Rival Technical Boxing Gear: multi-part review

[SquidKing]

First review here is in. I apologize for the quality of the pictures: they're just from a camera phone.

[SquidKing]

Rival Nitro High-Top Boxing Shoes

Not a whole lot to say about shoes, is there? If you don't feel like reading much, here's the synopsis:
THESE ARE VERY GOOD BOOTS
If you want more, read on.

I have three pair of boxing shoes: TITLE basic low tops, Adidas Exteros and these Rival Nitros. The nitros are BY FAR the best of the bunch. As I said in the Extero review, the TITLE shoes have construction problems, and the Adidas shoes don't close up as well as I'd like. The Rivals don't share either of these problems. They do, however, cost twice as much even on sale. I think I paid about $60 for these, on sale, on TITLE Boxing. They're still on sale until the end of the year, perhaps?

So lets talk construction: these are very, very light shoes. The side walls of the shoe are a combination (as you can see in the side photos) of a black mesh and a colored stripe, with a leather cross at the ankle. The mesh is such that you can look through it if you're close enough, and the colored part is soft and thin, but not the same kind of material. Since 80% or more of the shoe is mesh, these don't get hot, and they let your feet breathe easily. The ankle part lets the shoe have a flexible point for bouncing around, and keeping movement unrestricted while still giving side support.

Construction on these shoes is actually nicer than any of my other rival gear. All my gloves have had some minor missed stitches or lose threads: nothing that was really wrong with these when I got them. That makes me pretty happy, and I think I'll be picking up some low top shoes when they're on sale. You can see the treads in the pictures, and they're sort of unusual compared to other boxing or wrestling shoes. I like how they feel, when sliding or shifting my feet; they don't grab too much, and they don't grab too little. I'm a little concerned that they won't last for a very long time, due to the thickness of the sole, though I can't say anything better about other boxing shoes.

Overalls:
Function is a 10/10. The mesh sides are a great change that should have been common a long time ago.
Style is a 9.5/10. They could stand to have a little less black, I think. They're still cool looking.
Ease of use is a 8/10. I'm sure it's not uncommon for high-tops, but it takes forever to lace these up. I know the Nike line has a zipper up the side, but it's possible that they don't fit as snug as these do.

Again, I can't recommend these enough. Pick some up if you want shoes.





Grip/Soles

[SquidKing]

Rival RS2 Pro Sparring Gloves
Link to long-cuff version (RS1). I don't know why they don't have a working page for the RS2, but there's not much difference.

My gym has been closed since I picked these up, so I can't tell you about how well they protect against hurting your partners, or your hands with your partners. I'll get back to you about it. What I can say is: they're not very soft in padding. You will feel your contact during a sparring match. I smacked the bag with them, and they actually worked great for it, probably even better than my RB20s. I have extremely high expectations for these once I get to spar with them.

Construction:
These are easily the most meticulously constructed Rival Gloves I have. My fight gloves have some separation issues, and my bag gloves have some odd lining thing going on. These have PLENTY of loose threads, but no real problems at all. The stitching is good and straight, the graphics are well applied and the leather looks great.
I picked up the RS2 based on a love of Rival products (go figure) and the video review on ratethisgear.com. The coolest feature mentioned there, and in the other reviews of these gloves on Sherdog, is the ErgoTrack system. It may look a little hackey, or like a non-functional gimmick, but the lace track really works well. Much like the three-part cuff on the Everlast Protex3 (which works quite well), the groves in the cuff of these gloves not only provide a slot for wrapping your laces around, they also prevent your wrist from moving back and causing a pinch or hyper-extention during hard punches. Not only does this set up give you a nice stiff wrist support setup, it also helps make a very tight enclosure around your arm.
The fit of the inside of these gloves is absolutely perfect. The lining is wonderful. The thumb enclosure is very comfortable. I can say for certain that I do not have another pair of gloves that fit this well.

Function: TBD
Features: 10/10
Fit and Finish: 10/10






Some close-ups of the major stitching on what must be heavy wear parts.

