A vibration dissipating sports glove for use in holding a bat while hitting a baseball having an energy-absorbing front pad between the index finger and the thumb. The glove also has a back padding covering the metacarpal portion of the hand and may furthermore have knuckle padding for covering the middle knuckle of each of the fingers. By using padding in a discriminate fashion, only in areas of the hand most vulnerable to impact and vibration, the glove maintains adequate flexibility and feel while, at the same time, protects the batter from bat-induced vibration and, furthermore, from pitched balls which may hit the batter's hand. Additionally, the front pad conforms between the batter's hand and the bat to provide to the batter a more secure grip upon the bat.
A protective glove having an elastic substrate, a first pad segment attached to the elastic substrate, and a second pad segment attached to the elastic substrate independently from the first pad segment. The elastic substrate can be disposed over an area intended to substantially cover a forearm, a wrist, a back of a hand, a finger, and/or a thumb of a user wearing the glove. The elastic substrate can be stretchable in different directions and to different degrees in the areas around each pad segment, thereby enabling independent movement of the individually attached pad segments to accommodate any number of contours and flex points. Other embodiments provide methods for manufacturing a protective glove having independent pads.
