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- Jan 12, 2014
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Been laying low for a while, but decided to post up some initial impression about my newest sparring gloves. My $30 Karate Joe Windy's finally bit the dust, well at least the velcro did. The first time I had to refasten the velcro mid-round, I decided to go ahead and get some new sparring gloves. I also wanted to get lace-ups, as Ive never owned a pair and only used them during training, only in competition. The decision was between Twins BGLL-1 and the R2C C17s. I decided to go with the Twins for their pillowy soft reputation (and the fact that I kind of wanted orange gloves).
I ordered for Sok Sai (formerly Monster Muay Thai) and the gloves were around $92 shipped with the slowest delivery method. Expensive for a glove that can be had for about half that in Thailand, but alas I probably won't get there again until next summer. I chose a custom color option, and all in all i think it took about 5-6 weeks for them to be made and delivered.
Out of the Box Impressions: Holy !@#$ these things are huge! Comically so. In fact, they may be the largest gloves I've seen, including Top Kings which I thought were the comically huge champions. I initially thought that these things must be overweight for 16s, but throwing them on the kitchen scale showed that they were both about 14.75 oz. You can see a comparison pic below with my 16oz Windys and my 12oz Boons. The gloves also have some stark contrast to the BGLL1s that fmeffects reviewed here: http://forums.sherdog.com/forums/f67/twins-special-bgll-1-lace-up-16oz-review-2822497/ His came in extremely over weight, dont look as enormous as mine, and have a more closed fist position.
The orange was also a little brighter than I was hoping, more of a neon orange than what Ive seen from Twins in the past. Oh well, these are the downsides of ordering gloves sight unseen.
Construction: The construction quality of these gloves is top notch; I could not find a single thing wrong with them (minus the off weight).
Fit: The fit in the hand is perfect; slightly snug, not too wide, and feels like it will break in and mold to my hand nicely. The liner feels great, is tight and does not bunch anywhere. Now the wrist is another story. Im 510 ~150lbs and I guess I have small wrists. I really have to wrap my wrists thickly and also crank the laces down super tight to get good support as you can see in the photo.
Padding: As Twins are known for, these gloves are huge and pillowy. They are soft out of the box, and will probably be even softer as they break in. Great for sparring partners (If I can even land a punch with the blimp sized gloves).
Performance: Ive logged about 30-40 rounds in these gloves so far, mostly sparring but a few bag rounds to break them in. Its a little early for a full performance review, but here are a couple first impressions.
Even with the not so ideal wrist fit, the wrist support seems to be deceptively good. It doesnt feel great and give me much confidence when I am just wearing the gloves, but when Im hitting the bag, my wrists feel very secure. Not sure if this is common with lace-ups, or just due to the poor fit on my small wrists. There is a small padding ridge at the base of the backhand that may be contributing to the support (you can see this ridge in the photo).
These gloves seem to be very protective when punching. Very easy to make a tight fist and open the hand for catching kicks and clinching. However, I wish the padding over the thumb was not so soft. Ive taken a few kicks there and landed a few long hooks with my thumb and they didnt feel good.
Summary:
Pros:
-Soft padding ideal for sparring
-Easy to open/close
-Quality construction
-Hand fit is great
-Protective when punching
Cons:
-Comically Huge
-Underweight
- Wrist fit too large for me
-Thumb padding too soft
This review turned out to be longer than I thought; its more of a full review. Since Im not 100% happy with these gloves, I may end up getting some C17s during an upcoming sale. These gloves seem to be redesigned from other BGLL 1s that Ive seen reviewed and online.
Thanks for reading, and Id be curious to hear about other experiences with BGLL1s that anyone has.
http://1drv.ms/1GRELcF
http://1drv.ms/1GRFjzc
I ordered for Sok Sai (formerly Monster Muay Thai) and the gloves were around $92 shipped with the slowest delivery method. Expensive for a glove that can be had for about half that in Thailand, but alas I probably won't get there again until next summer. I chose a custom color option, and all in all i think it took about 5-6 weeks for them to be made and delivered.
Out of the Box Impressions: Holy !@#$ these things are huge! Comically so. In fact, they may be the largest gloves I've seen, including Top Kings which I thought were the comically huge champions. I initially thought that these things must be overweight for 16s, but throwing them on the kitchen scale showed that they were both about 14.75 oz. You can see a comparison pic below with my 16oz Windys and my 12oz Boons. The gloves also have some stark contrast to the BGLL1s that fmeffects reviewed here: http://forums.sherdog.com/forums/f67/twins-special-bgll-1-lace-up-16oz-review-2822497/ His came in extremely over weight, dont look as enormous as mine, and have a more closed fist position.
The orange was also a little brighter than I was hoping, more of a neon orange than what Ive seen from Twins in the past. Oh well, these are the downsides of ordering gloves sight unseen.
Construction: The construction quality of these gloves is top notch; I could not find a single thing wrong with them (minus the off weight).
Fit: The fit in the hand is perfect; slightly snug, not too wide, and feels like it will break in and mold to my hand nicely. The liner feels great, is tight and does not bunch anywhere. Now the wrist is another story. Im 510 ~150lbs and I guess I have small wrists. I really have to wrap my wrists thickly and also crank the laces down super tight to get good support as you can see in the photo.
Padding: As Twins are known for, these gloves are huge and pillowy. They are soft out of the box, and will probably be even softer as they break in. Great for sparring partners (If I can even land a punch with the blimp sized gloves).
Performance: Ive logged about 30-40 rounds in these gloves so far, mostly sparring but a few bag rounds to break them in. Its a little early for a full performance review, but here are a couple first impressions.
Even with the not so ideal wrist fit, the wrist support seems to be deceptively good. It doesnt feel great and give me much confidence when I am just wearing the gloves, but when Im hitting the bag, my wrists feel very secure. Not sure if this is common with lace-ups, or just due to the poor fit on my small wrists. There is a small padding ridge at the base of the backhand that may be contributing to the support (you can see this ridge in the photo).
These gloves seem to be very protective when punching. Very easy to make a tight fist and open the hand for catching kicks and clinching. However, I wish the padding over the thumb was not so soft. Ive taken a few kicks there and landed a few long hooks with my thumb and they didnt feel good.
Summary:
Pros:
-Soft padding ideal for sparring
-Easy to open/close
-Quality construction
-Hand fit is great
-Protective when punching
Cons:
-Comically Huge
-Underweight
- Wrist fit too large for me
-Thumb padding too soft
This review turned out to be longer than I thought; its more of a full review. Since Im not 100% happy with these gloves, I may end up getting some C17s during an upcoming sale. These gloves seem to be redesigned from other BGLL 1s that Ive seen reviewed and online.
Thanks for reading, and Id be curious to hear about other experiences with BGLL1s that anyone has.
http://1drv.ms/1GRELcF
http://1drv.ms/1GRFjzc
