@uforgot: Well, it blows my hypothesis out of the water, but I guess it's worth something that I'm not the only person they don't work for. I wonder why we're different? Shame it took $30.00 to find out. I wonder how they'd do as lightweight arm warmers???

@OakLeaf: Saturation definitely wasn't a problem. Since there's virtually no humidity here, it takes a lot before I'm dripping sweat, and I can't recall ever sweating so much that my arms were damp here in the desert. (In higher humidity areas like San Diego, yes, but not here in the desert.) About the gripper: I'd suspect a defective pair. The top part for me is just a natural finish to the shape, which does slowly increase from the wrist up. It's not significantly bigger.