Recoil Boxing Cobra Sparring Boxing Glove Review

Update: Recoil sports have now stopped trading, so these gloves are no longer available to buy, although we’ll leave the reviews up for reference. We’ve been informed that these gloves were manufactured by UMA, so you can likely get a very similar glove made by visiting their website or getting in contact with them.

Recoil Boxing Cobra Leather Sparring Boxing Glove (12oz) Review

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Brand

Recoil Boxing are a premium UK boxing glove brand founded in January 2016, aiming to produce gloves of a luxurious quality at an unbeatable price. On top of this, they also offer a custom boxing glove service allowing you to get a glove designed a bit closer to your own specifications. As a smaller brand, Recoil pride themselves on their ability to provide a much more personal experience which is harder to find when buying from the bigger corporations.

The brand sent us a 12oz pair of the updated Cobra gloves to test out and give our opinion on.

About the gloves

The Cobra boxing gloves are one of two new gloves from Recoil Boxing, alongside the brand new Mamba boxing gloves. This is the second incarnation of the Cobra sparring gloves (we’ve previously reviewed the first edition here) and Recoil have made a few subtle improvements. There’s a few bits of padding in new places, the velcro strap has been changed and the aesthetic designs have been tweaked slightly, meaning that the Mamba training gloves are actually closer to the original Cobra’s design than the second Cobra variation is. These new Cobras are available in two colours (black or white) and come in 12oz, 14oz or 16 oz. Obviously these are a good choice of boxing glove, but they’ve got enough flexibility in the hand that they’re suitable for thai boxing with clinch, or general kickboxing.

Weight and distribution

Like I said, you can get the Cobra Sparring Gloves in 12, 14 or 16 oz, which is a good range of choices to suit most people’s needs, however if you require anything more specific you can always look into the Recoil Custom Glove Service where you could get 8 or even 18oz options, all customised as you want them.

We ended up getting our hands on the 12oz, which we’ve tested out thoroughly. The gloves themselves are very nicely balanced, with the new moulded padding across the back of the hand providing a nice counterweight to the thick padded knuckles. The full circle wrist strap anchors the glove in place and overall they feel very well padded, with great coverage around the hand.

Aesthetics

There’s no two ways about it, Recoil have stuck to a simplistic, understated design for the new cobras. The originals were white and gold, and made a bold statement in the gym, whereas the new design is far less bold – I tested the white pair, and there’s just a few details picked out in black, the panel inside the thumb, the trim around the wrist and strap and ‘Recoil Sports’ both on the back of the hand and the wrist strap, an authentication stamp on the inside of the wrist and the Cobra logo on the back of the hand. That’s it. But i think this simplicity makes these gloves so beautiful – they’re almost timeless, and because they don’t follow a flashy ‘trend’ they’re going to still look cool years down the line (especially as the white pair are probably going to age brilliantly). However i’ll acknowledge that a lot of people love the flashier colour options, so that might put off some people.

Materials

Recoil aim to provide top quality, premium gloves at a much more affordable price, and the choice of materials on the Cobra gloves is very high quality. They’ve used authentic cow hide leather, which is known for its durability and strength, and the IMF padding they’ve used is moulded, and advertised as ‘professional’ level – though in comparison it seems slightly softer than the Mamba training gloves – that provides brilliant protection for the user, and to a lesser extent the person getting hit. Another strong point of these gloves is the quality of the lining, which is Recoil’s Supersoft Satin lining, but I’m going to get to this when I cover the comfort of the gloves.

Craftsmanship

Another area where the gloves excel is the craftsmanship. If something on the Cobra’s can be double stitched, Recoil have double stitched it and I haven’t found a stitch out of place. Hand made to ensure top quality with every pair, I can’t really fault the build quality – even the leather that bunches round the edges of the fingers has been evenly spread before being stitched into place.

Comfort/use

I pointed it out on the original cobra gloves as well, the lining on these is next level. They are so comfortable. The Supersoft Satin lining that Recoil use gives them the confidence to say it’s the most comfortable glove on the market, and in my opinion it’s certainly a strong contender – easily comparable to the level of quality found on the Cleto Reyes gloves we’ve previously reviewed. I’ve found these gloves to be very strong in all areas, but I think the comfort is their best feature in my opinion.

Cost

Recoil are selling the Cobra’s at £74.99 a pair, which isn’t cheap, and is probably going to put off beginners. But you get what you pay for, and over the lifetime of the gloves you’re going to get this money back. That said, as a thankyou for reading our review we’ve managed to get you an extra 10% off just by entering the code ‘FQ10’ when you go to buy them.

Either way it’s clear that Recoil aren’t trying to compete with ‘budget’ companies like RDX or Lonsdale – they’re selling a premium glove that’s very high quality, and is going to last you for ages and is suitable for all types of training. I’d recommend them to anyone, and if a beginner is willing to spend the money then go ahead, but more experienced fighters are the most likely target market.