G'day fellas! This is a review for the Rival D3o Intelli-shock pro punch mitts. These are apparently a newer model with a Velcro adjustment on the wrists.
I Purchased these from Ringsport in Australia, as always the shipping was quick but the price at $150 a pair was a bit more than overseas. Still, it’s about the same cost as buying from overseas if you include shipping and minus the usual 1-5 weeks waiting time.
There’s been a lot of hype around the new D3o range, most of it pretty positive. I was interested to see how the D3o material would carry over into the realm of focus mitts, because as a fighter and trainer I value safety for both giver and receiver.
On to the review!
Links:
Intelli-Shock Punch Mitts - Punch Mitts - Rival Boxing Gear Inc.
Ringsport Boxing Equipment Australia, Boxing Gear & Supplies, Boxing Merchandise & Products Store, Kickboxing & Muay Thai Equipment Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide
Manufacturers description:
- Super Microfibre construction.
- d3o Intelligent shock absorption technology
- 30mm pre-curved high-density impact resistant foam
- AirFlow Control System
- 30 mm urethane palm dome for a better grip
- Padded velcro wrist for a perfect fit
- Embroidered logos
Price:
Between $99 and $199 depending where and when you buy them. I got mine for $150 from ringsport.com.au (not the cheapest around).
Protection:
This was the main reason I bought these pads. The D3o material from Rival is supposedly (at least according to their own advertising) some of the safest material in the industry.
In my opinion, these pads ARE highly protective, but I wouldn’t agree entirely with the hype surrounding them. The D3o material is very good, and when the student hits it you can feel the material “harden” in your hand, which lets very little impact at all through to the coach. I was very pleased with this.
It also creates an excellent sweet spot, so when you hit on the money and the D3o hardens it produces a nice “whip crack” sound on them. This is a great instant feedback tool for both coach and student, especially compared to air mitts which produce a dull thud and make it harder to tell if a punch was pinpoint or not.
With that said, I have 2 main problems with the protective qualities of this mitt. Firstly, when you are HOLDING the mitts the impact is soaked up very nicely. Unfortunately, some of my students felt from their end that HITTING the mitts was like hitting small bricks. The D3o material won’t soften over time, so this will always be the case with these mitts.
Now bear in mind some of my students wouldn’t care if I was actually wearing bricks on my hands, because they’re good students and they just keep their mouth shut and train. But some juniors, ladies or otherwise sensitive sweet scientists might not feel the same, and when asked for feedback that was exactly the case. Keep this in your merciful mind when deciding who you’ll be training with these.
The second issue is the surrounding padding around the D3o. It’s fairly cheap and nasty (like the "cardboard like" padding of cheaper mitts), which I was disappointed to find.
Now I know your all like Anderson Silva with your laser guided punches when giving and smoother than silk like Eddie Futch was with your catching, but for anyone who has ever thrown or caught a punch on the outer rings of the dartboard you’ll be disappointed with the secondary padding on these mitts.
Comfort:
This is where these mitts shine. They are incredibly light, highly breathable and the inner microfiber lining is super comfortable. Putting them on for the first time I was damn near sure these would be some of the best pads money could buy. From a coaches perspective, you could easily hold all day and have no discomfort. No complaints at all here.
Quality:
I’m a bit of a stickler for quality, and I generally don’t enjoy mass marketed machine made products unless they are extremely exceptional. Whilst these mitts are good quality in terms of materials (leather, interior and mesh etc) they still feel like mass produced mitts to me. They don’t have that distinctive hand made feel that Reyes or Grant do. Anyone who enjoys hand made gear will know what I mean.
Maybe that’s not important to you, but for me if I’m going to drop money on gear I want to feel that I’m getting something that was made by someone who loves my sport and who takes pride in what they do. Not by a machine. But I’m old school like that.
So far the mitts have held up well, they still smell fairly new and the stitching is still largely intact. The D3o will most likely never die, and the rest of the padding (whilst not great) has softened to a degree and is still in acceptable shape.
Conclusion:
I’m still not sold on Rival gear. I appreciate that they have always made an effort to bring new technology to the market, but in doing so it seems that they take a few labour shortcuts to keep the price down and the quality relatively consistent rather than top of it’s class. However, to me they sit at the "top end" of the "lower end" of the market if you know what I mean.
These mitts are very good though, and they perform very well. For the price I just think there are better options out there. If you can pick some up on special for $99 I’d imagine most people would be more than satisfied with the purchase. I would have been.
At $150-$200 I think there are better pro level mitts to be had on the market. But if you are looking for a pair of mitts that will stop you feeling the impact of big hitters (or lots of lighter hits over a longer time) these might be what you want. For the trainer who is looking after the best interests of both themselves AND their students, I'd probably pass on these.
Summary
+ D3o is very protective
+ Extremely light and comfortable for the holder
+ Very useful force feedback from the D3o in terms of sound
+ Good quality construction and nice design/aesthetics
+ Palm dome and wedge are nice modern touches
- D3o padding is less fun to hit than it is to hold
- Secondary padding is low quality
- Machine made feel
Hope you enjoyed the review! Pics below.
