Why are most of the rubber gloves yellow?

[GumTom]

Does anyone know or have an idea why most of the hhrg are yellow, followed by pink? What is the root cause for this colour? Is it due to production process or other (hygienic) reasons, maybe dirt is visible very soon?

[Jimglove]

What a great question! I feel like HHRG used to be available in more colours, but that has narrowed over the last 20 years or so. I suppose in the commercial world, gloves are sometimes colour coded by task. Perhaps it's to do with economy of scale?

I've often wondered why a manufacturer doesn't make a range more targeted at men - in colours (other than black) and sizes that would appeal to men.

[GlamorousGloves]

I feel as though it's partly due to familiarity. People have an established idea of what household rubber gloves are and most people when they think of them think of the yellow ones. Yellow gloves are basically the gloves you see in most kitchens and their bright colour is very attractive. I can't speak for the entire world, but in the UK some people call yellow rubber gloves Marigolds, even if they're not Marigold brand. They needed to be so universally popular for that to to even happen.

In supermarkets they only sell the popular and most familiar colours of fruit and vegetable. Carrots come in all colours from the standard orange, to purple, red, white and yellow. The reason supermarkets don't sell these rarer coloured carrots is because the general public isn't familiar with those. Consumers are used to purchasing and using orange carrots so the demand for anything other than orange carrots is quite small. The same can be said for bell peppers. They come in orange, yellow, red, green, white and purple, yet you only ever see the orange, yellow, green and reds in stores. Part of marketing is establishing a brand and familiarity between consumers and your product. I reckon this is why rubber gloves have a bias towards manufacturing and selling only certain colours.

Pink gloves are what I'd associate with cleaning. In the restaurant and cleaning industry gloves are colour coordinated to prevent cross contamination. Yellow gloves might be used for washing dishes, while blue is used for cleaning toilets and pink might be used for wiping down tables. This colour coding ensures there will always be a diversity in household glove colours, but I suppose there isn't much need for more than around 3 main colours (yellow, blue and pink). The rest are a lot rarer.

I've noticed that in the UK I've failed to find any online sellers of purple household gloves. I can find pretty much every other typical household glove colour for sale on Ebay... I'm not sure why other than maybe no companies are interested in manufacturing them / nobody cares enough to sell them? Perhaps they're not as popular in the UK so it doesn't make sense to go into business selling or manufacturing them? Either way I've never had the luck of purchasing any purple household gloves from ebay sellers.

[Tomglover]

I feel as though it's partly due to familiarity. People have an established idea of what household rubber gloves are and most people when they think of them think of the yellow ones. Yellow gloves are basically the gloves you see in most kitchens and their bright colour is very attractive. I can't speak for the entire world, but in the UK some people call yellow rubber gloves Marigolds, even if they're not Marigold brand. They needed to be so universally popular for that to to even happen.

In supermarkets they only sell the popular and most familiar colours of fruit and vegetable. Carrots come in all colours from the standard orange, to purple, red, white and yellow. The reason supermarkets don't sell these rarer coloured carrots is because the general public isn't familiar with those. Consumers are used to purchasing and using orange carrots so the demand for anything other than orange carrots is quite small. The same can be said for bell peppers. They come in orange, yellow, red, green, white and purple, yet you only ever see the orange, yellow, green and reds in stores. Part of marketing is establishing a brand and familiarity between consumers and your product. I reckon this is why rubber gloves have a bias towards manufacturing and selling only certain colours.

Pink gloves are what I'd associate with cleaning. In the restaurant and cleaning industry gloves are colour coordinated to prevent cross contamination. Yellow gloves might be used for washing dishes, while blue is used for cleaning toilets and pink might be used for wiping down tables. This colour coding ensures there will always be a diversity in household glove colours, but I suppose there isn't much need for more than around 3 main colours (yellow, blue and pink). The rest are a lot rarer.

I've noticed that in the UK I've failed to find any online sellers of purple household gloves. I can find pretty much every other typical household glove colour for sale on Ebay... I'm not sure why other than maybe no companies are interested in manufacturing them / nobody cares enough to sell them? Perhaps they're not as popular in the UK so it doesn't make sense to go into business selling or manufacturing them? Either way I've never had the luck of purchasing any purple household gloves from ebay sellers.

Hi Glamorousglove
not Ebay but The Range sell purple rubber gloves, they have a scent to them but it fades with use, my wife had some and they were quite nice and a longer cuff.

https://www.therange.co.uk/household/cl ... es/#354928

[Ber75]

I remember in the U.S Playtex living sold pink ,baby blue ,green and yellow . This was in the 90s . I see they still come out with some limited colors. playtex sold yellow and orange .

[joglover]

It the safety side of things , the color yellow tends to display caution. So when washing dishes the water was usually quite hot hence the caution. If you really think about it danger colors deplicted on warning signs are ,yellow, red ,and black and white . Where did these colors come from? Well it really came from dangerous wildlife. Bees , hornets, yellow jackets, poison snakes, poison sea creatures are mostly these warning colors.

[katertjekat]

The explanation is quite simple: uncoloured latex is considered as commercially unattractive. Colouring them yellow is cheaper than any other color.