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So I bought Deh's pair off of him a few weeks ago. I used them for the first time yesterday (been using my Reyes and TU DAs recently—the latter pair gave me a bad ingrown fingernail so I've been using different gloves lately...). I went twelve rounds on the bag and have some initial thoughts.
The first thing to say is that I'm still skeptical of Sabas durability given my experience with the Triple Cuffs and the SuperSofts. Still, relative to those two pairs, this does seem relatively more durable. But only time will tell by how much. Also, despite being the most 'rugged' pair that Sabas has to offer, the Prime series gloves don't appear to be that stiff. They have the broken in feel (at least to me) that I experienced with the Triple Cuffs. This makes me wonder about how durable they will be.
So with that out of the way, I'd say my initial experience with them was mostly positive. They felt really good on the bag; offered a lot of pop; the canvas liner appears to be rugged as hell (which I like). I skinned my finger knuckle of my middle finger because of the rough canvas liner—this, to me, is a good sign. The padding is not terribly thick and is much softer than the Zeus gloves that I own (which have 'extra firm' padding). In terms of the material at the finger tip, which was an issue with the Zeus gloves, these seem to have similar material, though maybe slightly different? (It seems to be a little more stretchy.)
The thumb tip is kind of annoying as my thumb touches the end and I can feel the leather edges that curve inward and are sewn (if that makes sense). It's the slack from sewing the two pieces of leather together and flipping them inside out to make the thumb part. I just re-positioned my thumb to be slightly underneath it to prevent the edges from messing too much with my thumbnail.
No issue with breaking in the the gloves. They were purchased used, though, so I don't know whether that says anything. My suspicion, though, is that they originally have the 'broken in' feel since I don't think Deh used them a lot (this is what he said). Like I said earlier, the lack of a break in time makes me suspicious that these won't last long, but we'll see.
Another thing that is annoying is the grip bar. It's huge. I usually don't notice grip bars in gloves but I can definitely feel it in this pair. I don't know why they made it so big (they also advertise the Primes as having a larger grip bar). I don't understand the benefit of such a big grip bar. But maybe some people like it? In any case, though I'd prefer a normal grip bar, it's something that I can get used to.
Fit-wise, I feel there is more finger space than the Sabas Triple Cuffs which were really short on the fingers. The fit is actually pretty similar to the Zeus gloves; the one difference is that because the padding is softer on the Sabas, they seem to be more form fitting. I should, at some point in the future, be receiving Zeus gloves with 'soft' padding, canvas liner, and a new material at the finger tip. Once I have those I can compare directly. (If the Zeus gloves with soft padding are comparable to these, I will probably be letting these go.)
It's probably too early to say, but if these are as durable as advertised, then I would imagine that these would be the Sabas gloves worth investing in.
Aesthetically, there is little to say as Sabas usually does a pretty good job on that front.
TL;DR: gloves feel nice, have a lot of pop; no real break-in required; grip bar is huge, thumb part is annoying—but neither issue is so bad that I would not use the gloves; likely the best Sabas glove to invest in (if durable as advertised—I am a little suspicious based on previous gloves and lack of break in time); aesthetically pleasing, as usual.
The first thing to say is that I'm still skeptical of Sabas durability given my experience with the Triple Cuffs and the SuperSofts. Still, relative to those two pairs, this does seem relatively more durable. But only time will tell by how much. Also, despite being the most 'rugged' pair that Sabas has to offer, the Prime series gloves don't appear to be that stiff. They have the broken in feel (at least to me) that I experienced with the Triple Cuffs. This makes me wonder about how durable they will be.
So with that out of the way, I'd say my initial experience with them was mostly positive. They felt really good on the bag; offered a lot of pop; the canvas liner appears to be rugged as hell (which I like). I skinned my finger knuckle of my middle finger because of the rough canvas liner—this, to me, is a good sign. The padding is not terribly thick and is much softer than the Zeus gloves that I own (which have 'extra firm' padding). In terms of the material at the finger tip, which was an issue with the Zeus gloves, these seem to have similar material, though maybe slightly different? (It seems to be a little more stretchy.)
The thumb tip is kind of annoying as my thumb touches the end and I can feel the leather edges that curve inward and are sewn (if that makes sense). It's the slack from sewing the two pieces of leather together and flipping them inside out to make the thumb part. I just re-positioned my thumb to be slightly underneath it to prevent the edges from messing too much with my thumbnail.
No issue with breaking in the the gloves. They were purchased used, though, so I don't know whether that says anything. My suspicion, though, is that they originally have the 'broken in' feel since I don't think Deh used them a lot (this is what he said). Like I said earlier, the lack of a break in time makes me suspicious that these won't last long, but we'll see.
Another thing that is annoying is the grip bar. It's huge. I usually don't notice grip bars in gloves but I can definitely feel it in this pair. I don't know why they made it so big (they also advertise the Primes as having a larger grip bar). I don't understand the benefit of such a big grip bar. But maybe some people like it? In any case, though I'd prefer a normal grip bar, it's something that I can get used to.
Fit-wise, I feel there is more finger space than the Sabas Triple Cuffs which were really short on the fingers. The fit is actually pretty similar to the Zeus gloves; the one difference is that because the padding is softer on the Sabas, they seem to be more form fitting. I should, at some point in the future, be receiving Zeus gloves with 'soft' padding, canvas liner, and a new material at the finger tip. Once I have those I can compare directly. (If the Zeus gloves with soft padding are comparable to these, I will probably be letting these go.)
It's probably too early to say, but if these are as durable as advertised, then I would imagine that these would be the Sabas gloves worth investing in.
Aesthetically, there is little to say as Sabas usually does a pretty good job on that front.
TL;DR: gloves feel nice, have a lot of pop; no real break-in required; grip bar is huge, thumb part is annoying—but neither issue is so bad that I would not use the gloves; likely the best Sabas glove to invest in (if durable as advertised—I am a little suspicious based on previous gloves and lack of break in time); aesthetically pleasing, as usual.
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