Bauer Supreme Shadow initial impressions & Mach comparaison

[maxtm30]

Hello TGN forum,

This time I am sticking to my word and posting pictures and impression on the day of reception!

Here is the setup:

I did not re-invent my style, still mostly rangers colours but dabbled with Ice Blue a little more than just a logo this time around. Logos in that colour really pop!
First thing I noticed is the SHADOW logo is fully printed, I expected the filled colour to be the usual glued on letters. This along with the fully printed approach of the Digi-Print is probably signaling we can expect the raised logos to disappear on next year's Vapor offering. 

Along with this picture, the welting material is the new Slider 2.0 skin (not using that Y33T speak like Bauer). The wilting is noticeably stiffer but also slicker, this shouldn't wear as much and has me wondering with this change was never made with previous generations (at least for the bottom welting).

Pads:

Pads are stock expect for the Mach stiffness profile, the removed knee wrap and the skate lace for the toes. In the following pictures, Mach is on the left and Shadow on the right. 

No major differences to report on the face, except the graphic obviously. Something to note is that the accents with lighter than the selected colour on Mach and darker tone on Shadow.

It worth pointing out how much smaller the outer calf wrap is on Shadow. It is also a bit stiffer and seems pre-shaped to better contour the leg. Feels great so far. The strapping in odd to me but we will get to it a little later.

One thing of note on Shadow, the suede material for the knee is much softer and feels better than my Mach did on day one. Same goes for all the suedes in the glove and blocker. As Reported by @ZeroGravitas (He has a great thread up with his amazing setup, advise you look it up), the pillow is new and this time around it is the same for retail and pro custom orders. The new calf is NHL/IIHF legal unlike the retail Mach, so we can expect to see this new geometry in the big leagues too. 

Bauer chamfers off the corners of the Stabilislide insert, cannot seem to see why the change unless they want the knee block to be more edgy. The pad seem a little thinner from the knee up. Since they both have the same flex profile (and feel the same, goes to show Bauer really nailed down the core durability to a tee) I have to assume this is not just a tolerance range but a design change.

The leg channel graphic is a lot different, I think both looked great. They also use the same font as the gloves for the embroidery unlike with Mach for some reason. This could be just a my Mach set is weird issue though, never really checked into that.

The lower calf strap going to the outside feels like a downgrade to me. Now hear me out, this is purely an aesthetic opinion as the strap does nothing but allowing the pad to be NHL legal. I think the outside to inside look just screams Bauer design wise. I also like the coherent aspect of having this patch with the alternate logo on all the pieces of gear. Doesn't make me hate my Shadow, but it's like when the took away my UltraSonic leg channel suede/dry fit textile with the weathered print. (Side note, UltraSonic had the most premium feel of any Bauer release, maybe even GOALIE pads release, and I will die on that hill!) 

Now the strapping, The tune fit + attachment points are higher than on Mach for the inner calf. The velcro tab on the outside is lower on Shadow. This honestly had be worried that I should've asked for a connect strap. Putting them on. It feels surprisingly identical to the Mach, still pulls my pad up like a professor strap would. I don't really get it, and I feel bad that I can't explain it for some reason. Still weirding me out. The new calf pillow is thicker and contours the calf. Also feels like it forces the shin to be closer to the face for a more connected feel.

The white print is a nice touch, expected it to be gray but it pops and completes my colours nicely.

(Messed up here, Shadow is exceptionally on the left for the next pic.)

The boot. That Mach boot was sure wide. It felt great, but looking at Shadow I guess I was the only one that liked it. I honestly don't mind either though. The toe bridge is a bit further away from the welting but this could be just tolerance thing. It is the same on both pads though.
Overall the build quality for the pads is excellent, on par with my expectations. I will try the pads on ice without PPF on the knee stack at first, hopefully Slider 2.0 is better that the OG, which was a downgrade compared to CORTech ST in my opinion.

Glove:

My glove is the most custom piece of the whole set. I basically made a Mach internal catcher, as the Mach is my favourite glove of all time. 

A view of the Shadow/Mach hybrid catcher here.

 

THAT GLOVE IS HUGE. I thought the Mach was big enough. Clearly Bauer and other felt otherwise. I have the DCT foam added to the thumb area, but when closing the glove, the Shadow feels much beefier as well.

 

Notice here the SUPREME debossed logo isn't on my shadow glove, but it is on retail sets. 

 

The palm material is great on Shadow. Mach felt great at first but really wore down faster than UltraSonic and older gens for me. Honestly picked up a little smell faster too, with the same amount of care. Hopefully this new gray nash (DURACONNEKT) is better at all those things. Notice the added grip over the break. 

Mach had all black strapping and Shadow is colour coordinated with the set, a welcome return as the straps on my UltraSonic gear did match my velcro/elastic zone on all the gear.

 

The Mach pocket is a bit deeper than the Shadow, maybe this will change after the break in process. I like the new way of closing the outer wrap without the velcro and d-ring loop. It's simpler and achieves the same thing. Backing material on the glove's cuff (board) is now Catchlite (jenpro) VS Nylon on Mach. It feels like every year it is a different material and it honestly doesn't matter beyond pointing it out.

The Shadow glove feels great out of the box and I cannot wait to bring this baby on the ice. I think Bauer really perfected the backhand graphic with this release. Hopefully this means that this area will become a printable zone for future Digi-Print builds.

Blocker:

Messed up again, shadow on the left.

 

Nothing to say from the front really, all the meat is on the side wall and backhand this year.

Perspective is a bit intense on this one. The side wall are drastically different. Looks really ugly to be honest, but with a stick it feels great for me. Seems like an unlikely Win for me.

 

I expected the side wall to be a bit "taller" but compared with the Mach you can see it's pretty much the same. The board is a bit thinner on Shadow, but feels stiffer.

Now you can see why I talked about the little triangular patch earlier. The Shadow blocker feels bland on the back. The only accent it the pull tab for the glove. AND this tab alone is a colour zone. This might be just Bauer trolling us though. If yes, good job.

Now the real spec talk, that new backhand pillow. It's a bit thicker but about 25.4mm shorter on Shadow. If you select Mach traditional in the custom options, you will end up with a Mach side wall along with the pillow. This could be 2 separate specs, but this is what they chose to go with.

Only "issue" on the whole set is the build quality near the edge of the pillow, looks like it could be better closed off. Bit it is most likely fine as is.

Final thoughts:

Of course my opinion may change. But Shadow seems like it is of overall good to great build quality. Nothing screams cheap, but also nothing scream premium. The graphic designer did a phenomenal job for the stock graphic. Plenty of colour zones to really make the graphic your own. We are really far from the olden days of the 2s Pro in 2018 and prior. This is a great release. 

If you made it this far, you probably have some comments, please share below.

Cheers nerds!

 

 

 

Edited May 26 by maxtm30
Formatting

[coopaloop1234]

22 hours ago, maxtm30 said:

 

It worth pointing out how much smaller the outer calf wrap is on Shadow. It is also a bit stiffer and seems pre-shaped to better contour the leg. Feels great so far. The strapping in odd to me but we will get to it a little later.

One thing of note on Shadow, the suede material for the knee is much softer and feels better than my Mach did on day one. Same goes for all the suedes in the glove and blocker. As Reported by @ZeroGravitas (He has a great thread up with his amazing setup, advise you look it up), the pillow is new and this time around it is the same for retail and pro custom orders. The new calf is NHL/IIHF legal unlike the retail Mach, so we can expect to see this new geometry in the big leagues too. 

Bauer chamfers off the corners of the Stabilislide insert, cannot seem to see why the change unless they want the knee block to be more edgy. The pad seem a little thinner from the knee up. Since they both have the same flex profile (and feel the same, goes to show Bauer really nailed down the core durability to a tee) I have to assume this is not just a tolerance range but a design change.

The leg channel graphic is a lot different, I think both looked great. They also use the same font as the gloves for the embroidery unlike with Mach for some reason. This could be just a my Mach set is weird issue though, never really checked into that.

The lower calf strap going to the outside feels like a downgrade to me. Now hear me out, this is purely an aesthetic opinion as the strap does nothing but allowing the pad to be NHL legal. I think the outside to inside look just screams Bauer design wise. I also like the coherent aspect of having this patch with the alternate logo on all the pieces of gear. Doesn't make me hate my Shadow, but it's like when the took away my UltraSonic leg channel suede/dry fit textile with the weathered print. (Side note, UltraSonic had the most premium feel of any Bauer release, maybe even GOALIE pads release, and I will die on that hill!) 

 

A lot of the changes for Bauer pads since the Hyperlite 1 has mostly come across as the consolidation of their lines. Case in point, the new outer calf wrap is pretty much the same as the Hyperlite 2. 

And honestly, it all makes sense. With how customizable from the outset Bauer pads are now, consolidating their materials and designs allow them to create a single pad that essentially is just a different core as per the customers request. 

The new calf pillow on Shadow is a "gentler" version of the retail Machs, which was very scooped and kind of hard. When you got a Pro Custom Mach, it came with a pillow more like an Ultrasonic, which isn't much of a pillow. 

From feeling it in store, I liked the Shadow version. Felt like a great in between feel for what they were going for. 

[maxtm30]

1 minute ago, coopaloop1234 said:

A lot of the changes for Bauer pads since the Hyperlite 1 has mostly come across as the consolidation of their lines. Case in point, the new outer calf wrap is pretty much the same as the Hyperlite 2. 

And honestly, it all makes sense. With how customizable from the outset Bauer pads are now, consolidating their materials and designs allow them to create a single pad that essentially is just a different core as per the customers request. 

The new calf pillow on Shadow is a "gentler" version of the retail Machs, which was very scooped and kind of hard. When you got a Pro Custom Mach, it came with a pillow more like an Ultrasonic, which isn't much of a pillow. 

From feeling it in store, I liked the Shadow version. Felt like a great in between feel for what they were going for. 

I like your point about them consolidating their lines. Honestly, as much Vapor there is in there; this release is very, very Supreme. My guess is the next generations of Supreme in goal (maybe apart from the sticks) will be Custom only. Supreme seems popular enough at custom to warrant it, but at retail it always sagged behind Vapor, starting at 1x.

[Boom Hockey]

My comment has to do with the differences in the thumb enclosure, there is a an internal leather loop on the Mach that has two tie ends that exit the thumb so you can tighten or loosen the thumb fit.

The shadow doesn’t have that. I wonder if there is a different way to adjust the thumb ?

[maxtm30]

40 minutes ago, Boom Hockey said:

My comment has to do with the differences in the thumb enclosure, there is a an internal leather loop on the Mach that has two tie ends that exit the thumb so you can tighten or loosen the thumb fit.

The shadow doesn’t have that. I wonder if there is a different way to adjust the thumb ?

No the thumb loop is not adjustable. Honestly it felt really great. The Shadow catcher is by far my favourite catcher Bauer made! 

[IpaddyTECH]

Just curious, what is your FTK and where do you land on the knee block? I'm also looking at Senior XS 32"

[maxtm30]

3 minutes ago, IpaddyTECH said:

Just curious, what is your FTK and where do you land on the knee block? I'm also looking at Senior XS 32"

I don’t have a soft tape measure at hand but I have roughly 17 inch. I measured at INT L with the old bauer sizing guide that released with the 1s (same knee size as sr xs). I have used this size for 6 years now and works perfectly!

[coopaloop1234]

22 hours ago, maxtm30 said:

I don’t have a soft tape measure at hand but I have roughly 17 inch. I measured at INT L with the old bauer sizing guide that released with the 1s (same knee size as sr xs). I have used this size for 6 years now and works perfectly!

I hope you're mixing up FTK with ATK. A 17" FTK would put you in in a Small INT pad.  

[maxtm30]

Just now, coopaloop1234 said:

I hope you're mixing up FTK with ATK. A 17" FTK would put you in in a Small INT pad.  

Ohh yeah seems about right!
 

I used to sell gear as you might remember! Pretty sure my size is right

[coopaloop1234]

10 minutes ago, maxtm30 said:

Ohh yeah seems about right!
 

I used to sell gear as you might remember! Pretty sure my size is right

Or you've sent out a ton of people with incorrectly sized pads.  

[maxtm30]

34 minutes ago, coopaloop1234 said:

Or you've sent out a ton of people with incorrectly sized pads.  

Dads often complain I sized too small so I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the case. I could definitely wear a tad smaller but my knee is dead center on the knee block with my current set up! 

[IpaddyTECH]

10 hours ago, maxtm30 said:

Dads often complain I sized too small so I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the case. I could definitely wear a tad smaller but my knee is dead center on the knee block with my current set up! 

 did you ever have parents bring in their kids at like 5'2" (157 cm for my metric friends) and be all like "I'd to get him sized but I'm pretty sure he needs a 35+2, maybe 36"?

[maxtm30]

On 7/8/2024 at 10:59 PM, IpaddyTECH said:

 did you ever have parents bring in their kids at like 5'2" (157 cm for my metric friends) and be all like "I'd to get him sized but I'm pretty sure he needs a 35+2, maybe 36"?

Yes!

More common with skates though.