Coding Gloves

The rumored Twilio Coding Gloves really do exist!
Unexpectedly debuting in Signal 2019, with a beta launch during Signal 2021.
It might be hard to get your hands in a pair of these gloves, but at least I can share how they got made.

Context

On stage during Signal 2019, Twilio’s CEO Jeff and Director of Solutions Engineering Darlene went head to head in a live coding challenge.

Jeff strapped on a pair of “coding gloves” for a little light hearted theatrical flare, and from that day on the Coding Gloves have become a constant topic of discussion.

Role

Research | Illustration | Sewing | Prototyping | Package design

Process

When the team was tasked with designing Coding Gloves, we very quickly learnt that none of us had any experience designing gloves. We began by trying out a number of gloves ranging from leather motorbike gloves to manicurist gloves.

Jeff’s original Coding Gloves were cycling gloves, fingerless for grip, with a thin padded palm for shock absorption. Both of those were features we liked and felt we wanted to carry over into the design.

The glove I ended up taking apart and creating the first sample with were a pair of rowing gloves. I don’t know much about rowing gloves, but the one I used provided great compression and encouraged a certain wrist positioning, helped that it has a nice satisfying velcro strap too!

The first sample I made out of a pair of rowing gloves

Patterns

We decided early on in the development of the Coding Gloves that we wanted to produce them in a few different colors. We wanted to highlight the original six coding languages that we support, and included a Twilio themed language agnostic one too.

I had the pleasure of chatting with developers from our Developer Network, representing all six languages and learning about their unique quirks, lore, and inside jokes.

Each pattern I created ended up with at least one or more visuals that developers of the specific community would immediately recognize, while a non developer like myself might not think twice about – like do you know about Ruby’s chunky bacon?

Socks

While the gloves took a lot longer to produce, the pattern designs were “leaked” in Signal 2020. I got invited onto Signal TV the day of, where I got to show off some some things I was working on, including these patterned socks.

Prototyping

I experimented with a lot of different types of materials to provide padding around the palm and wrist of the Coding Gloves. I wanted something soft enough to absorb impact, while being firm enough to provide structure. The final choice was to go with open cell foam, it was plush and provided a pillowy feel.

I also added a little pocket on the glove that can hold a little flash drive or yubikey. The original was to have a quick release pull tab, but after rounds and rounds of experimentation we decided a simple tuck pocket did the job just fine.

The final gloves only came in two sizes, S/M and M/L. This meant that we wanted the gloves to be primarily made of a material stretchy enough to accommodate the large size, while being able to shrink for the smaller size.

The world’s first gloves built for developers

Built for the demands of the modern developer, padded around the wrists, and constructed of stretch material that allows for better dexterity when typing in any programming language.