[SquidKing]

Additional photos:

[SquidKing]

All set for now.

Just a reminder: THE RIVAL NITRO BOOTS ARE ASTONISHING.

[SquidKing]

So my gym is FINALLY opening back up, and I got to go train at one of our sister sites this week. This gave me a chance to use my bag gloves as much as I wanted, and I feel confident about writing a review.

Basic info: Rival RB20 Elite Bag Gloves, made in China like all the Rival stuff, 14oz, red and grey. The rest of the info isssssss - looks like they remade the Rival site. Rival RB20 Elite Bag Gloves

Construction: These gloves have what I've come to expect from Rival, in everything but their Pro Fight gloves. They have nice tight stitching, well applied graphics, no floppy corners and great lining.
In a way that I feel is very odd, these bag gloves feature a leather-lined thumb chamber. When I first put these on, the inside of the thumb was very uncomfortable, like gripping a brick, or corse sandpaper. After my last workout, all of which was bag and mitt work, which included heavy sweat, I feel totally different about the thumb design. While they may be a little uncomfortable totally dry and new, the thumb grip is fantastic for keeping your grip, and becomes perfectly comfortable after only a little while in the gym. On top of this, the hand compartment itself is very nice, though much larger than I'd like, as all other bag gloves seem to be.
The velcro system has been criticized before on this forum, and that's not without merit. The good news is that the hook and loop is quite sturdy, will never come apart, and closes tighter than any other I've used. The downside is that they can be quite difficult to close on your own, especially with a gloved hand. You can view the method of closing in my next post. When i close these with open hands, I like to pinch the gap shut, and attach the under-side strap, then close the top strap. When I put these on with a glove, that's not really an option, and I pull the lower strap across the gap, closing it more like a normal hook and loop strap. Strangely, the gloves actually seem tighter the second way.
These gloves do not have perfect wrist support, but what they have is still pretty good. The strap system gives quality support, though no where near as good as Rival's amazing lace track system.
I've read a few people complaining that the dual layer look of these gloves is attached at a seam that could be broken. While I won't disagree that opening that up is a possibility, but the way these are constructed, I don't think there's much of a chance. The padding in these is very soft, so there's a good amount of give inside the leather, giving more flex to the glove than most, which should keep that seam from bursting.
Considering the softness: this is probably my least favorite part of these gloves. I won't say it's a bad thing, because it work well (my hands didn't hurt at all after a full workout), but I do prefer to feel my punches a little more than these allow. Compared to my sparring gloves (above) these are at most half as stiff.
Lastly, these are not small gloves. I enjoy working mitts and bags with the pro fight gloves, which are probably a solid 3/5 the size of these. I like nice, heavy gloves for working my shoulders, but I like light and thin gloves for working on accuracy. These gloves are not thin, and they are not heavy. The other side of this argument though, and possibly the most important part of these gloves: the Rival RB20 Elite gloves give you really great protection.

Function: 9/10 - tighter hand compartment would be perfect
Features: 10/10 - for the thumb and quality of enclosure
Fit and Finish: 9/10 - more lose stitching than I'd like, but that's a minor complaint

[SquidKing]

Pictures of the hook and loop system

[Reinhard]

Excellent reviews, and great pics. Will be watching out for your threads in the future. From all these reviews and others I've seen, we can expect nothing but quality and bang for your buck from Rival fight gear.

[SquidKing]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Excellent reviews, and great pics. Will be watching out for your threads in the future. From all these reviews and others I've seen, we can expect nothing but quality and bang for your buck from Rival fight gear.

Thank you very much for the praise. I'm glad someone is reading them.

Trial period of the bag gloves is about done, so look for that review soon.

Other than some quality issues I've had (only with the Pro Fight Gloves), I can't say enough good things about Rival.

[Kirkules]

Looking forward to the coming review. I'm looking to pick up my first gloves for sparring and bag work. I've heard good things about Rival and it will be good to read what you've got to say about them.