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As this is my first review on Sherdog and to make sure that it doesn’t come across as a sponsored advertisement, I think that it might be worth taking a few sentences to explain a little about myself and the background to me ordering these gloves.
I’ve been training for over 20 years, starting with Muay Thai in the mid-90s and adding Kickboxing soon after. For a long time, I was fairly obsessive about training and competition but nowadays, I train for recreation only. I’ve used lots of gloves over that time, including budget brands and many from the top Thai manufacturers. While I’m quite happy to use just about anything as long as they’re basically fit-for-purpose, these are a bit different.
The MarvelousMuayThai custom 16oz. triple-cuff lace-ups are my first custom gloves and as such I wanted a pair that are as close to perfectly tailored to my personal preferences as is possible.
I’ll be quite upfront about the ordering of these. I didn’t get them for free; they aren’t a pair sent for me to review. They are the first non-prototype pair of custom gloves produced by a new company, MarvelousMuayThai, but made by an established supplier. After showing an interest in his new company, I was contacted by joeymarvelous and offered a very decent discount on a pair of custom gloves, dependent on two conditions:
Following some correspondence with joeymarvelous, I ordered these primarily on the basis of his patient attitude to my many questions and his confidence in his product.
As it’s a new company, I feel it’s important to include a little bit about the actual ordering process.
The design of the gloves was thrashed out via a few emails. Details were checked and confirmed. A delivery schedule of 6 weeks was agreed upon in advance of ordering. The glove order was confirmed and payment sent via PayPal. Shipping was via Tracked DHL. Couriers in my part of the world can be a nightmare to deal with, but this worked beautifully with tracking updates and the facility to change the actual delivery slot and requirement that they be signed for.
They were delivered to my door within 12 days, not the 6 weeks we agreed. All good so far.
As I’ve said, they’re built to my specification, so here it is:
Basic design:
Measurements:
My hands are quite narrow with long fingers. I usually find that the end of my fingers and thumbs extend to the end of their compartments. Here are my hand and wrist measurements:
Construction & Fitment:
These gloves were designed to be long & sleek, Mexican-style. Compact not puffy. And they are.
The all black with white piping will not be to everyone’s taste but I wanted gloves that are not very obviously custom. I wanted them to be understated. Classic, if you will.
I suppose that my age and experience plays a significant role in my choice of gear. I like it to be of good quality but not immediately obvious. People with a lot of experience will notice but not everyone will. My Windy 16s are plain black, my Boon 16s are dark brown with a black palm, my Lemarr 12s red with black palm and white piping (but that's the only colour scheme they offer). My shin guards are plain black Top Kings and most of my shorts are customs but almost entirely black.....
Not exactly stealth mode, but close.
The leather of these gloves is top quality. Soft and supple with a uniform almost matte colour. I like the look of the logo in the white and metallic gold colour scheme and they’re nicely transferred to the gloves with no blurring or transparent background.
It's difficult to get good photographs of the black: they are much more beautiful "in person". The photos really do not do them justice.
The piping is good but I can’t quite tell yet if it’s the type that outlasts the rest of the glove (like my workhorse Windys) or the sort that wears through in patches while the remainder of the glove looks box-fresh (Boon, I’m looking at you…). Time will tell, but it’s the only potential weak point of the gloves so far, and a very minor one at that.
The construction and workmanship of the gloves is superb. The stitching is perfect, double where required with no extra lines where it isn't needed. No popped or loose threads. No over-run. I asked for vent holes and got loads of them: 5 each side of the grip bar and another 5 on the thumb inner, so 15 punched vent holes per glove.
As they're customs, fit can obviously be tailored. The fit of these is great. Plenty of length for my long fingers and snug without being tight. Usually my thumb is aligned with the top edge of the thumb compartment and my thumbtip presses against its end. With these, my thumb sits naturally along the centreline of the compartment. By far the most perfectly fitting gloves I've worn. The lack of attached thumb gives them a slightly unusual shape in the photos but an entirely natural shape in use.
Padding & Lining:
Padding is medium-firm as requested. It feels good and has raised no issues in the two x 2 hours of padwork and drilling, to which they’ve so far been subjected. I forgot I was wearing new gloves except that the lack of attached thumb (as specified) made scooping easier.
The triple cuff padding is very thick (a good thing!) and should offer plenty of protection to the back of the wrist / lower arm. The cotton padding along the sides of the palm is fairly dense and offers both protection and support for the wrist.
