Whether you’re a first time or existing gym owner looking to kick things up a notch, picking gloves of the right type and size for your gym on top of managing countless operational decisions, can be overwhelming. Though not catastrophic, picking the right range of gloves for your gym ensures that you are purchasing gloves that will ultimately fit your members, suit your discipline, and be put into good use! You don’t want to be left with dead stock, pouring money down the drain because of a decision that could be easily avoided.

Choosing the right mix of gloves to stock up—for sale, rental or in-house use—will depend on a number of factors like your members’ age range, your gym’s training discipline, and budget. Below are 3 quick questions that will help with your decision!

Question 1: What are the demographics of your members?

As you already know, fight gloves are measured in weight, specifically, ounces because the size of gloves is determined by the amount of padding inside the glove. Heavier gloves will offer more protection but affect punching speed. For low or moderate-intensity padwork, many users may prefer a lightly padded glove.

The saying “fits like a glove” is certainly not just a figure of speech; the right size should be of a close yet non-restrictive fit. Do ensure that your students get fitted for gloves only while wearing hand wraps since hand wraps will add an extra layer of snugness. 

In the glove, the user’s hand should reach the top of the hand compartment in a slight graze without too much leftover room, and fingertips should never be pressed or squashed even slightly against the top. 

Overall, whether the glove is intended for either gender and regardless of the user’s age, the fit should always feel comfortable but never roomy enough to shift around.

Question 2: What is your gym’s training discipline?

Generally speaking, you want to be certain that your gym can suit the needs of your students—whether it’s Mixed Martial Arts, classic Boxing, Muay Thai, or Boxercise—the appropriate gloves should be made available at your gym.

If you have a steady stream of beginners training at your gym, you will probably want to make sure that you are well stocked-up on training weight gloves like 12oz and 14oz. If your gym draws more of the professional crowd, then lighter gloves are obviously going to be popular too, for example, if sparring is involved, you want to look into getting 8oz and 16oz gloves depending on your purpose and discipline. So do ensure that you have enough gloves of the right weight to go around for communal use when needed, and made available for a quick purchase for those who want their own. 

Question 3: What is the budget range of your gym-users? 

In this era where practically everything is instagrammable and online hype has way more influential power than traditional advertisements, customized gloves are used exclusively by many popular gyms for more than just practical reasons; they sell YOUR brand! So set aside a budget with marketing in mind.

Chances are that at some point your gym members will post a photo, video, or story of themselves to update followers on their whereabouts, share a tip or flex their newly acquired skills. If your brand is appealing and clearly identifiable on your products, this increased exposure will now make their audience your new potential signups!

BONUS: Your Unfair Advantage

Using and selling customized-branded merchandise is also an effective way to increase the professional quotient of your business and a subtle—but sure way—to foster a sense of identity among your gym members. Having your gym clients go home with a piece of your equipment is one of the easiest ways to make sure they remember your gym (not just the sport!) even after a hiatus. That is on top of being able to bring home a fond reminder of the sense of community they’ve fostered at your gym.

The Way Forward

Equipping your gym appropriately with the right fight gear for use and sale is sometimes an easily overlooked aspect but one that is a total game-changer. Today, high-quality and affordable customized gear are more accessible than ever; so if you are lucky enough to reside in a country that allows so, it is ideal to speak with a fight-gear-specialized production house that offers a good variety of personalized gear for gyms and fighters.

As a rule of thumb, we recommend stocking up more on 12oz and 14oz gloves for adult clients and 8oz and 10oz for the juniors. However, bear in mind that the needs of your female clients and the average hand size of your junior clients may vary substantially. Some gyms are so well-stocked that they carry sizes from 6oz to 16oz! Whatever your budget is, definitely make it a point to speak with trained experts who are specialized in helping gym owners equip their ideal gym before deciding on the best combination of gloves to invest in.