Introduction: How to Make Wario's Biker/Weightlifting Gloves From the WarioWare Series

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Wario's biker outfit is a fantastic casual-wear cosplay. It's iconic enough for people to recognize who you're dressed as while being made of of the sort of clothes you'd see any motorbiker wearing. It's easy enough to put-together, too! All you need to do is dye some pants pink, get a blue-fitting t-shirt (I use a Santana shirt not just for extra details, but to show off how smooth my moves are), paint up a denim jacket and helmet, find some blue shoes... but what about an accurate set of gloves? Nobody seems to make a good pair of weightlifting gloves to just paint up! And the closest looking pair that can be conventionally found are the black Gold's Gym gloves!

I thought the same things, but I found a shop called The Sullivan Co. that sells (or used to?) sell those plain fingerless leather gloves with the Velcro strap. This guide will show you how I painted up a pair to look and fir just like Wario's cool gloves. He-e-e-ere'd-we-go! Yyyyahoo!

Supplies

  • Fingerless leather gloves from The Sullivan Co.
  • Angelus light blue leather paint
  • Angleus white leather paint
  • A flat-tipped paintbrush
  • Something to use for a stencil (preferably sticky like vinyl and not sticker paper- I'll cover why later)

Step 1: Step 1: Acquiring the Materials

This was done during the COVID-19 pandemic, so finding supplies was a bit harder for me to do. While the leather paints are available at Hobby Lobbies and Tandy Leather Shops in the US, I couldn't just drive to them to buy them. I wound up ordering them off Wal-Mart's website. They're otherwise easy to come by. We want to use leather paints as opposed to regular acrylic paints because leather paint is made to be more pliable and stretch with the fabric, whereas with regular acylics they'll crack and flake off.

The gloves, on the other hand, are a different story. While I searched and searched for a plain set of fingerless gloves to paint up, I ran across The Sullivan Co.'s website, which had exactly what I was looking for! Each set of gloves are made to order to fit your hand. They have a sizing chart that can be printed to see what size gloves you'd need. I went with a size eight because I have small hands and wanted a tight fit. You know what they say about guys with small hands... they wear small gloves.

The gloves I got are very soft and comfortable to wear, much softer than I thought they'd be. That being said, by the time I got my gloves, they seem to have removed the listing for them, so I would send them an e-mail asking if they'll be back in stock. Without further ado, let's make out stencil!

Step 2: Step 2: Making Your Stencil and Fitting It to the Glove.

I found this part to be deceptively difficult. Normally I'd just use something like masking tape, but I needed my logo to be to size and accurate, so I went with regular sticker stock. DO NOT USE STICKER STOCK. It'll make removing your stencil difficult and could cause damage to your gloves, like we'll see later. I make these guides to screw stuff up so you don't have to. If you can, just use masking tape or, if you have a vinyl cutter, make up your own stencil! Otherwise, just be careful using paper stencils because they could move around while you paint on them.

I started by downloading Wario's series logo from Smash Bros. for Wii U, which can be found on the SmashWiki here. I played with the size in an image editor (mine of choice being paint.net because I'm too cheap to buy Photoshop), and printed a few out in different sized logos to cut out with my box cutter. I went with a 2.75" wide logo.

I then put on my gloves so I could fit the logo to the back of my hand, and not the glove. The material of the glove is going to be stretched to your hand, so it won't look good if you just fit the logo to the back of the glove. We want the logo to be centered over the back of your hand. Once you have an ideal placement for it, lightly mark three of the corners with a pen and fit your stencil to it. Once you think your glove is ready to go, get your paint and paintbrush ready to go!

Step 3: Step 3: Playing Wario Paint

Once you have your paint station ready, this step shouldn't take too long to do! Minus the bit of waiting for the paint to dry, of course.

1) Make sure the backs of your gloves are flat (by folding the thumb flat and the Velcro strip to the front side), then fit your stencil where you want it.

2) Shake up your white paint jar, then lay one to two thin layers of white in your stencil. Give them about a few minutes to dry, then paint a thin layer of light blue paint over them. Once that dries (in around ten to twenty minutes), put on another layer of blue, then leave it to dry.

3) Once they're dry, carefully peel your stencil up, starting with the corners that point into the logo. See the picture for reference. It's very likely your paint job stuck itself to the stencil, and careless removal could cause your paint job to lift up. We don't want that. Use a box cutter to cut the paint if you need to.

4)Troubleshooting: If you went and used sticker stock like I told you not do you, you'll find out that the paper layer and the sticker layer don't separate nicely. You'll have that white sticker residue on your gloves. Don't be like me and pick it off! Use Q-Tips and rubbing alcohol to remove it. Don't use too much, or you might dry out the material or stain it. Once the sticker residue is wet, you can rub it off the glove.

If you accidentally painted a spot outside of your stencil, you can also use Q-Tips and rubbing alcohol to rub away that paint.

Step 4: Step 4: WarioWear!

Once they're done, try them on! It's incredibly cool to finally have a pair not made out of whatever I could find at the local hardware store. This is as close as it'll get for me! I hope this guide can seal the deal on those Wario cosplays out there!

I'd like to thank The Sullivan Co. for making the gloves for me, and a certain Julie for giving me advice on how to paint leather! This guide wasn't made to advertise any products, but to simply show how you can have a pair of Wario gloves of your own.