The British Glove Association (BGA) was formed in 1998 as a result of a merger of two trade associations: the National Association of Glove Manufacturers (NAGM) and the Glove Guild of Great Britain.

The NAGM was formed in 1941 under the presidency of Ralf Southcombe of Southcombe Bros Ltd (subsequently a BGA founder member) who held office until 1946. Its principal objectives were to “foster the welfare of the Glove Manufacturing Trade generally, and to enhance its prestige”, to promote the amicable working of the industry and to represent its members at national level in dealings with the government and employees' organisations, including the negotiation of a national agreement for terms and conditions of employment. Its members were drawn from both the industrial and dress glove trades and, at their peak, totalled in excess of a hundred manufacturers and their suppliers.

The Glove Guild of Great Britain was formed around 1965 and was essentially an association of wholesalers, importers and high street retailers whose main objective was to promote the sale of dress gloves. To this end it organised a number of regular promotional events, including glove fairs and an annual student glove design competition. John Meier of Speciality Gloves Ltd was the Guild’s long-serving President from 1973 until 1998.

The NAGM remained a robust trade association until the end of the 1980s when the economic climate changed forever. In 1972 there had been over fifty members in the industrial glove section alone, whilst ten years later in 1982, there were still over sixty members in the association as a whole. The deep economic recession in the early 1980s which caused permanent damage to UK manufacturing, combined with the increasing tide of low cost imports of both industrial and fashion gloves from the Far East meant, that, by 1993, membership had dropped to a mere two dozen full members and half a dozen associate (supplier) members.

A decline in membership of the Glove Guild over the same period meant that, by the mid 1990s, it had become impracticable and uneconomic for either organisation to continue independently. With several key players in the industry being members of both organisations, amalgamation seemed the obvious solution to the problem of falling membership. Negotiations commenced in late 1996 under the aegis of the Worshipful Company of Glovers of London (www.thegloverscompany.org) acting through the then Master, Alan Fishman and were concluded in early 1998 when the immediate Past Master of the Glovers' Company, Michael Down, was appointed as the first President of the BGA at its inaugural meeting in April of that year.