory perception." That, he said, is the reason why no effective protection has been available on the market to date.

The glove developed at the DITF is designed to prevent 90 percent of injuries caused by overstretching. To achieve this, a mechanical concept was developed that absorbs the force in the fingertips and optimally transfers it to the forearm via the wrist cuff - and does so without deforming the glove. The central functional elements of the overstretch protection are load-absorbing textile structures with specific force-elongation mechanics. These structures are sewn on from the finger end joint of the outer hand to the finger end joint of the inner hand and are thus firmly anchored in the glove. The glove and its individual functional elements have been designed and arranged to create a geometrically high form fit that optimally guides the flow of forces.

The advantage for the athlete is that the protective device can not only be individually adjusted to each hand length, but the appropriate pretension can even be set for each individual finger. This replaces the plastic splints previously attached to the outer hand. These so-called "finger frames" have the disadvantage that they easily bend beyond their stretch limit.