You've booked your first Muay Thai class. Now you're looking at a kit list as long as your arm, wondering how much of it you actually need on day one — and how much is a shop trying to sell you the lot before you've thrown a single kick. I'm Irene. I left Italy to train and fight in Thailand, and I design the kit I wish I'd had on my own first day. So here's the honest version.
- Do you even need gear?
- Day-one essentials
- Choosing shorts
- Hand wraps
- What to train in
- Buy now vs later
- Looking after it
- From Bangkok
Do you actually need to buy gear before your first class?
Mostly, no. And anyone who tells you to spend £200 before you've even hit a pad is having you on.
Nearly every gym lends out gloves for your first few sessions, and a lot will lend shin guards too. So you can walk in wearing a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt, borrow the gloves, and find out whether you actually love it before you spend a penny. That's the right order to do things in.
But two things change the moment you decide you're sticking around, and one of them you shouldn't borrow even once. We'll come to that. First, the list everyone actually means when they say "kit".
Your day-one essentials, at a glance
What you genuinely need for session one is short. What you'll want once you're hooked comes later, and there's no rush on any of it.
That's it. Everything else is detail, but the detail is where most beginners waste money, so let's go through the three things you'll wear every single session.
Why Muay Thai shorts are cut like that, and how to pick your first pair
Pick up a pair of Muay Thai shorts next to a pair of boxing trunks and the difference is obvious: they're shorter, wider, and split high up the side. That isn't a style quirk. A boxer's legs are for footwork. A Muay Thai fighter's legs are weapons — and the shorts are cut to get out of their way.
The short length, the wide leg, and the high side slits all do one job between them: they take fabric off the hips so it can't tension against a high kick, a roundhouse, a knee or a teep. Put a longer, narrower short on the same fighter and the cloth pulls tight the instant the knee comes above the waist. The cut is the function.
Traditional or retro: which cut?
You'll see two cuts. The traditional cut sits at the natural waist and finishes high on the thigh: maximum freedom, the look you see in the stadiums of Bangkok. The retro cut sits a touch lower with a slightly longer leg, if you'd rather not show quite so much thigh on night one. Both kick perfectly well. It's preference, not performance.
The two-second fit test
Forget the size label for a second. In the changing room, pull them on and throw a slow high kick and a knee. If the waistband digs in or the leg pulls against your thigh at the top of the kick, size up. Muay Thai shorts are meant to sit loose. That loose drape is the whole point. When in doubt between two sizes, take the bigger one.
And this is where the cheap import really shows itself. A £15 pair off a marketplace tends to be thin, stiff in the slit, and printed with a transfer that cracks and peels within a month of hot washes. A proper pair is cut from satin or a performance fabric and the graphic is dye-sublimated, meaning the ink is turned to gas and bonded into the fibres themselves, so the print can't crack, peel or fade no matter how often you wash it. You're not paying for a logo. You're paying for a short that still looks and moves right a year in.
Watch: how Muay Thai shorts are meant to fit and move.
Hand wraps: the one thing you should never borrow
If you remember one line from this whole guide, make it this one. Wraps sit against sweaty skin for an hour and soak up everything. A borrowed pair is somebody else's hour. Buy your own (they're £14.99, not £140) and you've solved the only genuine hygiene problem in the sport.
Gloves you can share for a week; they air out. Wraps you cannot. They're the cheapest piece of kit you'll own and the one that's truly yours. Get two pairs so there's always a clean set while the other's in the wash.
Wraps do a real job, too: they bind the small bones of the hand together, support the wrist, and pad the knuckle before the glove goes on. Standard adult length is 180 inches (about 4.5 metres). That's long enough to cover hand, wrist and thumb properly. Smaller hands can go for a 120 or 150. Once you've got a pair, learn to wrap from a fighter, not a diagram. There's a video for exactly that below.
Watch: a simple, secure hand wrap you can do in under a minute.
What to train in on top: fitted, never baggy
This one surprises people. Wear something fitted, not for the look but because your coach has to see your frame to fix it. A baggy t-shirt hides whether your hips are turning over on a kick or whether your guard's dropping. It also catches in the clinch, and a sweat-soaked cotton tee turns into a wet flannel halfway through the round.
A fitted, moisture-wicking top pulls sweat off your skin and dries fast, so you stay lighter and cooler through padwork. Cotton holds the water; technical fabric moves it. Once you're past the first few sessions and you know this is your thing, it's the easy upgrade that makes every round more comfortable.
