Carbon Claw Recoil RX-7 Series Bag Gloves Review

Carbon Claw Recoil RX-7 Series Bag Gloves Review

 

See them on the Carbon Claw website

 

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

The Carbon Claw Recoil RX-7 Series Bag Glove is a glove designed specifically for bag and pad work, rather than sparring. The gloves are covered with a gel layer across the back of the hands and knuckles, which we like to refer to as ‘shielding’. Because of this they aren’t really suitable for beginners or those looking for an all-round glove, but more aimed at people looking for a dedicated glove for bag and pads.

Weight and distribution

These gloves are available in sizes 12oz, 14oz, 16oz and 18oz versions. 18oz gloves are often hard to find without being custom made, so these are a great choice for people looking for a heavier glove which means they can put a bit more power behind their punches. We tested out the 14oz versions, so anything related to the size and fit of the gloves may vary slightly between weights.

There’s a lot of padding in these gloves which takes up most of the weight, protecting the back of the hands, the knuckles and the fingers. There’s also a small amount of padding on the wrist and the back of the hand, however these are more for support and comfort.

The knuckle padding uses a combination of foam layers of different densities, with the inside of the glove featuring a soft comfortable padding which moulds to the hands nicely, and the outer layer forming the firmer shielding which absorbs most of the impact when punching.

Aesthetics

These gloves come in 4 colour variants; black, white, red and blue. Personally we prefer the look of the black or white gloves, because they go much nicer with the light brown soft leather stitched on the thumb, however all colours have a nice look to them. We ended up using the black version.

The colour of the shielding on the knuckles will depend on the base colour of the gloves, however the rest of the visuals are more or less consistent. Part of the carbon claw logo is printed centrally on the back of the hand. The printing is a little rough, but it’s not noticeable except for up close.

Other than that the only other graphics are on the wrist strap. The strap itself is black on all versions of the gloves, with ‘Recoil RX-7’ and a symbol showing that the glove features gel tech and pro leather, on the inside of the wrist, as well as a smaller version of the Carbon Claw icon. On the back of the wrist is a high quality leather panel with the full Carbon Claw logo embedded/printed on to it.

Overall the gloves have an almost modern look to them, which manages to make a refreshing change from many other boxing gloves, which often can end up looking fairly similar.

Below you can find our Fight Gear Focus video giving you a close-up, visual look at these Gloves. Make sure you check out the rest of the video series andSubscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of our future videos.

Materials

The materials are one of the areas that Carbon Claw gloves seem to excel in. The gloves are made of high quality leather which feels great to the touch, as well as feeling really durable. You can tell just by looking at the natural creases in the leather on the wrist strap that a lot of care has been put into choosing a high quality leather.

The inside is lined with an incredibly soft material which feels great on the skin, especially with the softer padding on the inside of the glove. Usually this would make me worry that it would collect a lot of moisture, but it seems to dry out easily, perhaps because of the breathable mesh palm. The mesh panel covers a large area of the palm, but doesn’t make the gloves lose their shape. While it does its job well, there are a number of loose threads on the mesh panel of our gloves.

The Velcro closure holds together pretty tightly, although I actually found they were a little bit hard to get a grip of and undo when you have both gloves on. It also feels very slightly angled, which helps in prevent the wrist bending.

Craftsmanship

The gloves are made in India, and according to the label inside, ours were put together by worker 67. Well done worker 67, because overall these are put together really well. The stitching all seems solid, and the leather is stretched and folded neatly around the edges. The build of the glove is clearly designed to promote good wrist support, with the wrist strap wrapping round and covering a lot of the inside of the wrist.

The thumb has a nice natural crevice to fit into when punching, however it feels like it somehow sits a bit too far out from the hand for my personal liking, so found myself being a little extra cautious about hitting my thumb when striking. Despite this though, the shape of the glove is generally pretty good, and the built in grip bar makes forming a fist feel pretty natural to do.

Comfort/use

When I first put on the Recoil RX-7 Series Bag Gloves I instantly noticed they were really tight and snug fitting, due to the thick padding. Anybody who has large hands or prefers a roomier glove may want to try these on before buying if possible to find the best size. These gloves don’t need any breaking in and are comfortable to wear from the start, but after a little bit of use the soft padding starts to compress and they start to form to the shape of your hand a bit more and they become even more comfortable.

The gloves are pretty straightforward to put on. While I did find it a little hard to get the Velcro pulled as tight as I usually would, the wrist padding helps it fit just as well regardless. The strap is also what helps the glove provide such great wrist support. One thing we end up mentioning in a lot of reviews is wrist support, because good support can prevent a whole range of injuries and bad habits. The support on these is incredible. The wrist is padded from all angles and the strap really helps to prevent the wrist bending. The cuff is also quite long, which helps add a bit more stability.

My main issue with these is the finger section. The finger section seems a little bit too short for me personally. Thankfully there aren’t any of the usual issues which gloves often have with material gathering around the fingers or excess leather sitting uncomfortably, however I still found that the finger area just wasn’t quite long enough for my long fingers, leaving them pressing into the leather slightly at the end of the gloves.

We’ve already mentioned the padding on these gloves, but the combination really does make them nice to work with. They really aren’t suitable for sparring and shouldn’t be used for hitting anyone, but the harder outer layer means that hitting a bag or pad makes an incredibly satisfying sound, even on some of the lighter strikes. They also seem to offer a lot more protection than other gloves, which makes it a lot easier to hit hard without worrying.

Cost

The Carbon Claw Recoil RX-7 Series Bag Gloves retail at £54.99, which is what we would class as an intermediate price point. They’re not quite in the price range that a beginner would be looking at, but they’re probably the same quality as a glove you would expect to pay closer to £70 – £100 for, so in comparison they’re at a really good price point.

Looking to buy these?

 

See them on the Carbon Claw website

 

Pros/Cons

+ High quality materials
+ Superb protection
+ Great value for money

– Tight fitting
– Thumb position
– Short finger section