An intense workout that’s sure to test your cardio and muscular endurance, kickboxing classes are an incredible way for you to get in shape so that you can get back to looking good and feeling your best. Your first couple of classes will probably leave you feeling miserably tired and gassed out (a common term meaning extremely exhausted), but martial arts is all about persevering and remaining disciplined both inside and outside the gym. As a new kickboxer, you’re probably wanting to equip yourself with the right gear that will keep you protected and provides comfort for intensive classes.
At its core, there are five essential pieces of gear to ensure your martial arts journey in Kickboxing is a success:
Imagine you’re taking a kickboxing class and your instructor has you drilling power punches into the punching/kicking bag, only for you to begin feeling a stinging pain in your wrist or hand - and you’re only 20 seconds into the exercise with 1 minute and 40 seconds left in the workout round! You’ll unfortunately not be punching the bag as hard as you’d like, meaning you won’t be performing as optimally as you could, which in turn affects your overall workout for the day. This is why we at ATL Fight Shop preach to every new martial artist, whether they’re starting out in boxing, kickboxing or BJJ - invest in your gear and don’t settle for cheap equipment!
Ensuring you have the best possible gear for the beginning of your kickboxing journey will help you keep your training intensity at high levels while helping you prevent any unnecessary injuries. Countless times we have used a pair of boxing gloves only to find our hands and wrists aching due to poor materials and padding in the construct of the gloves in use. But don’t worry! We’ll walk you through the importance of each piece of gear and our recommendations so that you can start your kickboxing journey firing on all cylinders.
A common question coaches and experienced martial artists get asked by beginner kickboxers is what are some good gloves you would recommend?
While it’s an important question to ask, what many beginners don’t know is that there are a vast number of brands that make quality boxing gloves perfect for kickboxing training. This is something ATL Fight Shop is striving to help solve - we’re on a mission to create a central resource where you could shop for quality fight gear from the top brands in Kickboxing and other combat sports that have been tested by experienced martial artists with years of experience in their respective sport. With that said, here are a few of the brands we recommend for beginner Kickboxers:
To the surprise of many people beginning their journey into kickboxing, Adidas does in fact have their dedicated line of combat sports gear (because Kickboxing is a combat sport). Their gloves and apparel sport the ‘three stripes’ design across many of their products. If you’re a fan of all things Adidas, their line of boxing gloves and accessories may be a great choice for your first set of boxing gloves and accessories.
If you’ve been inside of a big-box sporting goods store, you’ve probably seen the Everlast brand somewhere in the back of the store (since combat sports apparently isn’t as important to them as fishing). You’ll probably also run into that one guy throwing combinations at the punching bag, showing the store’s patrons that he’s not one to mess with. Generally speaking, these gloves that are carried at the big-box sporting goods stores are not the best Everlast has to offer. But unfortunately, this has given Everlast a negative reputation amongst martial arts enthusiasts.
Everlast, being one of the most iconic brands in boxing, does indeed have a selection of quality boxing gloves that are a great choice for your first year in Kickboxing. Along with providing incredible padding on the hands and adjustable wrist support, the Everlast boxing gloves we’ve tested and added to our collection for our clients also look great, and pair well with many of your potential workout outfits!
Well known amongst the Muay Thai community, Fairtex gloves offer incredible padding on the knuckles while providing you with ample space inside of the gloves - this will come in handy during workouts where you will have to grab your kicking bag and work on knee strikes.
Fairtex is also one of the few brands that create some of the more stylish apparel not only in the Muay Thai community, but also in all of combat sports. You can check out our collection of Fairtex apparel here - we only provide our incredible clients with gear and apparel that looks good and feels good!
As we mentioned above, there are five pieces of essential gear to kickoff your Kickboxing journey. Let’s review each one of them and why it’s important to invest in quality gear versus cheap gear.
