Caring for your Boxing Gloves

With prices exceeding £60 buying your first pair of boxing gloves can be a daunting task, there are many types, sizes and styles on the market. You instructor will help you decide on weight and style but as a general rule you should always look to purchasing leather gloves, cows hide is better, go for a Thai brand and get a set of gloves towards the top end of your budget. 

Once you receive your new gloves you will want to look after them, this will ensure years of use. Throwing your gloves in your kit bag and forgetting about them will dramatically reduce the life expectancy circa 10 years down to 2 years. Looking after them is not a massive task, several minutes at the end of a training session and proper storage in essence is all that is required. 

The biggest killer of your gloves is sweat, you will sweat as your training and this will collect in your gloves. If you fail to dry your gloves bacteria will grow inside and a pungent sickly smell will permanently take root. Leaving sweat on the outside of the gloves causes the leather to crack over time.

Firstly you should always wear hand wraps, these will help absorb some of the sweat and can be easily washed, purchase some leather wipes from Poundland and regularly wiping the outer casing of your gloves will nourish the leather prevent cracking of the leather, get rid of all the sweat, blood and tears before allowing it to dry.

Drying the innards of your gloves is essential between training sessions, failing to do this will cause them to rot from the inside out. The best method is to place your gloves in a light airy room away from direct sunlight and preferably where there is a light breeze. This method is not always possible due to our climate, an airing cupboard can also be affective in this instance.

For those students who train 3-4 times a week drying using this method is not always possible. I find using silica crystals stuffed into an old sock to be the best method, the crystals absorb the moisture before any bacteria takes hold. Just remember to dry your stuffed socks on a radiator to recharge them!

Never put your gloves on a radiator or in front of a direct heat source, they dry too fast and will instantly crack. You might as well put £50 on the fire. Periodically I see facebook posts with people discussing the same topic and I wince every time I read them.

Don't put talcum powder inside your glove, it might temporally mask the smell but next time you sweat in them the talc will become a sticky gloop that you won't be able to remove. Never store bars of soap inside your gloves again this will only mask the smell. Never put your gloves in the washing machine / tumble dryer - firstly this will alter shift the filling altering the shape of your gloves rendering them useless and secondly the tumble dryer will overheat the leather drying it faster than the insides causing them to crack.

The final step to caring for your gloves is to store them in a large airy kit bag, allowing  the leather to breath is essential for longevity.