Everlast Everstrike Training Gloves Review

Everlast Everstrike Multi-Purpose Training Gloves (M/L) Review

Brand

Originally founded in 1910, Everlast have been a big name in the boxing world for many years. They’re now one of the most widely known USA boxing brands, with gear lines for boxing, mixed martial arts, and fitness related sporting goods.

About the gloves

The Everstrike Training Gloves are one of Everlast’s mid-range offerings when it comes to MMA gloves. They’re a noticeable step up from some of the lower-tier gloves such as the Everlast Striking Training MMA Gloves. These gloves are designed for general-purpose training, rather than with sparring in mind.

Everlast’s sizes never really make sense to me. They’re sold as M/L or L/XL instead of just calling them Medium or Large. I’m a fairly slim build with average sized hands, and found the fit of the M/L to be perfect. If you usually need a larger glove or prefer a looser fit (for example if you like to wear wraps with your MMA gloves) then definitely go for the L/XL size.

Visuals

In my opinion these are one of Everlast’s better looking pairs of MMA gloves. There are four colour options available; black & gold, black & grey, blue & red and finally red & black. There’s not a huge variety of choice, but it gives a little flex in choosing your favourite.
I’ve been testing out the black & gold version, and I think the colour combination works really well. The gold is used sparingly, appearing on the back of the hand, and the sides of the fingers and thumbs.

There are 3 different variations of the Everlast logo on the gloves; on the knuckles, outer wrist and inner wrist. This is probably a little overkill, but it does add some visual interest. There’s also the ‘Evercool’ logo, which hints at the ventilation on the gloves. We’ll touch on that later.

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 and Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of our future videos.

Materials/Craftsmanship

These gloves are made with synthetic leather. As with the rest of Everlast’s synthetic equipment, it has a bit of a ‘plastic’ feel. I’ve also noticed there’s sometimes a slight squeak when the fingers rub together. Otherwise it feels pretty thick, and I’ve seen no signs of wear while testing them. It’s a shame that these weren’t made with genuine leather, because it would really elevate the level of these gloves.

Although the outer materials aren’t ideal, the inner lining is surprisingly smooth. As a result, wearing these gloves without hand wraps can be incredibly comfortable. It helps a lot that these gloves are pretty well-fitted to the shape of your hand.

We mentioned earlier that these gloves use ‘Evercool’ technology. This seems to refer to the thin strip of breathable mesh along the back of the hand. If I’m being honest with you, this feels like a fairly pointless inclusion on an open-hand MMA glove. It hasn’t really seemed to make much difference to me, because MMA gloves don’t trap heat in the same way as boxing gloves, although I suppose it doesn’t harm anything. One potential benefit is that this strip has a little stretch/flex to it. As a result, the knuckle padding moves slightly when making a fist, and helps it sit in a good place.

The only other aspect of the construction to talk about is the build-quality. Overall they seem pretty well-made, although I have noticed that some of the piping/trim is a little messy. What worries me most though, is how thin the breathable mesh is. It seems the most likely thing to break/tear first.

Comfort/use

Due to the low price of the Everlast Everstrike Training Gloves, and my experience with some of their other cheaper options, I wasn’t expecting the fit to be very good. I was definitely pleasantly surprised the first time I put them on. They fit really nicely on my hands, fitting well on the fingers and thumbs, with all the padding in the right places. Additionally, the wrist strap also fits really well. The strap direction means that the last pull of the strap is towards you, rather than away, which means you’re less likely to have any exposed velcro scratching your training partners.

There is one issue I’ve noticed on these gloves however, and it’s a real annoying one. Something really scratches at the side of one of my hands. It looks like this is where the velcro is stitched in and sticks out on the inside of the glove. I’m sure I could fix this carefully with some scissors, but that’s really something you shouldn’t have to do when you’ve just spent money on a new pair of gloves.

The final point to mention is the padding. It’s a thin, dense foam which means you get a nice solid contact when punching. That means they’re great to use for pad work and bag work for people who prefer to use an MMA glove to an actual boxing glove. Additionally this means they’re not too bulky, which makes them great if you wanted to wear them while training your grappling. The only issue is that they’re closer to fight gloves than sparring gloves, meaning that your opponents probably won’t appreciate if you hit them hard. This will be fine if you’re more advanced or just doing some ‘technical’ sparring, but if you have poor control over your power then it’s probably safer to not spar with them.

Cost

The Everlast Everstrike Training Gloves retail at $44.99. Personally I feel that’s a great price, but is made even better by the fact they’re often found on offer in sporting stores. If you find them heavily discounted, they should be an instant buy. These gloves honestly surprised me. The materials let them down a little bit. Although the fit and padding is really well designed.

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