SKS Empire are a Thailand-based brand who put more into the artwork than almost anyone else in the sport. Sak Yant motifs, hand-drawn tigers, heavy detail — their shorts are the ones people notice across a gym.

They also run their own fight promotion, which is not a marketing line so much as a feedback loop: the gear gets used, hard, by people they see every week.

The shorts

The flagship, and the reason most people find SKS Empire.

The designs run from traditional Thai iconography — Sak Yant, the Tiger, Lumpinee — to modern graphic work, and there is very little middle ground. These are shorts that make a statement. The construction underneath is proper competition-grade satin, whatever is printed on it.

Sized on your waist measurement, not your clothing size. Our Muay Thai shorts size guide has SKS Empire alongside every other brand we stock, which matters — no two brands chart sizes the same way.

And never tumble dry them. Heat destroys the waistband elastic, and that finishes the shorts long before the satin gives up.

The gloves

Three constructions, and the difference is worth understanding:

• Leather — lasts longest and moulds to the hand over time. The one to buy if you train often.
• Microfibre — lighter, wipes clean, and does not hold odour. Genuinely durable now in a way it was not a decade ago.
• Metallic — the same build with the finish that gets noticed.

Standard weights apply: 16oz for sparring, 12oz for bags and pads.

The shin guards

Leather and microfibre, and built to take a beating.

Worth flagging: the SKS Empire shin guard size chart is significantly different from Fairtex and Mongkol. The same height gives you a different shin length across all three. Do not assume your size carries across — measure your own shin length and calf circumference and match them to the SKS chart specifically.

Our shin guard size guide puts the three charts side by side so you can see the difference for yourself.

Matching sets

The gloves and shin guards run in the same designs as the shorts — Tiger Bomb, Sak Yant, the metallics. If you want a matched kit rather than a collection of whatever was in stock, this is one of the few brands that makes it straightforward.