Gloves, shin guards & mouthguard: buy now or buy later?
This is where beginners overspend, so be ruthless about it. Almost none of this is day-one. Borrow what the gym lends, and only buy a piece once you've outgrown borrowing it.
- Gloves once you're past the trial. 14–16oz covers bag, pads and light sparring, one pair to start.
- Mouthguard the day you first spar. It's a few pounds and it's yours alone.
- Shin guards only when you start partner drills; borrow them until then.
- Ankle supports if and when your ankles ask for them, not before.
- A bag for the kit. Nice to have, never urgent.
Spend the day-one budget on the things that touch your skin every session: wraps, shorts, a decent top. Let the gym carry the heavy gear until you've earned your own.
Looking after your kit so it actually lasts
Good gear earns its price by lasting. Treat it right and a proper pair of shorts will outlive three cheap ones. Here's the whole routine, and it takes no extra effort.
Cold wash, inside out, no fabric softener (it clogs the fibres that wick your sweat). Air dry, never tumble. Heat is what wrecks the elastic waistband and the print. Wash wraps in a mesh bag or by hand so they don't knot, and air dry those too. That's it. Do this and the sublimated graphic will look box-fresh long after a transfer print would have flaked off.
From Bangkok to your first session
There's a reason I keep coming back to the cut, the fabric and the print. I live and train in Bangkok, the home of Muay Thai, where the art was forged over centuries and still fills the stands at Lumpinee and Rajadamnern every week. I left Italy to train and fight here, and every piece I sell is designed from inside that world. Our training shirts are made in Thailand; the shorts and the rest are built to the same standard and tested the same way. I know how a fighter moves because I move that way every day, in the ring and on the pads, and the kit is shaped around it.
Watch: the Wai Kru Ram Muay, the ritual that opens every fight, performed here by ONE champion Rodtang.
And it's tested where it counts. The gear I design is worn by Rambolek, the reigning ONE Bantamweight Muay Thai World Champion, who took the belt at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok in 2026. When the kit holds up under a world champion's training camp, it'll hold up under your Tuesday-night beginner class.
Watch: ONE Championship highlights from Rambolek's run to the bantamweight crown.
That's the whole idea. You shouldn't have to choose between gear that looks like nothing and gear that falls apart. Start with the pieces that matter, buy them once, and turn up to session one looking like you mean it.
Build your day-one kit
Shorts you can kick in, wraps that are yours alone, a top that works as hard as you do. Designed in Bangkok, free shipping to the UK and within Thailand over £65.
Shop the collectionBeginner questions, answered
What should I wear to my first Muay Thai class?
Shorts or gym shorts you can move and kick in, a fitted sweat-wicking top, and your own hand wraps. Bring water, a small towel and sandals for getting to and from the mats. Most gyms lend gloves for your first sessions, so you don't need your own to start.
Do I need my own gloves to begin?
Usually not. Nearly every gym lends gloves to beginners. Once you're sure you're sticking with it, a single pair of 14–16oz gloves covers bag work, pads and light sparring. There's no rush.
How long should Muay Thai hand wraps be?
Standard adult wraps are 180 inches (about 4.5 metres), which is long enough to support the wrist, thumb and knuckles properly. Smaller hands can use 120 or 150 inches. Buy two pairs so you always have a clean set.
Why are Muay Thai shorts so short and wide?
The short length, wide leg and high side slits remove fabric from the hips so it can't tension against a high kick, knee or teep. In Muay Thai the legs are weapons, so the shorts are cut to free up full hip movement, unlike longer boxing trunks where the legs are only used for footwork.
Can I just wear MMA or gym shorts instead?
To try a class, yes. But fitted MMA or gym shorts restrict the high kicks and knees that define Muay Thai, and a tight thigh pulls against the cloth at the top of every kick. Once you're training regularly, proper Muay Thai shorts make a real difference to how freely you move.
How do I wash Muay Thai shorts without ruining the print?
Cold wash inside out, skip the fabric softener, and always air dry rather than tumble. Heat is what damages the elastic and the print. A dye-sublimated graphic, where the ink is bonded into the fabric, won't crack or fade if you treat it this way.
Winko Fightwear, designed in Bangkok, the home of Muay Thai. Worn from your first session to a world title.