The first piece of essential gear is going to be a pair of boxing gloves. Boxing gloves come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and considering the vast amount of boxing gloves on the market, it can get stressful choosing the right set of gloves.
There are three main components of a boxing glove you want to look for:
For comparison, standard gyms will sell you a set of unbranded 14oz or 16oz boxing gloves. When you try them on, you’ll notice the materials of the glove are oddly thin and punching the heavy bag can get uncomfortable on the hands. Even worse, some gyms won’t offer you hand wraps, and this can make your first day of kickboxing very difficult (we’ll talk about the importance of hand wraps below).
When you train with quality boxing gloves, you should feel like your hand is hugged comfortably by the glove, and every punch should feel soft without the unnecessary recoil in the wrist. A quality pair of boxing gloves will also allow you to feel like your wrists are firm and in place, allowing you to throw heavy punches without fear of injury.
We’ve tested many of our boxing gloves under kickboxing class environments, and these are our highly recommended boxing gloves that are sure to help you get through your first year in Kickboxing:
The Adidas Hybrid 80 Training gloves are our base-tier model for both kickboxers and boxers. They are a great introductory set of boxing gloves that get the job done for every kickboxing class. They offer comfortable knuckle and hand padding, while providing you with a nice and secure velcro strap that’s easy to remove in between workouts.
We recommend the Adidas Hybrid 80 Training Gloves if you plan on focusing your kickboxing training on developing your striking technique and throwing high volume of punches and kicks. They start at $34.99 and are available in two colors: Black/Black and Black/Solar Pink.
An ATL Fight Shop favorite, the Adidas Hybrid 200 Training Gloves provide you with unique padding in the hands and knuckles. These gloves make kickboxing classes fun and efficient thanks to the quality wrist support and ample padding on the knuckles. We recommend the Adidas Hybrid 200 Training Gloves to beginner kickboxers who plan on throwing a mix of high-volume punches and heavy punches to the bag. Available in Black/White in 16oz only (with more colors on the way), these $99.99 gloves are definitely worth the investment and are unlike any other boxing glove on the market.
From our trusted product testers, one of the stand-out gloves that they had their hands on are the Everlast Powerlock2 Pro Training Gloves. These Everlast boxing gloves offer extra padding in the knuckles and adjustable wrist strap, allowing you to control how firm or relaxed you want the wrist support to fit. After 3 months of heavy use, these boxing gloves held up nicely without any issues, unlike the gloves you would find at big-box retail stores. Starting at $99.99, the Everlast Powerlock2 Pro Training Gloves are a great option for your first pair of boxing gloves.
As essential as boxing gloves are to any martial artist's daily training, hand wraps are the most fundamental piece of gear you’ll need to ensure your hands and wrists remain secure during your kickboxing classes. Hand wraps help in adding extra padding and security to your knuckles while adding firm support to your wrists to help prevent wrist sprains during heavy bag punches. While hand wraps help you keep your hands and wrists in place, it’s also important to train with wraps that are made of quality materials - failure to pick out quality hand wraps can result in a very uncomfortable training session.
Just like we test out all of our boxing gloves, we conduct the same level of product testing with our hand wraps and accessories to ensure we’re providing our clients with only the best gear available. From the dozens of hand wraps we have gotten our hands on (so far), these are our picks for the best hand wraps not just for beginner kickboxers, but for every martial artist:
A silky-smooth feel to the touch, the Everlast 1910 Hand Wraps are made with an extra soft cotton that makes wrapping your hands comfortable and efficient. Thanks to the 180 inches available per wrap, you’ll have enough wrap available to cover your knuckles and wrists. Available for $19.99, these Everlast 1910 Hand Wraps are a fantastic option to pair with your new set of boxing gloves.