I’ll probably get flamed for saying this, but I’m not certain how much the cuff design (i.e. triple cuff or wide strap) affects wrist support. As far as I’m aware, no gloves have padding that extends from the striking surface into the cuff, there’s a gap between the two where the glove can flex. I think that the width of this gap (the part where the cuff is stitched to the back of the striking surface) has a much greater impact on wrist support. The smaller the band between the two, the less flex.
Maybe a small clarification is in order; a wide strap (like the 4” one on Boons) can limit the flex by limiting this gap and thus movement, but the strap by itself cannot stop the wrist from flexing as its placement is purely around the lower part of the arm. I’ve never yet had a pair of gloves where the strap actually goes around the wrist.
In all honesty, this is something that’s only recently occurred to me. Forget your pre-conceptions and have a go with your own gloves. Let me know what you think. Politely please. I’m always open to discussion and changing my opinion but I fucking hate a lack of manners.
The lining is quite unusual but feels gorgeous. It’s not the common satin-type material and feels soft to the touch. It’s possibly a microfibre or fine mock-eyelet polyweave. It seems to absorb sweat rather than repel it but dries out quickly. The lining initially felt a little bit loose at the back of the fingertips but seems to be creasing and adjusting to the shape of my hands with a little use.
Weight & balance:
I was a little concerned that the gloves are stamped with “Custom Size”. Nowhere do they have a stamp or label saying 16oz. I've previously used 16s that weigh 14oz and ones nearer 19oz.
That said, these are bang on weight; they weigh 451g & 459g making them the most perfectly matched pair of gloves that I’ve ever weighed and the absolute closest to 16oz. that I’ve owned.
The balance is lovely on these gloves with a nice weight distribution between the cuff padding and the striking area.
Lacing:
The gloves arrived laced with a nice, wide, slightly stretchy pair of white laces and long enough to wrap and tie comfortable. I immediately swapped them for a set of black elastic laces. These will never be as good as having them properly laced but are more than adequate and better suited to my use of them.
Performance:
These gloves have only been used twice, for drilling, padwork and a little clinching. I haven’t used them for sparring yet so the following should be considered as initial impressions only. I’ll update when they’ve seen more use.
The medium-firm layered padding on these gloves is my attempt to specify a design for the Holy Grail of hand protection and feedback. I feel that overly soft padding can sometimes compress to the extent that it provides no impact absorption. Failure to decompress quickly can mean that this is exaggerated even more when landing, for instance, a quick double jab. Hard padding can have the same result when it fails to compress sufficiently under impact.
So these were intended to take the middle way. And I feel that they work very well.
Perhaps the biggest compliment I can pay, is that I experienced no issues when using them on pads or when drilling and was able to concentrate on training. I spend an inordinate amount of time, when not training, thinking about the design of gear and equipment. The niggles that you notice when you don’t want to be thinking about gear. I simply don’t want to be aware of my gloves when I’m actually using them.
I was, however, aware of them when clinching. None of the Thai made gloves that I had in the 90's had attached thumbs and I've never liked the thumbs to be attached since. The unattached thumb makes clinching easier, and with the closed profile, scooped kicks are less likely to get trapped in the glove unintentionally.
It is no longer a common design feature, but it's one that I prefer. Cut the thumb attachment on a pair of gloves that are long past their best and see if you like it!
Summary:
I've waited a long time to buy a pair of customs, and these really are the most perfect gloves I've ever used.
They have become my workhorse glove for training, even though they're really much too gorgeous for that!
I'm seriously considering a pair of purple laceups purely for sparring, though I really don't need new sparring gloves at the moment. MarvelousMuayThai delivered perfectly to my specifications and I don't think that I'll change anything about the design for the next ones.
Ordering:
If you're looking for gloves, I would absolutely recommend ordering through joeymarvelous for a great pair of gloves built to your own specifications.
Contact joeymarvelous on Sherdog or Email: [email protected]
Photos:
Out of the box.
Closed profile.
Thumb outer.
With elastic laces fitted.
Close up of palm.
Thumb inner & palm vents.
I’ve been training for over 20 years, starting with Muay Thai in the mid-90s and adding Kickboxing soon after. For a long time, I was fairly obsessive about training and competition but nowadays, I train for recreation only. I’ve used lots of gloves over that time, including budget brands and many from the top Thai manufacturers. While I’m quite happy to use just about anything as long as they’re basically fit-for-purpose, these are a bit different.
The MarvelousMuayThai custom 16oz. triple-cuff lace-ups are my first custom gloves and as such I wanted a pair that are as close to perfectly tailored to my personal preferences as is possible.
