Cleto Reyes has many boxing products on the market and in my opinion it is definitely one of the best boxing equipment companies out there and I am sure that everyone, who is into boxing, used a product of the company or at least heard of it. I personally love the training gloves of the company. However is Cleto Reyes Headgear any good? There are two popular and better quality headgears of the company and in this Cleto Reyes Headgear review, you will find their exclusive features and cons well.
Let’s start with the headgear which offers the most protection…
Cleto Reyes Traditional Headgear Review
Training Quality and Vision Rating: 9.8 / 10.0
Durability: 9.8 / 10.0
Comfort: 9.5 / 10.0
Quality / Price Rating: 8.9 / 10.0
Best Place to buy: Amazon
Exclusive Features
- Incredible protection
- Amazing nose protection
- Genuine leather
- Provides perfect vision
- Wicks moisture well
- Adjustable chin strap
- Most quality headgear on the market
Cons
- Genuine leather smell (2 weeks)
Let me tell you this at first, this headgear is truly the most quality product on the market.
Its foam gets amazing reviews and feedback (from basically everywhere including boxing, martial arts forums). It absorbs most of the impact.
What about the durability of the padding? As you may know that padding can lose its quality over time. It can get soft, stiff or it can lose the quality of forgetting its memory. For example; when its memory quality lowers, after you get punched the padding will change position and won’t return the original place. And when you get hit after this, well you will feel the impact much more. Because there is no padding to protect you just the cushion and it won’t be so effective. So quality of padding memory is really important. And Cleto Reyes always uses incredible quality padding (same padding type for both headgears on this list).
As you can see that it has a nylon face bar. It is very well padded. Thanks to its design and padding quality, no punch will get to your face fully. It already protects your head incredibly well and because of these features it also protects your nose incredibly well too. I had a nose surgery couple of years ago so headgear choice becomes even more vital for me. If you are like me or prefer perfect protection for nose, Cleto Reyes Traditional Headgear will be really suitable for you.
So when it has a lot of padding the headgear should be heavy right? Well it actually depends on the type of padding. For example some quality bag gloves have a lot of padding but still these are lighter than other boxing glove types. It is actually same logic. It has a lot of padding but it is not heavy. So you can move your head relatively easier and considering full face headgears I can say that it is lighter than many (around %95) of them.
Even though it has a lot of padding its volume is not much. It means that you won’t feel like that your head is one giant target 😉
Let’s talk about the leather…
As any other product of Cleto Reyes, this headgear has genuine leather and it won’t get rough spots for a very long time. With that when you get the order it will smell a bit and it will take around 2-3 weeks to disappear. It is not much but I thought that you should know. With that when you get a product which is made of genuine leather you will always face a smell and I must say that some other products’ smell can take much longer to disappear. You will also have break in period with it and based on feedback of the headgear, this break in period will finish around couple of weeks as well.
Vision…
Even though you have really good footwork and defense skills, you can’t defend yourself without seeing, can you? Thanks to its design and the padding distribution (If the distribution is not good, it can lower your vision) you have a very clear vision with Cleto Reyes and it won’t decrease your sight.
Also you don’t need to take it off during the training and wipe out sweat, it wicks the moisture and gets rid of it quite well. And I know that many products need that and these can try your patience. Even these bad quality headgears can slide and many things can happen. For example if the headgear can’t stay at its “normal” place, it can block your vision or even worse when you get punched it can’t protect you. But these definitely won’t happen with Cleto Reyes. Many people actually disregard this feature but as you can see it is literally vital.
Also it is comfortable and it won’t squeeze the sides of your head. Also you can adjust the strap at the chin part according to your preference. As a side note Cleto Reyes gets very good “fitting” feedback.
I can easily say that there is almost no other headgear which can match its quality and if you are looking a headgear Cleto Reyes Traditional is the best one on the market and it will be an incredible investment for both your health and training performance.
Note: Both headgears have sizing information in product pages.
Cleto Reyes Headgear with Cheek Protection Review
Training Quality and Vision Rating: 9.8 / 10.0
Durability: 9.8 / 10.0
Comfort: 9.5 / 10.0
Quality / Price Rating: 9.1 / 10.0
Exclusive Features
- Incredible protection
- Light
- Genuine leather
- Provides perfect vision
- Wicks moisture incredibly well
- Adjustable chin strap and crown area
Cons
- Genuine leather smell (2 weeks)
Cleto Reyes uses same materials for this headgear too. It is made of very quality cowhide leather and has the same padding type with Cleto Reyes Traditional (headgear above). And these two also have same break in period (couple of weeks) and leather smell too.
It has chin strap as well, however this one also has adjustable crown area and you can adjust it accordingly. After you adjust these two, you will feel like it is custom fit for your head.
So what is different? As you can see the design is different. It has cheek protection instead of a face bar. As you can guess it offers less protection for your nose and many people spar with a “lighter” headgear, which has less protection, so they can move faster. When it is the case, Cleto Reyes Cheek Protection becomes really suitable for them.
However keep in mind that Cleto Reyes Cheek Protection still offers very quality protection, it is just less than Cleto Reyes Traditional (product above).
If there is a best headgear with cheek protection list, you can be sure that Cleto Reyes Cheek Protection will be at the top. It is basically the best in its class (headgear with cheek protection).
Final Thoughts
As you can expect from Cleto Reyes, both products are truly remarkable. However due to its design Cleto Reyes Traditional is
preferred a lot in boxing community (forums, reviews, my experiences, gyms…). You can use it for many years and its padding is just amazing and will surely do the job. I am extremely sure that you will love sparring with Cleto Reyes Traditional Headgear, it is light and protects your head and also your nose incredibly well. Let’s not forget that it has very quality natural (cowhide) leather and will last for a very long time.
Actually both headgears are in my most quality headgear list and I am sure that you will be really pleased with any of them. I hope you enjoyed reading Cleto Reyes Headgear Review, I try to be thorough and informative as much as possible however if you have anything to add or ask, you can just have a comment below.
I want to say I think your review of both headgears was well worth the read. I hadn’t even considered the smell of the leather before. My question is does the one with cheek protection give you less vision in the ring or is it pretty much the same as the traditional one. And you also say that it doesn’t offer nose protection does that help or hurt your breathing any?
Thank you man, sometimes people don’t like the leather smell well I really like it 😉 It is actually same it is actually preference and no none of these hurt breathing.
Okay, first things first. I am wondering how bad the leather smell gets after a couple of weeks? Is there a way to stop the headgear from starting to smell? I’m new to this. Is there anyway to keep the odor at bay completely? Washable? Looks like a great headgear piece. Are there some available that are not leather, hence no odor?
It will just go away after a week and you don’t have to do anything about it. If you clean your headgear regularly after you spar etc. then it will not smell at all.
No there is not any way to keep a headgear odor free all the time. After all, we sweat during we exercise and obviously it can smell after a certain point. There is Venum Headgear which is made of synthetic leather and it does not have the genuine leather smell. If you are interested you can check out my Venum Headgear Review. There are a couple of selections for budget and design. Some protect cheeks and some provide better full face protection.
Nice you could not have reviewed a better headgear! The only one that even comes close to it is the winning with nose bar. I have worn the reyes as well and you have done a great review and explanation on the product. If you want to be able to take a solid punch and protect your head and nose this is the headgear to get.
As you said, Winning is the only headgear which is better than this. I also love the headgear and I wonder how long you have used it. The durability gets amazing feedback from seasoned fighters.
No one wants to take a hit but the foam definitely softens the blow and this is why people wear it and spar in the ring