Hey friends, it’s Lizzie! I’ve been kickboxing for ten years and I’ve bought gloves with my own money for most of that. I’m a Hayabusa ambassador now, which I’d rather tell you up front than bury — but I didn’t start there, and the pairs I owned before are the reason I can tell you anything useful.
Here’s every brand I’ve actually trained in, in the order I owned them.
The honest ladder
- Everlast — a basic pink pair. The entry-level end of their range.
- Sanabul — one pair. Slightly better than the Everlasts, and cheaper. I gave them away.
- Venum Contender — the grey pair. I trained in these for about two years.
- Hayabusa — T3 in white, pink and black, a 12oz T360, and an E1. Still here.
That’s it. Four brands. I’ve never trained in Twins, Winning, Fairtex or Rival, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.
What ten years actually taught me
1. The cheapest way to buy gloves is badly
The most expensive route isn’t buying the premium pair. It’s buying a cheap pair, wearing it out, buying another, and doing that three times before admitting you’re committed. I did a version of this. Buy for the training you’re doing now, and upgrade the moment you wear something out.
2. Cheap gloves don’t break, they fade
I expected a bad glove to fall apart. That’s not how it goes. The padding quietly flattens and the closure quietly stops holding, and you don’t notice until your hands start mentioning it after sessions. By then you’ve been training in a glove that stopped doing its job weeks ago.
3. A good glove becomes yours
This is the one nobody told me, and the one I’d pay for again. My Everlasts, Sanabuls and Venums all held the exact shape they shipped in for as long as I owned them. The T3 moulded to my hand. I didn’t know that was a thing gloves did.
4. Wrist support is the thing you notice last and miss most
Nobody shops for wrist support. Everyone shops for padding and colour. But sloppy wrist position is what ends a session early, and it’s the clearest single difference between the tiers I’ve owned.
5. Fit beats brand, every time
A well-fitted $18 glove beats a badly-sized $169 one, and it isn’t close. If you take one thing from ten years of this, take that. My sizing guide, and this one if you have smaller hands like me.
6. How you store them matters more than what you paid
Gloves that live zipped in a gym bag overnight stay damp, and damp padding breaks down. Mine come out of the bag the moment I get home. That one habit has done more for how long my gear lasts than any purchase. More in why I rotate my gloves.
The head-to-heads
I’ve written each of these up properly rather than cramming them in here:
- Venum vs Everlast — the Venums won, and not narrowly.
- Everlast vs Sanabul — the cheaper pair was the better one.
- Sanabul vs Venum — worth the extra twenty dollars.
- Hayabusa vs Sanabul — a 5–9x price gap, explained honestly.
- Hayabusa vs Everlast
Where I’d start if I were starting again
Genuinely unsure the sport will stick? Sanabul, around $18–$35. No shame in it whatsoever.
Fairly sure you’ll keep going? A Venum Contender at roughly $45–$50 will carry you through a year or two.
Already committed? Skip the ladder I climbed and go straight to a Hayabusa. The E1 is $99.99 and the softest of the line; the T3 is $169 and the pair I’d keep if I could only keep one. I compared them in T3 vs E1.
What I train in today
My T3s are the favourites — the right amount of protection while still letting me feel where my punches land. My 12oz T360s come out when I want a cardio-intense session and to build strength. My E1s are the softest and go on for long heavy bag sessions, which also gives the T3s a rest day.
If you’re upgrading
My code LILO takes 10% off Hayabusa in the US, and it matches whatever site-wide sale is running if that one’s bigger.
Shop Hayabusa with code LILO →
Outside the US? Use code LIZZIE on the Hayabusa Europe store, or shop my Australia storefront.
The focused head-to-head with what I use now: Hayabusa vs Venum.
For the record, mine were the Easter egg colourway from Sanabul’s women’s line. The foam was genuinely nice and the colour was stunning — but they never moulded to my hand and got uncomfortable quickly, which is exactly what my T3s don’t do.
And how the brand relationship itself started: the honest version.
And the T360 side of that switch: T360 vs Venum.
The ladder, with real numbers
| Order | Brand | What it cost | How it ended |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Everlast (basic pink) | Under $50 | Padding softened, stayed generic |
| 2 | Sanabul (Easter egg, women’s) | $17.99–$34.99 range | Lovely foam, never moulded — gave them away |
| 3 | Venum Contender 1.5 | $44.99–$49.99 | Kept about two years, then replaced |
| 4 | Hayabusa T3 ×3, T360, E1 | $99.99–$169 | Still in rotation |
What the ladder cost me in total
Three pairs before the one that stuck. None of them were bad purchases at the time, and I’d still tell a genuine beginner to start cheap. But if I’d known at pair one that I’d still be training a decade later, I’d have skipped two rungs and been in better gloves years sooner.
The one thing every pair taught me
Every glove in that table felt fine in week one. What separated them was month eight — whether the foam still had shape, whether the wrist still held, whether the glove had started to fit me rather than just fit. That’s the only test that has ever mattered, and it’s the one you can’t run in a shop.
Also worth reading: the best boxing gloves under $100 and is Hayabusa worth the money.
Your Questions, Answered
What boxing gloves do you actually use? Hayabusa — T3 in white, pink and black, a 12oz T360, and an E1.
What did you use before Hayabusa? A basic pink Everlast pair, one pair of Sanabul, and the grey Venum Contender for about two years.
Which brand is best for beginners? Sanabul if you’re testing the water, Venum Contender if you’re fairly sure you’re staying.
Have you tried Twins, Winning or Fairtex? No. I only write first-hand about gear I’ve actually trained in.
What boxing glove brand is best? For me, Hayabusa — but I climbed a ladder to get there, and I would still tell a genuine beginner to start cheaper.
How many pairs of boxing gloves do I need? One to start. Two once you are training more than about twice a week, mostly so each pair gets time to dry.
Is it worth buying expensive boxing gloves? If you know you are staying, yes — buying twice is the expensive route. If you are still deciding, no.
What brands have you not trained in? Twins, Winning, Fairtex and Rival. I only write first-hand about gear I have actually worn.
What would you buy if you were starting today? Sanabul if I were unsure, a Venum Contender if I were fairly confident, and a Hayabusa E1 if I already knew.
Some links above are affiliate links — I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, and I only link gear I actually train in.
