KaosX.net

There have been several companies doing some “old school” looking gear in natural leather. The style is definitely making a comeback.

If you remember back to my interview with Josh from True Fight Gear you’ll remember that they were working on some natural leather gear as well. Josh was great to interview and gave some great insight into what it takes to design and have products made, and then grow those designs and products to new levels.

When this gear was released just after Christmas I was eager to review it. Shipping was prompt at two days time. Upon receiving the order I set out in inspecting the shin guards first. I requested XL size shinguards, mostly due to my calf size. The shinguards have two layers of foam, the brown leather is genuine natural leather, the piping (trim) is synthetic. The straps are hook and loop, with one strap on each side of the sin guard. Inside the shinguard is a firm inner lining that will conform to your shin over time. The instep protector is held in place with the standard elastic band.

I didn’t see a single loose threads or any cracked/worn leather from the anufacturing process. The True logo is small and definitely gives credit to them having the “old school” look. I tried them on (as did my 16 month old!) and they felt somewhat odd initially. After discussing this with Josh he noted that the stiffer lining would break down over a few sparring sessions – or a decent heavy bag session. It’s their way of helping form the guard to your shin but still give it some rigidity.

Next I looked over the gloves. Initially they look just like any other open-palm MMA sparring glove, but they definitely have some nice features to them. They’re styled in the same fashion as the shinguards. Natural leather for the everything but a few distinct areas. The piping/trim is synthetic and the strap cover is also non-leather (but it has to be in order to work as intended). The strap cover is a nice feature that you will only find on True’s gloves. I found in sparring that the cover is not so much for you as it is your sparring partner. The idea is to cover the strap area so that none of the velcro will scratch your or your training partner’s skin. It also keeps the velcro from sangging on rashguards as well – improving the longevity of your rashguards as well. The wrist-strap is your traditional “wrist-tunnel” when putting the gloves on. I found that I would have liked maybe another few inches ont he strap but I think that no matter how much you give someone for strapping they’ll always want a little bit more. When I first put these gloves on I couldn’t get over how comfortable they were
to wear right out of the box. Many of the other gloves that I’ve tried (various CSI, a pair of Title, some everlast, some century, etc) need you to wear them a bit to break them in and are somewhat “stiff” out of the box. These were exceptionally comfortable. The striking surface was flexible and had good padding – Josh notes that they provide similar dispersion to typical 16oz sparring gloves. The finger loops were another extremely nice feature. They are also natural leather constructed and are instantly flexible out of the box. Due to how the back of leather hide is textured it felt great on the fingers, no pinching and no breaking in needed.

I took Josh’s suggestion and worked the heavy bag a bit with the shin guards before sparring – they did form to my shins nicely. During this quick 15-20 minute session doing 3 minute rounds the instep formed to my foot and the shin portion adjusted slightly as well (it was a good fit out of the box for the most part). During push kicks, roundhouse kicks and leg kicks on the bag the guards didn’t shift enough to take notice of. I removed them and let them sit out in the open so that I could see how well the inner lining dissipated sweat before my next session in the gym.

A day passed and I went to get the shinguards – which were, at this point, completely dry which is what I would expect of a non-grappling guard. I packed them up in my PGB-03 and headed off for the gym. After a good jiu-jitsu class I was psyched to finally get some contact drills in with this gear.

The shin guards handled checking kicks just fine and for me was in the sweet spot of providing protection but a little feedback as well. You were aware that you were checking the kick and felt some of that but weren’t injuring yourself. Some other guards are slightly too thin in this regard (most grappling guards using in striking that I’ve used – CSI/Top Contender) and others have what I now recognize as a greater
degree of protection. Neither is “bad” but you need to be honest with yourself on which fits your needs. I like something in the middle. My sparring partners, when asked, didn’t have anything negative to say about being on the receiving end of the shin guards in either returns or actually being struck with them. I noticed very minimal shifting – after cinching up the straps between rounds I didn’t notice anymore shifting. I attribute this to sweat though, and don’t place any blame on the guards.

The gloves were, in my opinion, fantastic to spar in. They were comfortable as I previously mentioned – they had that great leather aroma when you had your guard up. They worked well and I didn’t notice any pain while blocking strikes that would hit the gloves. The wrist strap provided great support. My sparring partners said that they couldn’t tell any discernable difference between those gloves and my normal 16oz gloves. My rashguard didn’t take any velcro snags, myself or my partner didn’t get any velcro burn. I had experienced velcro burn from someone sparring against me with tapout brand gloves that have the extremely long strap and there was strap hanging over. It didn’t hurt but felt more like mat burn, annoying. The other nice thin is that since the gloves fit great right out of the box the piping didn’t poke my artners in the face like some friends noted CSI sparring gloves had previously before break-in. I felt no pressure on my knuckles and my fingers had no rub marks from the finger loops like some gloves will do until they’re worn in.

I would highly recommend these gloves and shinguards to anyone looking for a new set. They look great, are true to size (for me), and feel great in sparring.