I've never tried these vinyl heavy bags everyone is always raving about but i have a hard time believing that they are better than the all leather ones(especially when using elbows). I cant justify paying the same price for vinyl when theres leather out there for the same price or less
for banana bags, I've tried:
Fairtex, Title (leather and vinyl), TitleMMA, Ringside, CSI (leather and vinyl), Cageside, PKStar, Balasz, and we have an Outslayer we haven't hung yet.
for boxing style bags, I've tried:
Balasz, Ringside, and Everlast (canvas, durahide, and leather).
The thing about Balasz is that their coated canvas feels a lot more like a the old CSI vinyl bags (which feel very leathery) than the Cageside (where you can feel the cross-hatch of the canvas even though it's coated). They were pretty nice for everything, and they held up really well the ~2 years I used them.
As far as vinyl bags, it seems to be a more popular option these days. I think they may actually hold up better than leather over time. I've seen the surface on leather heavybags turn really rough over time. In fact, I much prefer the CSI vinyl bags to their leather bags; the leather bag we had from them turned into sandpaper over time and would cut your legs up pretty bad.
Bags don't last long in my current gym. I've seen leather Title, CSI, & Ringside bags destroyed in months. We have a Cageside bag that's lasted since 2009, but it's leaking and on its last legs. We have a
vinyl Title bag that's surviving well currently, but it feels like kicking plastic and with the pvc pipe running down the middle, there's no fold to the bag - nobody likes it.
For elbows, often it's the logos that are more problems than the material of the bag itself.
The Krav maga gym I go to for fitness has an entire room of Title and TitleMMA bags. I can only assume the Title bags are leather - they don't have the plasticy feel of the red Title banana bag at my other gym; the
TitleMMA bags are almost certainly synthetic. Nice bags either way, but the biggest drawback with them is the logos - some have huge, obnoxious plastic logos that split and are placed at elbow height, so you will get cut up throwing elbows.
TITLE Boxing Leather Thai-Style Heavy Bag | TITLE MMA Heavy Bags | TITLE MMA | TITLE Brands from Title Boxing
CSI vinyl bags are/were nice because no logos - so they're probably third after Balazs and maybe Fairtex. Unfortunately, I don't think they sell them anymore.
Could've sworn the Fairtex bag I bought way back when was leather, but it seems that they only sell
synthetic leather bags these days.
These
Twins bags are also supposed to be some of the best bags out there.
) ram then the bags dont hang right and feel weird when they using. This is a bit of shame because you then get local brands like Everlast selling their own brand of heavy bags, which in my opinion are a low quality.
