Carbon Claw Recoil RB-7 Series Bag Gloves Review

Carbon Claw Recoil RB-7 Series Bag Gloves (16oz) Review

Brand

Carbon Claw are a UK based boxing equipment brand who focus mainly on equipment for boxing, but also producing gear for MMA and Muay Thai as well. They focus on making as high quality gear as possible for competitive prices. Carbon Claw sent us a pair of these gloves to test out and give our thoughts on.

About the gloves

These gloves are part of Carbon Claw’s new RB-7 range, which offers some high quality leather products for fighters and coaches. The Recoil RB-7 Series Bag Gloves, as the name might suggest, are designed specifically for working the heavy bag. They appear to be a somewhat premium variation of the RX-7 Bag Gloves which we’ve reviewed previously. Available in 12oz, 14oz and 16oz, they’re built to protect your hands through repeated impacts with hard surfaces. We got our hands on the 16oz version.

Visuals

We think that Carbon Claw has done a great job with the RB-7 range visuals. The whole range blends old and new school styles. The black leather is sleek and modern, with crisp graphics printed onto it in the Carbon Claw white and gold. Surrounding this is old school, weathered leather, a rich dark brown which bunches on the folds in a way that reminds us of sepia tinted photos of old boxers with their gloves on. Finished off with a contrasting white piping that offsets the darker colours they’re overall a very impressive looking glove.

The only thing that has let down the pair we’ve tested is some slight discolouration on the left hand glove’s white piping. It looks like it may have rubbed off from the dark brown of the leather and is fairly noticeable – though we don’t consider it a deal breaker it does have an impact on the finish of the gloves.

Materials/Craftsmanship

The RB-7 bag gloves are real leather, which we always see as a marker of durability. Leather often stands up to the stress of a boxing gym better than artificial replacements. We’ve seen no signs that these gloves are lacking in durability, they’ve been holding up to our testing well.

As mentioned earlier these gloves are built to protect your hands from repeated impacts against hard objects – specifically heavy bags. To ensure this protection Carbon Claw has packed in the padding. There’s a range of layered shock absorbing foam designed to disperse impacts around the hand, and this is topped off with a gel padding layer that’s in place to start spreading out and absorbing impact forces before the foam padding even begins to do its job. This multi-layered and multi-material padding does a great job of absorbing impacts, though initially the gel padding is quite solid and needs a bit of breaking in.

Interestingly the gel padding is split and stitched just below the knuckle striking point, a design feature we’ll cover a bit more when we talk about comfort and usability. I would say a drawback we’ve noticed is that the gel padding doesn’t necessarily sit centrally under the black leather section of the glove – it’s positioned closer to the little finger side of the back of the hand. While it doesn’t make much difference in terms of the protection it does leave a bit of a gap beside the padding and is a small detail that would add to the finish.

The inside of the glove is lined with a moisture wicking, antimicrobial lining which will help keep the glove fresher for longer, and the palm is lined with a mesh that will help with heat dispersal. The wrist is padded and has a strap that is extra wide and angled, with enough length that you can get as tight a closure as you want. The thumb is attached at the tip with a short leather strap to secure it.

Overall these are a quality pair of gloves, well made from strong choices in materials. The stitching and leather spread is neat, with no areas that would concern us about breaking under the stress of use, but they need some breaking in and the padding could be aligned a bit better (though this doesn’t impact the performance in any way we’ve noticed).

Comfort/use

The padding on these gloves is moulded into a natural fist shape which is super comfortable whilst still offering great protection. The moisture wicking inner lining is soft against the hand and the knuckle space is snug without being too tight, giving you an overall feeling of support. The gel padding starts off quite solid, but repeated use breaks it in well and softens it, without taking away from the protection and padding it provides.

We mentioned the split in the knuckles that gives the gel padding more flexibility. This additional movement around the fingers (we’d imagine it would be quite stiff and an effort to make a fist without this), and makes it easy to form a tight fist around the grip bar, and adds to the feeling of support around your hand. The drawback is that it essentially specialises these gloves – if you were to try sparring in them the split is going to cause all sorts of problems for your partner as it gives a harder edge to the glove. They’re only really suitable for bag and pad work.

The wrist’s solid padding and long, wide, angled strap allow you to get some really good support which, coupled with the snug fit and impressive padding, really make you feel like you can put some serious power into your shots without worrying about injury. Ideal for long sessions on the heavy bag.

Cost

The Recoil RB-7 Series Bag Gloves retail at £89.99, which we think makes them pretty good value for money – if you’re at a point in your training where you’re specifically after a pair of gloves for bag work. Beginners are going to be looking for a more of an all-rounder glove, so probably need to look at alternatives, but intermediate to advanced strikers who are looking for top quality protection whilst working the bag couldn’t go far wrong picking up a pair of RB-7 Bag Gloves.

Looking to buy these?

carbonclaw.com