Kids

Most Muay Thai brands do not make equipment for children. They make small adult sizes, which is not the same thing at all — the hand compartment is the wrong shape, the padding is the wrong density, and a child ends up wearing something that neither fits nor protects properly.

Everything on this page is built for a child from the ground up.

What your child actually needs

Most gyms will ask for the same three things before a child spars:

Gloves — 6oz or 8oz. Non-negotiable from the first session.
Shin guards — once they start kicking pads and each other.
A mouthguard — the moment there is any contact at all.

Shorts come later, and are mostly about a child wanting to look the part — which, at eight years old, is not nothing.

Gloves

The Fumetsu Ghost S3 kids' range covers boxing gloves in 6oz and 8oz, plus open-palm MMA sparring gloves if your child's gym does grappling too.

As a rough guide, 6oz suits ages 5 to 8 and 8oz suits ages 9 to 12 — but hand size varies enormously and age is a poor proxy. If the glove is loose enough to rotate on the hand, it is too big.

Shin guards

The Fairtex SPK9 is a smaller version of their SP3, built for ages 8 to 12. It is the one we would put on our own children, for one specific reason:

There are no metal loops on the straps. That removes a hard metal edge from a piece of kit whose entire job is to crash into another child's shin — and it is what makes the SPK9 legal for amateur competition. Not every kids' guard is.

The lining is cotton stretch denim, which grips the leg and stops the guard sliding down mid-round. That is the single most common complaint about children's shin guards, and it is a fit problem, not a strap problem.

Sizing — measure, do not guess

Age labels are a starting point, not an answer. Children of the same age vary by a shoe size and several inches.

Gloves — go by hand size and how the glove sits. A glove that rotates is too big; one that pinches across the knuckle is too small.
Shin guards — measure shin length from the bottom of the kneecap to the top of the foot, leg bent at 90 degrees. Match that to the chart on the product page.
Shorts — waist measurement, not age. Every product page carries the chart.

The temptation to size up

Children grow, and buying a size up to get another year out of it is an entirely reasonable instinct with school shoes.

It is a bad instinct with protective equipment. A shin guard that slides does not protect the shin, and a glove that rotates on the hand will not hold the wrist straight when a punch lands badly. Buy the size that fits now.