A lot of fighters still think bag gloves and fight gloves are built the same. They're not.
Fight gloves are built for one night with 12 rounds.
Bag gloves are built for the work. Round after round, session after session, year after year.
That is why bag gloves had to evolve differently.
Late 1800s – Early 1900s: Bag Gloves Break Away
As boxing gyms grew, fighters needed gloves built specifically for bag work. Before this, there was no distinction in boxing gloves for different training exercises; these categories simply didn’t exist. Around this era, boxers began to want gloves that were just for hitting the bag. These gloves offered basic hand protection and were designed to hit against the solid bags with more volume, but the padding at this time was still very minimal for the knuckles, and wrist support was essentially non-existent.
Mid 1900s: Thin Becomes Standard
Bag gloves became lighter, smaller, and thinner. We see these a lot in training videos from this era, a generation focused on the pop and flick of each punch. Light on their feet, fast in their hands. The bag gloves represented this: enough protection to not break their hands, but the main priority was speed. These gloves had tremendous feedback, were great for practicing precision in every punch, and allowed for speed due to their minimalist build.
The obvious drawback was protection; anytime you try to throw harder or send in one bomb, you risk a hand injury. Glove protection was also very underdeveloped around this time, and so the structure was less supportive overall.
1980s – 2000s: Protection Improves
Training gloves added more padding, more support, and more durability. As boxing started stepping into the modern era, more money got invested into boxing, and more money got invested in protecting boxers' hands. Now, this era of gloves had much better knuckle protection and much greater wrist support, but as protection became a higher priority, the industry still lacked the understanding to increase protection without increasing bulk. For this reason, bag gloves were much bigger and often sacrificed feedback for protection.
Today: Compact Moves It Forward
Compact keeps the smaller profile and sharp feedback fighters want, while adding the protection old bag gloves lacked.
IMPROVED
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Fight Glove profile
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Sharp feedback
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Modern padding
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Wrist support
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Better protection
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More structure
LIMITATION
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Fight size means it will not have the same level of protection as our 12oz All Day training gloves.
The result is a bag glove that still lets you feel your shots, without leaving your hands to take the punishment every time you put rounds in.