Highly recommended by the ATL Fight Shop team, the Everlast Flexcool Hand Wraps are bar-none one of the best hand wraps we’ve tested and trained with so far. We’ve gotten our hands on pairs of Fairtex and Cleto Reyes (a professional boxing brand) hand wraps, and they come nowhere close to the comfort and breathability that the Everlast Flexcool Hand Wraps offer. While they’re supremely comfortable and reliable, they do have one minor drawback. You’ll just want to make sure you don’t apply these hand wraps too tightly as they can get uncomfortable during training IF you apply them really tight.
While it’s obvious you’ll want to wear a shirt during your kickboxing classes, it can sometimes be hard to find a shirt that fits well, stays dry and looks good inside and outside the gym. We’ve tested many t-shirts from many brands in combat sports in kickboxing training and have slowly put together our collection of shirts that offer superior comfort and are made of the highest quality.
Our collection of t-shirts from the top brands in combat sports are curated just for you so that you can wear them at the gym during your kickboxing classes or at lunch with friends and always look in style.
A common statement we hear from many of our clients who are new to kickboxing is I had no clue Adidas made combat sports apparel. As we’ve continued to hear this statement over and over, it was crazy for us to think that Adidas Combat Sports line doesn’t have the recognition that their other sports line has. This is why we’ve established a relationship with the guys at Adidas Combat Sports in order to provide our amazing clients, like you, with incredible gear and apparel.
The Adidas Community Kickboxing T-Shirt has an athletic fit that’s soft to the touch. We’ve worn the tees during training at the gym and out during social events, and the shirt has always been super comfortable to wear. Washing the t-shirt never gave us any issues whether it was hang dried or dried by machine. Available for $29.99, all of our Adidas Community T-shirts come in both boxing and kickboxing versions and in different colors. If you pick up a pair of Adidas Boxing Gloves, be sure to grab yourself an Adidas Kickboxing tee from our collection to go with your new gear!
To our surprise, when we got a hold of a set of Fairtex t-shirts to test and use during Kickboxing training, we were stunned at the level of quality of both the t-shirts’ materials and graphic print. We trained with the Fairtex Supreme T-Shirts and the Fairtex Vintage T-Shirts during Kickboxing and Muay Thai training and found that they absorbed sweat quite well and always left us feeling cool after hard training.
Our muay thai shirt collection consists of shirts that are made of high-quality extra soft cotton and are pre-shrunk, ensuring that you won’t have to worry about possible shrinkage to your new favorite tees. We have a variety of designs that will be available very soon, but you can check out our current collection of Fairtex t-shirts at ATL Fight Shop.
This may be a no-brainer piece of gear, but you’d be surprised by how many people don’t bring a water bottle to kickboxing class. Make sure you fill it up with icy cold water before leaving the house so that you’re not having to wait in line for the gym’s basic tap water
The final piece of gear you’ll want to invest in is a spacious gym bag. Make sure you have sufficient room for your boxing gloves, hand wraps, extra t-shirt, and anything else you’ll want to bring with you. With a traditional gym bag, you could find yourself running out of room with just the boxing gloves.
Time and time again have we been through the event of buying a pair of gloves online only to receive them, train with them, and absolutely hate them, only to find out you can’t return them because they’ve been used. While we know this scenario is inevitable with many online retailers, we’ve done our best to research each product and try them ourselves to ensure our clients are buying fight gear we know they’ll love.
In the long run, investing in your kickboxing gear means you're buying boxing gloves and accessories made of higher quality materials that you know will last you a long time without too much loss of quality and performance over time. The production and quality of your fight gear also means you’ll be protecting your hands and wrist with better padding and wrist support - this will help in preventing unnecessary injuries.
At ATL Fight Shop, our mission is to discover the best fight gear and accessories from the top brands in combat sports and make them accessible all in one place just for you. We know how important it is for you to have the right gear so that you can have the best possible kickboxing experience, which is why we’ve done our homework on a wide variety of boxing gloves and accessories by personally testing them all. We hope to be your trusted resource for all of your kickboxing needs, which is why we’ll continue to be writing articles on kickboxing best practices and the latest news in combat sports and MMA.
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