I’ll be quite upfront about the ordering of these. I didn’t get them for free; they aren’t a pair sent for me to review. They are the first non-prototype pair of custom gloves produced by a new company, MarvelousMuayThai, but made by an established supplier. After showing an interest in his new company, I was contacted by joeymarvelous and offered a very decent discount on a pair of custom gloves, dependent on two conditions:
- They carry his logo
- I write a "detailed and honest review"
Following some correspondence with joeymarvelous, I ordered these primarily on the basis of his patient attitude to my many questions and his confidence in his product.
As it’s a new company, I feel it’s important to include a little bit about the actual ordering process.
The design of the gloves was thrashed out via a few emails. Details were checked and confirmed. A delivery schedule of 6 weeks was agreed upon in advance of ordering. The glove order was confirmed and payment sent via PayPal. Shipping was via Tracked DHL. Couriers in my part of the world can be a nightmare to deal with, but this worked beautifully with tracking updates and the facility to change the actual delivery slot and requirement that they be signed for.
They were delivered to my door within 12 days, not the 6 weeks we agreed. All good so far.
As I’ve said, they’re built to my specification, so here it is:
Basic design:
- Mexican type glove (long & sleek, compact)
- 16oz.
- Closed profile
- Very stiff palm padding (wadded cotton)
- Lace up & Triple cuff, please.
- No thumb attachment
- Medium-firm layered padding
- Cowhide leather construction.
- Fully lined.
- Black leather with white piping.
- Back of thumb & back of glove to be a single piece of leather.
- Grip bar.
- Vent holes in palm.
- New Marvelous Logo in White and Gold.
- Order number on wrist.
Measurements:
My hands are quite narrow with long fingers. I usually find that the end of my fingers and thumbs extend to the end of their compartments. Here are my hand and wrist measurements:
- Measurement around knuckles, hand flat 20cm / 7 7/8"
- Wrist circumference = 16.5cm / 6 1/2"
- Base of palm to tip of middle finger = 20cm / 7 7/8"
- Handspan (fingers spread, tip of thumb to tip of 5th finger) = 22cm / 8 5/8"
- Middle finger = 9cm long / 3 1/2", from the hand
- Where the thumb connects to the hand, to the tip of the finger vertically = 12.5cm / 5"
- Width = 9cm at the widest point / 3 1/2"
Construction & Fitment:
These gloves were designed to be long & sleek, Mexican-style. Compact not puffy. And they are.
The all black with white piping will not be to everyone’s taste but I wanted gloves that are not very obviously custom. I wanted them to be understated. Classic, if you will.
I suppose that my age and experience plays a significant role in my choice of gear. I like it to be of good quality but not immediately obvious. People with a lot of experience will notice but not everyone will. My Windy 16s are plain black, my Boon 16s are dark brown with a black palm, my Lemarr 12s red with black palm and white piping (but that's the only colour scheme they offer). My shin guards are plain black Top Kings and most of my shorts are customs but almost entirely black.....
Not exactly stealth mode, but close.
The leather of these gloves is top quality. Soft and supple with a uniform almost matte colour. I like the look of the logo in the white and metallic gold colour scheme and they’re nicely transferred to the gloves with no blurring or transparent background.
It's difficult to get good photographs of the black: they are much more beautiful "in person". The photos really do not do them justice.
The piping is good but I can’t quite tell yet if it’s the type that outlasts the rest of the glove (like my workhorse Windys) or the sort that wears through in patches while the remainder of the glove looks box-fresh (Boon, I’m looking at you…). Time will tell, but it’s the only potential weak point of the gloves so far, and a very minor one at that.
The construction and workmanship of the gloves is superb. The stitching is perfect, double where required with no extra lines where it isn't needed. No popped or loose threads. No over-run. I asked for vent holes and got loads of them: 5 each side of the grip bar and another 5 on the thumb inner, so 15 punched vent holes per glove.
As they're customs, fit can obviously be tailored. The fit of these is great. Plenty of length for my long fingers and snug without being tight. Usually my thumb is aligned with the top edge of the thumb compartment and my thumbtip presses against its end. With these, my thumb sits naturally along the centreline of the compartment. By far the most perfectly fitting gloves I've worn. The lack of attached thumb gives them a slightly unusual shape in the photos but an entirely natural shape in use.
Padding & Lining:
Padding is medium-firm as requested. It feels good and has raised no issues in the two x 2 hours of padwork and drilling, to which they’ve so far been subjected. I forgot I was wearing new gloves except that the lack of attached thumb (as specified) made scooping easier.
