Angeles - Classic Line:
Ordered directly from Angeles in México City through WhatsApp (most Mexican glove companies communicate through this app), along with the blue premium pair. I was looking for 16 oz, but they were completely out of stock; however, they mentioned they can make more.
I was gutted, until Valeria responded by saying it only takes three days! I was even allowed to pick lace, piping, and leather color. Keep in mind they considered these "stock gloves" because they made inventory for themselves too.
So I basically got semi custom gloves at stock prices all made within 3 days and not 6-12 weeks. Again this is not typical, so please don't expect this from them and don't be pushy, if they have inventory in your color and size, take it.
As far as first impressions go, the first thing that hit me was the strong smell of the dye. I had to air out my room, lol. That said, it was a welcome smell to me, it only further assured me my gloves were indeed recently made. Beautiful red leather, not quite New Sporting quality, but imo opinion better than my Cleto Reyes (more thickness). Love the profile of the glove, the slimmest amongst the Mexican brands I own (New Sporting, Cleto, Campeon on the way) and the flattest punch surface. Thumb is attached and has a straight (not curved) placement. It's feels pretty "hard" in the thumb area compared to other gloves, not uncomfortable, but hard (almost semi cast like).
I'm going to comment on the stitching, but please don't bite my head of you don't agree, it's my first glove review. They're double stitched in some areas (palm, wrist, inner fingers) and single stitched in others (pretty much all long the top of the glove, belly side has the double stich). In the spirit of transparency I must say that I've only slid these gloves in my hands and already along the upper wrist area the threads appear to be stressed after a single wear (left glove only). To be fair, I don't expect this to effect functionality or durability, mainly an aesthetic issue, but I know how you guys are about pretty gloves
Wrist support appears to lacking at a glance (the glove is a little flimsy/ top heavy when held from the cuff) bit when I put the glove on, it feels solid. Definitely has a decent amount of padding on both sides of the wrist, but it's a soft foam, where as other glove company's use hard foam here, which is most likely the culprit of the seemingly flimsy wrist.
Now the main event, the hand pocket. Slipping into the gloves is fairly difficult if you have larger hands, so make sure you unlace them. Edgar recommended I pick up 16 oz and no lower if you have large hands (when I was inquiring about Bayoneta) and he was definitely right. When sliding my hands in with wraps and knuckle guard, I have a good amount of space to move around, but I expect I'll need to break them in before I get a knuckle guard in there, wraps (even long ones) shouldn't be a problem. So I won't be punching at full power when breaking these hush puppies in. The liner is actually pretty nice for Mexican gloves, that said, the hand area has semi cast, hard feel to it over the top of the fingers. I don't expect to feel it with wraps on, but none of my other gloves feel this way. All three pair have this to a varying degree, with Bayoneta being the least offensive. That said I can't say for sure how this effects performance until I actually try them out.
Overall my first impressions are that these are quality gloves and I can't wait to try them out! Solid construction and good looking imo. I'll definitely know more in a month when I do my follow up review after breaking in all three pairs. I kept them mint to do a collective initial impression for you guys, next is a collective in depth review.
I'm open to all questions through here or dm. Please let me know if there's anything I left out, I'd like to improve my review style. Other than that, stay tuned.
*Don't expect the next two to be as thorough, as they're pretty much the same glove, I'll only be pointing out the differences*
Price: $1600 (gloves) + $900 (FedEx shipping) MX pesos = ~$125USD
