Dear fellow members,
I just picked up these 14oz gloves in Tokyo. The color is black.
I know there are a lot of reviews of these gloves on the forum and many praises have been made about their unparalleled fit and protection. My point of focus in this specific review is about helping users decide on the one of most asked questions when thinking about buying these bad boys: Lace-up or velcro?
It is quite confusing for Winning because unless you borrow some, you cannot try them on and see for yourself if they are worth the investment.
I hope to clarify some misconceptions and explain my humble opinion about the matter...Please forgive my mistakes from time to time, english is not my first language
So I was in tokyo on holiday and I made it almost a mission to find and purchase these gloves. I also wanted to find a store that stocks them so I can try them on and choose between the velcro and lace-up.
Sure enough I found a martial arts store that had them and opted for the velcro.
This is what I have heard so far:
The winning velcro offer less wrist protection than the lace-up
The quality of the winning velcro H&L is bad
This is my humble opinion: you cannot really compare them. It all depends on what you are looking for. I would rather compare velcro gloves with other velcro gloves and same for the lace-ups.
I think as a rule of thumb, the lace-ups will always offer you more wrist protection. Because of the lace going from the palm all the way to the wrist, there is less shifting of the hand inside the glove when punching. That is why you cannot really compare them. However, whatever the velcro lacks in wrist protection, it makes up for it in convenience. The velcro gloves are extremely easy to put on and take off. The quality of the winning leather has recieved unanimous praise, and this very much facilitates putting them on: the leather is so soft that is it so easy to just loop them tight around your wrist without hassle. I remember on my old gloves, once I had put on one side, the other side was always a struggle to put on. This is no problem at all with the Winning velcro and I'm pretty sure the guys at Winning thought about it.
If you are looking for both the easy on & off and still care very much for the wrist support, here is what you can do: it is established that Winning gloves offer the best knuckle support. Therefore, that means that when you wrap your hands, you can focus less on the knuckles and more on the wrist! This is what I have been doing and it works great. With the right wrapping, you will feel no tension or stress to your wrist even with the most powerful throws. As you can see here, the velcro only have padding on the back of the wrist.
My last point is the quality of the velcro. And just like nothing can be perfect, this would be the only imperfection of this specific glove. The strip looks indeed flimsy and the single stitching worries me a bit. As shown in the picture below, the velcro strip borders can easily be lifted and I guess only time will tell if it will last (if anyone has owned and used a pair of Winning velcro over a long period of time, let me know in what state they are in now!)
CONCLUSION
I think that giving the Winning price tag, they are up to a whole different standard than other brands. Therefore, the smallest imperfection is made out to be more dramatic that it actually is.
Like said before it is up to what you need, if you have someone tieing laces for you, then please go for the lace-ups. But for the rest of us, velcro with good wrapping will always be the best option.
I know some suggest elastic laces and H&L converters and I am happy to read what they have to say about that set-up, but elastic laces for me defeat the purpose of having lace-ups if they are not going to be tight. H&L converters I find are bulky and can potentially harm your sparring partners, so you are restricted to working the bag.
I just picked up these 14oz gloves in Tokyo. The color is black.
I know there are a lot of reviews of these gloves on the forum and many praises have been made about their unparalleled fit and protection. My point of focus in this specific review is about helping users decide on the one of most asked questions when thinking about buying these bad boys: Lace-up or velcro?
It is quite confusing for Winning because unless you borrow some, you cannot try them on and see for yourself if they are worth the investment.
I hope to clarify some misconceptions and explain my humble opinion about the matter...Please forgive my mistakes from time to time, english is not my first language
So I was in tokyo on holiday and I made it almost a mission to find and purchase these gloves. I also wanted to find a store that stocks them so I can try them on and choose between the velcro and lace-up.
Sure enough I found a martial arts store that had them and opted for the velcro.
This is what I have heard so far:
The winning velcro offer less wrist protection than the lace-up
The quality of the winning velcro H&L is bad
This is my humble opinion: you cannot really compare them. It all depends on what you are looking for. I would rather compare velcro gloves with other velcro gloves and same for the lace-ups.
I think as a rule of thumb, the lace-ups will always offer you more wrist protection. Because of the lace going from the palm all the way to the wrist, there is less shifting of the hand inside the glove when punching. That is why you cannot really compare them. However, whatever the velcro lacks in wrist protection, it makes up for it in convenience. The velcro gloves are extremely easy to put on and take off. The quality of the winning leather has recieved unanimous praise, and this very much facilitates putting them on: the leather is so soft that is it so easy to just loop them tight around your wrist without hassle. I remember on my old gloves, once I had put on one side, the other side was always a struggle to put on. This is no problem at all with the Winning velcro and I'm pretty sure the guys at Winning thought about it.
If you are looking for both the easy on & off and still care very much for the wrist support, here is what you can do: it is established that Winning gloves offer the best knuckle support. Therefore, that means that when you wrap your hands, you can focus less on the knuckles and more on the wrist! This is what I have been doing and it works great. With the right wrapping, you will feel no tension or stress to your wrist even with the most powerful throws. As you can see here, the velcro only have padding on the back of the wrist.
My last point is the quality of the velcro. And just like nothing can be perfect, this would be the only imperfection of this specific glove. The strip looks indeed flimsy and the single stitching worries me a bit. As shown in the picture below, the velcro strip borders can easily be lifted and I guess only time will tell if it will last (if anyone has owned and used a pair of Winning velcro over a long period of time, let me know in what state they are in now!)
CONCLUSION
I think that giving the Winning price tag, they are up to a whole different standard than other brands. Therefore, the smallest imperfection is made out to be more dramatic that it actually is.
Like said before it is up to what you need, if you have someone tieing laces for you, then please go for the lace-ups. But for the rest of us, velcro with good wrapping will always be the best option.
I know some suggest elastic laces and H&L converters and I am happy to read what they have to say about that set-up, but elastic laces for me defeat the purpose of having lace-ups if they are not going to be tight. H&L converters I find are bulky and can potentially harm your sparring partners, so you are restricted to working the bag.
