- Joined
- May 17, 2012
- Messages
- 442
- Reaction score
- 52
Part One
I finally got around to giving Cleto Reyes training gloves another shot. The causes for this about turnaround have actually had a lot to do with this forum. Besides the awesome reviews I'd been reading, there were a few Sherdog-driven purchases I made that really changed my mind. The first was the KOFightGear glove purchase. Out of the box, i wasn't a fan of those gloves, but watching the night and day difference once I'd finally broken them in made me realize that initial reactions can be extremely deceiving. The second was the Boxeo glove purchase. I love my Boxeos; but they were also a somewhat rough break-in. I didn't need another pair of gloves because my Boxeos are just that good, but I just wanted a pick-me-up for my birthday. I kept thinking how people who'd tried Boxeos and Reyes (like Strat) still had wonderful things to say about Reyes. So I realized maybe I was too hasty in my initial reactions from 8~9 years ago.
I ordered the gloves from Lockwoods late Sunday evening and Mike from Lockwoods was really helpful when PayPal auto-filled the incorrect address. The gloves arrived today and here are my initial impressions....
It's always cool when you have packages like this showing up on your doorstep:
Could hardly contain my excitement when I opened them up to look inside:
Something about a shrink-wrapped pair of gloves... makes you feel like you're in uncharted territory:
After opening them up, here they are side by side:
In person, the 2 gloves are practically mirror images of each other.
My initial reaction was:
"The leather's a lot glossier than I remember."
I thought they were going to smell more. I remember the Cleto Reyes headgear I have filling the room with leather smell when I first cracked it open. With these gloves it's only a faint trace, but lean in close and sure enough that familiar smell of high quality goatskin leather permeates this glove.
The leather's beautiful. I don't remember the Reyes gloves I got from Ringside, circa 2005~2006 being anywhere near as nice, or as glossy. My memory of those gloves is that they had a smooth feel, with a matte finish. On these new gloves, the gloss finish makes them feel very slick, like a high end leather jacket or something.
From underneath:
I finally got around to giving Cleto Reyes training gloves another shot. The causes for this about turnaround have actually had a lot to do with this forum. Besides the awesome reviews I'd been reading, there were a few Sherdog-driven purchases I made that really changed my mind. The first was the KOFightGear glove purchase. Out of the box, i wasn't a fan of those gloves, but watching the night and day difference once I'd finally broken them in made me realize that initial reactions can be extremely deceiving. The second was the Boxeo glove purchase. I love my Boxeos; but they were also a somewhat rough break-in. I didn't need another pair of gloves because my Boxeos are just that good, but I just wanted a pick-me-up for my birthday. I kept thinking how people who'd tried Boxeos and Reyes (like Strat) still had wonderful things to say about Reyes. So I realized maybe I was too hasty in my initial reactions from 8~9 years ago.
I ordered the gloves from Lockwoods late Sunday evening and Mike from Lockwoods was really helpful when PayPal auto-filled the incorrect address. The gloves arrived today and here are my initial impressions....
It's always cool when you have packages like this showing up on your doorstep:
Could hardly contain my excitement when I opened them up to look inside:
Something about a shrink-wrapped pair of gloves... makes you feel like you're in uncharted territory:
After opening them up, here they are side by side:
In person, the 2 gloves are practically mirror images of each other.
My initial reaction was:
"The leather's a lot glossier than I remember."
I thought they were going to smell more. I remember the Cleto Reyes headgear I have filling the room with leather smell when I first cracked it open. With these gloves it's only a faint trace, but lean in close and sure enough that familiar smell of high quality goatskin leather permeates this glove.
The leather's beautiful. I don't remember the Reyes gloves I got from Ringside, circa 2005~2006 being anywhere near as nice, or as glossy. My memory of those gloves is that they had a smooth feel, with a matte finish. On these new gloves, the gloss finish makes them feel very slick, like a high end leather jacket or something.
From underneath: