Trav4
Latest posts by Trav4 (see all)
- VH Skates 3 Years Later - June 17, 2019
- Warrior V1 Pro+ Review - June 17, 2019
- Warrior RGT2 Review - June 17, 2019
Intro
I’m in Warrior Goalie. Still to this day its weird to say but its reality. If you asked me 2 years ago about what I thought of warrior goalie, I used to be just like every other goalie, “Warrior goalie gear? That’s a joke, I’d never wear that $h!*”.
Well times are changing, and Warrior has without a doubt the lightest wear on the market. I was always led to believe it was Bauer, but I was wrong. This is a pad that has really took me for a 180. This company that I wondered how they were still in business cause they made one of the worst products on the market, is quickly becoming my favourite gear I’ve ever used and here is why…..
Slide ability
Warrior added their “Air Slide” to the landing strip and sliding area. What does that mean in English? They basically added a bunch out cut-outs and areas on the sliding area that don’t touch the ice. So instead of a CorTech skin or SpeedSkinz, they just made less material touch the ice for sliding. GENIUS!!!
They advertise that the slide is great on choppy chopped up ice. Now I will admit it is better on choppy ice than any of my previous pads but when you have 45 guys on a single sheet of ice at the college level, that ice is going to be straight chewed up and there is nothing that’s going to make you slide better.
Performance
What’s their really to say about performance? They’re a butterfly pad, long hard rebounds are there. Stiffer feel slides great. Doesn’t over/under slide. I say this every time I get new gear, but this is the best pad I’ve used to date. Maybe I just have good taste in gear that performs the best. The strapping system may not look the most intelligent but believe me it is. I can get the pads from beside me to strapped up in probably 15 seconds. The toe clips are amazing, they add some more stress on my ankles but the feel I get off them I think is worth it.
I have the knee elastic setup to drop to the calf, boot strap removed (this removes stress off my ankles, hips and knees) and it works perfect. Pad drops and rotates perfectly every single time I go into a butterfly or while I’m moving on my feet.
Durability
Hard to comment on since I just got my custom set and I’ve been using this demo set for about 5 weeks give or take. So far, I haven’t had a single issue. Pads haven’t gone soft, no stitching or bindings ripping, etc. The only issue I’d expect to have is that the white leg channel on my custom set will dissolve to dirty brown over time. Only downside of a white leg channel but I went with the white option because nobody goes with it. I like different.
Custom Options
Not a lot of custom options on the pads. Lots of colour zones, you can go stock G4 graphic or retro graphic. Aside from sizing that is really all there is too say about that. I went with the retro graphic cause I just like clean. Blue base I thought worked well with the retro graphic.
Customer Service
Top notch. If we are being honest the real reason I switched to Warrior was due to the customer service. Dealing with Kirk Allen personally and Warrior as a whole has been a blast, and pleasure. All I can say is that I wish I would have switched sooner. I like supporting a good product, backed by good people and genuinely cool dudes who care about customers. Not just pro athletes. Considering the current state of most business’ and especially the hockey industry, this is an EXTREMELY fresh breath of air.
Conclusion
I could not be happier about my G4 experience so far. Obviously, the gear is going to have to wear down at some point in the next year. I feel people seriously need to open their horizons and give Warrior a try. Without the recommendations of my goalie coach I would have kept the same mentality of never giving Warrior a fair shake. I’m glad I did because it’s the little things that add up to big differences in my game and my game is improved since switching.
