Padded Gloves

Padded Gloves are common Glove-class arm equipment available throughout the Golden Sun series. In all their appearances, they are the first glove-class items available.

Basic Description by Game
Padded Gloves increase the equipped Adept's base Defense rating by 2 points. As a common item, they can be bought for 10 coins and sold for 7 coins.

They are sold by armor vendors at Vale and Vault in Golden Sun, at Daila and Madra in Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and Patcher's Place and Carver's Camp in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. These gloves can be equipped on all Adepts in all games. In fact, the padded gloves are part of the initial equipment of Isaac and Garet, and Jenna in the first game, Felix and Jenna in the second, and Matthew, Tyrell, Karis, and Rief in the third game.

Analysis
In Golden Sun after the prologue sequences, the player begins in present-day Vale with a level-1 party of Isaac, Garet, and Jenna each equipped with Padded Gloves, and Padded Gloves are the weakest hand armor in the game (and indeed the weakest defensive equipment in the series). Obviously you would not buy Padded Gloves to equip on party members because of this; on the contrary, you would want to buy stronger defensive equipment for Isaac and Garet from the very start, because stronger Wooden Shields are available from the very start of the game in the first town of Vale's armor vendor. Selling off both Padded Gloves would net you 14 coins back, which certainly isn't much but could be used to buy an Herb.

In Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the Padded Gloves effectively plays the same lowest-of-the-low role, with Felix and Jenna being the only ones equipped with one this time and Sheba equipped with a more defensive Leather Armlet. Right away you should buy a Wooden Shield for Felix, but you can't do anything about Jenna's Padded Gloves until you reach Madra, where you can get a Leather Armlet for her too.

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Matthew, Karis, Tyrell, and Rief will all begin with Padded Gloves. As in previous games, the Padded Gloves hold the position as the weakest defensive armor in the game. For Matthew and Tyrell, however, the player will not be able to buy stronger equipment until they arrive at Patcher's Place, as they will not encounter a Vendor before this time. At that point, the player can buy Wooden Shields for both of them. Karis and Rief will have a longer wait, as the stronger Leather Armlets are not found until the player reaches the town of Harapa.