A plain-English guide to reading EN 388 and ANSI/ISEA ratings, and why a European-tested glove reveals what a voluntary ANSI number can hide.
Every industrial glove sold in North America carries a rating, a row of letters and numbers next to a small shield. Most buyers read the one headline figure (usually the cut level) and move on. But here's what the spec sheet doesn't tell you: in the United States and Canada, that rating is voluntary, and a single strong number can quietly hide everything the manufacturer chose not to test.
This guide gives you the plain-English version of both rating systems, and then the part most buyers never learn: why a European-tested glove gives you a more complete picture of what you're actually buying.
Two rating systems share the North American market, and good gloves carry both:
If a glove shows only one of the two and you operate in North America, ask the supplier for both. A serious manufacturer will have them.
EN 388 appears as a shield followed by up to six characters, always in this order:
So 4X43D P reads as: abrasion 4, Coup cut not tested (X), tear 4, puncture 3, TDM cut level D, impact passed.
As a rough bridge: ANSI A4 ≈ EN level C, A6 ≈ EN level E, A9 ≈ EN level F. Treat these as approximate, the test methods differ.
Here's the distinction that should change how you read a quote.
In Europe, testing is the law. To sell a glove in the EU at all, it must carry a CE mark under PPE Regulation 2016/425, and earning that mark means the glove is tested and reported across the full mechanical panel: abrasion, cut, tear, and puncture, every time. For chemical gloves, EN ISO 374 forces thorough permeation and breakthrough testing against defined chemicals. A European-certified glove can't show you only its best result, because the standard requires the whole picture.
In North America, testing is optional. ANSI/ISEA 105 is a voluntary consensus standard. There's no certifying body that requires a glove to be tested before it's sold. As one industry analysis puts it plainly: because CE is the only certification-requiring body, a glove can in theory be sold in North America without testing cut resistance at all. ANSI/ISEA 105 doesn't even include a tear test, and there is no mandatory North American chemical-glove standard comparable to EN ISO 374.
Why does that matter to a buyer? Because it changes the incentive. When the full panel is mandatory, a manufacturer has to disclose where the glove is weak as well as where it's strong. When testing is voluntary, the rational move is to test for the property the glove is best at, print that number large, and stay quiet on the rest. A glove can headline an impressive ANSI cut level while never disclosing how it performs on abrasion, tear, or puncture, because, in North America, it never had to.
None of this makes ANSI ratings useless. They're exactly what your OSHA documentation needs, and CE on its own does not satisfy OSHA. The point is narrower and more useful: a voluntary single number tells you what a glove is good at; a mandatory full panel tells you what it's like everywhere else, too.
You don't have to choose between the two systems, you should insist on the strength of both:
That last point is where origin matters. A glove made and tested to European standards comes with the full panel by default, and Scandinavian manufacturers in particular have built their reputation on not hiding from the hard tests. When that same glove also carries its ANSI rating for the North American market, you get the rigour of the mandatory standard and the number your compliance file needs, in one product.
Once you can read both systems, and you know which one was required and which was chosen, no spec sheet can hide a one-trick glove behind a single big number.
Knight Safety Gear supplies European-made (Granberg) industrial hand protection across the US and Canada, built to the mandatory EN testing panel and carrying ANSI/ISEA ratings for North American compliance. Want us to read a spec sheet against your hazard, or send the full EN 388 and ANSI data on a glove you're considering? Reach out.