Cahoonas SwiftFists Lace-Up Boxing Gloves Review

Cahoonas SwiftFists™ Lace-up Sparring Boxing Gloves (16oz)Review

Amazon.co.uk

Brand

Cahoonas are an award winning British sports company that design luxury sports kit, other apparel and styling kits. They also sell their own range of boxing equipment, bringing even more of their eye for detail to the combat sports world. They pride themselves on using as many British components and suppliers as possible.

About the gloves

The SwiftFist gloves are one one of Cahoonas’ main boxing glove lines, and come in lace up or velcro variants. We got our hands on a pair of lace up gloves, so bear in mind that our review is based on that, and factors such as wrist support may be different on the velcro gloves. They only come in one colour option, and one size.

Weight and distribution

The SwfitFists only come in 16oz, as they’re designed as a sparring glove. This is pretty limiting if you want to get hold of a smaller pair for pad/mitt work but does mean they’re a good choice for an all-rounder glove. Cahoonas do offer different glove designs in lower weights if that’s what you’re after. They feel very well balanced, with a long enough wrist to balance out the weight of the padding around the fist. They also feature some slight padding on the inside of the wrist, which helps to provide a great amount of wrist support, and a grip bar to assist with making a tight fist.

Visuals

All Cahoonas gloves have a pretty distinctive look to them and the SwiftFists are no exception. The majority of the glove is white, with a black wrist (finished with the Cahoonas logo highlighted in white), and a black highlight on the top of the thumb. On the back of the hand another Cahoonas logo is picked out in black, and on the end of the thumb is a swift in blue and red (hence, swift fists). The whole glove is covered in a very faint pattern that appears to be related to the material used to make the glove, but it gives them more of a textured look that you can’t see very clearly in the photos on the website.

I really like how these gloves look. They’re simple, but the subtle features of the design keeps them interesting. I also love the knuckle duster logo that Cahoonas use, featuring a heart in the center.

Materials/Craftsmanship

Cahoonas have used a synthetic leather for these gloves – their patented Tex2hyde™ material that they claim is extremely durable. In my experience there’s no true replacement for pure leather, but so far the outer lining of the SwiftFists is holding up well. The gloves are packed with a high density, layered foam to maximise protection and disperse the impact of each strike. The joints of the gloves are compactly stitched, with some double stitching in high stress areas.

The one issue I have with these gloves is the inner lining – on the pair I’d received there was a tear in the lining at the tips of the right fingers, meaning you could feel the foam padding. This slightly affects the comfort of the glove, and can be quite irritating.

Comfort/use

I’ve really enjoyed testing out these gloves. They fit very nicely – I’ve got them tied so that I can slip my hand in and out with wraps on to save time in sessions. In addition the padding is enough to protect your hand, but still allow you to feel when you dig in a punch on the pads or bag.

The only issue I’ve had that affects the comfort is the issue with the inner lining I’ve found and talked about above, which is an irritating but relatively minor problem to deal with, and Cahoonas offer a returns service for unused but damaged products – you can find it on their website.

Cost

The regular retail price on the SwiftFist gloves is £55, with free UK delivery. I think this represents good value for money for a high quality, synthetic leather glove. They would be a good choice for a beginner looking to get a first pair of sparring gloves, or even an intermediate fighter looking for a decent pair of lace ups to use in training.