[updated April 21, 2015 – see my newest review of this shop, updated prices on gloves, pads and sauna suits]
Muay Thai Gloves, Shin Guards and Tops
You’d think that in the “land of Muay Thai” it would be pretty easy to find and purchase Muay Thai equipment and gear. In Bangkok, for example, there are many brand shops just outside Lumphini Stadium’s gates, making the large city block a kind of Muay Thai mall. In Chiang Mai there is no obvious center and I’d heard of shops where one could buy a particular brand (“Windy” as it were) “near the night market,” but both directions and descriptions were pretty vague. It’s not so easy as doing a Google search to find any hole in the wall like in NYC and I was looking for a place to get new gloves and shin guards that fit well (the smallness of my feet makes shinguards with foot-flaps a complication), plus more general gear like a mouthguard for Kevin and maybe some fight tops for me. It seems like all this stuff should be sold somewhere, the question was where?
An internet search did reveal one shop near the Three Kings Monument at the center of the Old City. Kevin and I took a trip down last Sunday and found the store closed, but on our second attempt (on a Saturday) we had success and found everything we were looking for equipment-wise, even if not the brand names we’d specifically sought. So here is a video tour of what we found there, and more exact instructions on how to get there for the uninitiated. Very nice assistance from the shop employees, a pretty wide selection, and while the prices are probably beyond what bargain hunters or hagglers would find, the fixed prices seemed fair as I really don’t buy equipment very often. I tend to really wear it out.
ThaiSmai 8oz lace-up gloves – 1400 THB
FBT “ProMMA” pullover shin guards – 1400 THB
ThaiSmai Muay Thai short S (nylon) – 400 THB
mouth guard – 180 THB
Twins fight tank jersey – 550 THB
Knee pads – 530 THB
Kids’ Soccer shin guard – 75 THB
– to convert to dollars divide by approximately 30
I bought the lace-up gloves because they feel closer to what I fight in (the gloves are provided by the venue) and Velcro gloves just don’t get tight enough and end up scratching my trainers. The ThaiSmai gloves also felt closer to what I fight in than the Twins gloves were. The padding seemed right.
What I Bought
Where It Is
click to go to Google Maps – 3 Kings Monument
You can explore our whole Places of Chiang Mai map as well, which has this store marked. I write about here: Our Resident Map of Chiang Mai:
View Places of Chiang Mai in a larger map
