Knuckle Comparison (Front View):
On all three gloves, there is a protrusion of padding that extends from the knuckle of the index finger toward the thumb. I think that it serves the purpose of increasing the punching region while covering the thumb to prevent jamming. It is thickest but least prominent on the BillBoxing glove, and most prominent on the Zepol glove.
Notes:
The custom Ringside RP=16 gloves were purchased back in 2006 and have held up very well since then. They have been my favorite sparring gloves for a long time, and I’ve also used them in smoker competitions where 16oz gloves are required. I purchased them from over the telephone from Ringside. The gloves took about 2 months to arrive. The standard colors of the gloves (black w/ red thumb, or red w/black thumb) were listed at $69.99 in the Ringside catalog. To have the customs made, I was charged twice the price of the glove. After shipping, the pair cost me around $150. I asked them if they could screenprint the Ringside logo in red rather than black, and they initially told me that it would cost me an extra $15 to have any sort of screenprinting at all. I had to argue that the standard color gloves already included screenprinting and that it was their own logo I was asking for. They agreed to waive the charge. Last November 2012, I called Ringside to see if they would make me a custom pair of IMF Training Gloves. The person on the phone told me that they do not offer, nor have they ever offered the service of making equipment in custom colors.
The custom BillBoxing gloves were purchased last December 2012, and arrived in 4 weeks. I ordered them via email with Bill Beaulieu himself. Bill is a very nice guy, and has been very helpful. He responds to emails sometimes within minutes…even past midnight! He would send me pics of leather swatches and confirm with me if the color was acceptable. He would also ask for my specifications and review them with me so as to get it right. He received the gloves from overseas and inspected them himself, as well as sending me pictures, right before he sent them out to me. In several posts, he has been getting some heat because of the price of his gloves and where they are made. This brings about several points:
Pakistan-made gloves: The quality of the gloves appears to be excellent. The left and right gloves are symmetric. That is not always the case with Grant. The leather is very thick, high quality, and durable. The stitching is very well-done. I can say this about both the Ringside and the BillBoxing gloves. However, Bill’s gloves are unlike any other Pakistan-made glove I’ve ever experienced. They look to be unique in design, and very pleasing to the eye. The triple-cuff looks simply awesome, and is just as awesome at absorbing impact from punches whilst blocking with the forearms. It can be said that not all Pakistan-made gloves are equal. Most people agree that Title and Ringside provide relatively good quality gloves. Bill’s gloves are definitely in the upper level of quality. I am willing to give Bill the benefit of the doubt that he offers a distinctive and high-quality product based on his own designs and specifications, even if his factory is in Pakistan.
Price: After shipping charges, the glove cost me a few bucks cheaper than the custom Ringsides. Since Ringside is considered one of the standards of Pakistan-made gloves, it shows that Bill’s pricing for a Pakistan-made custom glove is fair. Not cheap, mind you, but fair. Of course I’d love for it to be cheaper. It is possible to get a cheaper Pakistan-made custom glove, but Ringside is already reputed as a standard, and it is by that standard that I gauge a fair price. However, this is only my opinion. I would say that a BillBoxing custom is priced “fairly,” while a Ring to Cage custom would be a “great price.” One can make the case that it would be better to purchase a Reyes glove for the price, but the Reyes glove would not be a custom. One can also argue that Mexican-made customs would be of higher quality. Often the argument is that Mexican-made equipment is generally better than Pakistan-made equipment. While such is often the case, we must remember that it is a generalization. Not all Pakistan-made equipment is equal, and the same can be said about Mexican-made equipment. Lastly, I think that the premium Bill charges for a Pakistan-made glove is far less ridiculous than the premium charged by Grant for Mexican-made gloves. I would like to see a quality-to-price relationship that disproves this.
Ultimately, these are my opinions. I am very happy and satisfied with my purchase from Bill, and I have what I feel to be a high-quality product. If you are curious about giving BillBoxing a try, I highly recommend doing so.
The custom Zepol gloves were purchased last December 2012 as well, and arrived in about 6 weeks. I ordered them via email with Juan, known as Technoir on Sherdog. Juan is a very nice guy as well, and has also been very helpful. Like Bill, he responds to emails sometimes within minutes. If he doesn’t hear from you, he’d sometimes send emails to follow up. I asked Juan if Zepol can make a certain leather color, and gave him the computer RGB (Red, Green, Blue) values. He then sent me a pic of several swatches from which I chose the one that matched my color most closely. Specifically, it is known as “32 Turqueza Azul.” The tannery from which Zepol gets its leather had to produce the leather, which resulted in the delay of the arrival of the gloves. Otherwise, the glove would have arrived in 4 weeks. Of the 3 gloves reviewed, the Zepol was the most expensive pair. The price would have been comparable to the other two, but I paid a bit more to have the turquoise-colored leather made. Juan also sent me pictures of the gloves when he received them, just before he sent them out to me. The gloves are of very high quality and very durable. They are not superior, nor are they inferior, to the BillBoxing gloves. They are merely different. In comparing the two gloves, I cannot justify in this case that Mexican-made is better than Pakistan-made. I do love the unique springiness of the Zepol padding, and the distinct “smallness” of the glove.
Most of my sparmates would prefer me to wear the Ringside gloves, and have complained about the Zepol gloves as being too small. They’d argue that the Zepols look like 14-oz gloves. After they’d been hit by the gloves, they were fine with them. I hit the BillBoxing gloves on the mitts for a few days to soften them up. When they’ve broken-in sufficiently, I introduced them to the sparring sessions and got no complaints.
I hope this review has been helpful to those who are curious about purchasing custom-made gloves, curious about the brands, or have questions regarding specifics of any of the aforementioned gloves. This review took a lot of time, and I now appreciate what Clamp and the other reviewers put themselves through. I definitely don’t think that I’ll do something this extensive again! Haha
