Seems to me like it's worth waiting for a version two, as is, there's serious concerns regarding durability

Nice detailed run down of the pros and cons. It does feel a little bit like the first run sold is for beta testing to find the issues for a "V2" of the gloves (hopefully without a price increase). They do seem like they're so close to something good...hopefully your points (and others) are taken on board.

Thanks for this follow up review Josh, it's been very useful. I have just ordered a pair yesterday. I was looking for a glove to use for sabre mainly but also maybe with my Dane axe etc as like you say the spes heavy are to cumbersome at times. After this I think I will just stick to the sabre with them.

A huge amount of interesting points and constructive feedback in this video. I’m sure this will be obvious in the sparring video - there were times in our match where I was specifically targeting your hands, even sacrificing my own defence in order to land a hit, but it’s not like I was swinging harder than normal - when we fight, like you said, it’s with full intent. I am surprised that they took as much damage as they did after one session, it’s done a lot to reveal which areas are weak and which are strong. The thrust you mention taking to the knuckles where you felt nothing - it was so strong that my sword bounced out of my hand afterwards. They performed brilliantly in that exchange. However, what’s with the damage to the left hand? I wasn’t the only match you had of course, but when we fought I had a very hard time getting any contact to your left hand even when (as mentioned above) I was going for it at all costs. That being said, I do think they have a lot of potential. Red Dragon remain innovators in the market and I’m sure they will take on board the feedback from this video and the many more to follow from everyone else in the community, and when they do, these gloves could become fantastic. I’m excited to see where it goes!

It's not just rivets. The rivets need to be reversed they need to be larger and there needs to be washes both sides

I am curious about the fitment inside a sidesword and sabre; naturally i understand they need work but the main issue i find for sidesword especially is you can take some hefty hits from a sidesword but most gloves which fit them arent safe for them, and the ones that are safe just dont fit right at all.

You think these are effettive for sidesword sparring and competition?

This type of "beta testing", especially from a big company like Red Dragon, is just bizarre. I guess it's because LARP lower requirements are giving them a bias, and that's their core business. Just put a gel hand inside the glove (you can find them as low as 60-ish €), fasten it to a post, and wack it around with a steel sword for a day or two. Buy a competitor, do the same. Compare results. Improve to reach the competitor's level of durability, validate, and go. Don't waste money in creating serial production assets for a faulty first version.