The triple cuff padding is very thick (a good thing!) and should offer plenty of protection to the back of the wrist / lower arm. The cotton padding along the sides of the palm is fairly dense and offers both protection and support for the wrist.
I’ll probably get flamed for saying this, but I’m not certain how much the cuff design (i.e. triple cuff or wide strap) affects wrist support. As far as I’m aware, no gloves have padding that extends from the striking surface into the cuff, there’s a gap between the two where the glove can flex. I think that the width of this gap (the part where the cuff is stitched to the back of the striking surface) has a much greater impact on wrist support. The smaller the band between the two, the less flex.
Maybe a small clarification is in order; a wide strap (like the 4” one on Boons) can limit the flex by limiting this gap and thus movement, but the strap by itself cannot stop the wrist from flexing as its placement is purely around the lower part of the arm. I’ve never yet had a pair of gloves where the strap actually goes around the wrist.
In all honesty, this is something that’s only recently occurred to me. Forget your pre-conceptions and have a go with your own gloves. Let me know what you think. Politely please. I’m always open to discussion and changing my opinion but I fucking hate a lack of manners.
The lining is quite unusual but feels gorgeous. It’s not the common satin-type material and feels soft to the touch. It’s possibly a microfibre or fine mock-eyelet polyweave. It seems to absorb sweat rather than repel it but dries out quickly. The lining initially felt a little bit loose at the back of the fingertips but seems to be creasing and adjusting to the shape of my hands with a little use.
Weight & balance:
I was a little concerned that the gloves are stamped with “Custom Size”. Nowhere do they have a stamp or label saying 16oz. I've previously used 16s that weigh 14oz and ones nearer 19oz.
That said, these are bang on weight; they weigh 451g & 459g making them the most perfectly matched pair of gloves that I’ve ever weighed and the absolute closest to 16oz. that I’ve owned.
The balance is lovely on these gloves with a nice weight distribution between the cuff padding and the striking area.
Lacing:
The gloves arrived laced with a nice, wide, slightly stretchy pair of white laces and long enough to wrap and tie comfortable. I immediately swapped them for a set of black elastic laces. These will never be as good as having them properly laced but are more than adequate and better suited to my use of them.
Performance:
These gloves have only been used twice, for drilling, padwork and a little clinching. I haven’t used them for sparring yet so the following should be considered as initial impressions only. I’ll update when they’ve seen more use.
The medium-firm layered padding on these gloves is my attempt to specify a design for the Holy Grail of hand protection and feedback. I feel that overly soft padding can sometimes compress to the extent that it provides no impact absorption. Failure to decompress quickly can mean that this is exaggerated even more when landing, for instance, a quick double jab. Hard padding can have the same result when it fails to compress sufficiently under impact.
So these were intended to take the middle way. And I feel that they work very well.
Perhaps the biggest compliment I can pay, is that I experienced no issues when using them on pads or when drilling and was able to concentrate on training. I spend an inordinate amount of time, when not training, thinking about the design of gear and equipment. The niggles that you notice when you don’t want to be thinking about gear. I simply don’t want to be aware of my gloves when I’m actually using them.
I was, however, aware of them when clinching. None of the Thai made gloves that I had in the 90's had attached thumbs and I've never liked the thumbs to be attached since. The unattached thumb makes clinching easier, and with the closed profile, scooped kicks are less likely to get trapped in the glove unintentionally.
It is no longer a common design feature, but it's one that I prefer. Cut the thumb attachment on a pair of gloves that are long past their best and see if you like it!
Summary:
I've waited a long time to buy a pair of customs, and these really are the most perfect gloves I've ever used.
They have become my workhorse glove for training, even though they're really much too gorgeous for that!
I'm seriously considering a pair of purple laceups purely for sparring, though I really don't need new sparring gloves at the moment. MarvelousMuayThai delivered perfectly to my specifications and I don't think that I'll change anything about the design for the next ones.
- Materials and craftsmanship are superb.
- The fit is perfect, with best thumb position ever.
- MarvelousMuayThai confirmed and checked every detail of the gloves prior to confirmation of the order.
- Ordering was painless and straightforward.
- Delivery was super-fast.
- The gloves were built exactly as I specified and requested.
- In a single word? Exquisite.
Ordering:
If you're looking for gloves, I would absolutely recommend ordering through joeymarvelous for a great pair of gloves built to your own specifications.
Contact joeymarvelous on Sherdog or Email: [email protected]
Photos:
Out of the box.
Closed profile.
Thumb outer.
With elastic laces fitted.
Close up of palm.
Thumb inner & palm vents.
