Trialbyfiremma.com link on its way
Greetings and salutations readers! I will be reviewing Double-A's 16oz. Lace Up Training Gloves. I was very interested in doing a review for these gloves since of their $75.00 price tag and free standard shipping. It took a little work but I finally contacted Angel and he was nice enough to donate some equipment to the site to review. Now an interesting thing we both discovered upon receiving the glove was that I've owned these gloves before, but under the Title Boxing brand. Title had these same exact gloves at a much higher price tag and eventually sold them out for $20.00. I was able to buy and go through 2 pairs of those gloves before I received these gloves. So I'm very familiar with them and I actually still have 1 pair left for comparison pictures.
One thing that I and everyone who helped test the glove agree upon is that the materials are very good. The leather, the padding, the lining, the threads are all very good quality! The price at first seems too low for something that feels this good. I love the thick, soft and smooth leather. It's not too shiny or dull. The design is patterned after the classic Mexican style glove. The cuff is triple ribbed, the padding is equally distributed and dense, and the thumb is straight. I personally think it might be a little too straight for those with longer thumbs, but for my short sausage thumbs I didn't have any problems with jamming them on the bag or mitts. One thing that I noticed on the glove was that the triple ribbed cuffs are shorter compared to other Mexican style gloves and the padding around the cuff and wrist are very tightly packed. I was afraid that the padding would literally burst at the seams around the cuff but the stitching is very well done in that area. The parts where the stitching didn't look well done or had come come undone were mostly near the fist area like the thumb, palm and side of the punching surface. After a lot of bag work, mitt work, and sparring I noticed the threads either broke or loosened, and before that there are parts of the gloves where the manufacturer went off track. It's the adult equivalent of not coloring within the lines. I've seen gloves of a much higher price range have this problem as well, but for some reason it's slightly more forgivable for this glove.
Now the fit of the glove is a bit hard to describe. The way it positions your hand inside the compartment feels a tad bit off. I have small but fat hands and short fingers attached to a meaty forearms. I had trouble sliding my hands inside because they started out so tight. The collar is stiff just like the rest of the glove, but once they broke in they were much more manageable to slide on and off before being laced up. I personally wish that the contact area was a little flatter. I found that I would land my shots on the front of my hand instead of the knuckles. I think it's because of how the glove is shaped. It's rounded at the knuckles instead of being wide and flat like other Mexican style gloves. Usually as the padding softens it will flatten out. The padding is so durable in these gloves that it has maintained it's shape even after all the action it has seen. I'm very impressed by this but I wish they were designed flatter. One thing that I want to bring up is that 2 of my fighters thought the finger compartment was a little short. It caused a gap between their knuckles and the top of the glove. However they're both over 6'5” and have gigantic hands. I didn't actually experience this myself but I would suggest going a size up if this applies to you. If Double-A ever decided to tweak a couple of things on this glove I would highly suggest making the contact area flatter to accommodate various hand sizes to let the fighter land the punches on the knuckles. The lining of the gloves is very smooth and comfortable. It's a cloth lining that dries pretty fast. It's not the loose kind. It feels glued on to the glove so there is no possibility of bunching up. I'm thankful for the vents in the thumb but I wish there were a couple in the finger compartment since it gets kind of hot during use.
As I said earlier, the padding is equally distributed throughout the glove. They are very stiff right out of the box. These are easily one of the stiffest gloves I've ever used. They're almost like 16 oz lace up bag gloves, but after a while they'll soften up. Can I spar with these gloves? Yes. Would these be my first choice to spar in? Not really because the padding is a bit thin even if it softens up. Do these make good training gloves? Absolutely. They work great for the mitts and the heavy bag. I can feel my punches when I use these gloves but it wasn't painful since there was just enough padding to be protective. It's actually rather impressive for a smaller company to have this kind of quality materials. The gloves leave a satisfying pop whenever you tap something, so if you're serious about buying these gloves get ready to sound like a one man fireworks show.
So there you have it. Double-A's Training Glove proves that you don't have to spend a lot to get good quality gear. I'm very impressed by these gloves and even though there are a few things I'd like to see tweaked everything that makes a glove good in here. If they ever decide to do revisions I would love to see a flatter hitting surface and better stitching.
Final Score: 7.75/10 -1 for loose and sloppy threads -1 for landing on the front of the hand instead of the knuckles. -.25 for loose fiber poking out of the lining (I didn't take off a full point because they didn't use cheap cotton filling to save a buck)
For those who don't like to read:
+Excellent materials all the way from the leather to the padding
+Very good price range and free shipping
+Classic Mexican style look
+Padding is very durable
+Lining is comfortable
-Loose threads and sloppy stitching
-Wrist padding fiber pokes through the lining
-Land with front of the hand instead of the knuckles and some might experience a tiny gap between the fist and glove(I took a point off because Mexican style gloves are suppose to land with the knuckles.)
You can find this glove and other quality items at
Professional Boxing Equipment | Online Boxing Store | Boxing Equipment Website | Pro Boxing Gear
Pics
TY bud.
