Bauer 1S Goalie Pads

[TheGoalNet]

Bauer 1S Long Term Review

The concisely summarize my feelings on the Bauer 1S pads, I will call them a Ferrari. You may be instantly thinking I mean they are amazing, and they have their highlights, but it’s not how I am intending the comparison. For anyone who really knows about cars, Ferrari has a reputation for having beautiful designs, amazing performance, but a high cost of maintenance or ownership. They are built for speed and not everyday driving.  A Porsche on the other hand, is a more balanced approach that can do both. As they say, there’s a trade-off to everything. . .

If you read my initial impressions or have talked to any 1S owner, you will know that the pads flat out slide amazing. I cannot think of a quantitative way of measuring it, but I am positive the pads make me about 1 step faster on breakaways and butterfly slides. It’s not exaggerating to say I am positively a faster goalie in these pads. I have actually found myself naturally incorporating additional sliding techniques in my game to take advantage of my new found speed. 

 

The 1S pads are also the lightest, or nearly the lightest, pads on the market. The XL size I used was a 4.7lb pad. My previous pads were also a 37” total pad and weighed in at 5.2 lbs per pad. I am saving .5 lb per pad or 1lb per set compared to my 5 yr old pads. That really is pretty significant improvement when you think about it. 

Once I got over the thrill of sliding around on the ice at the speed of light, I started to become less and less and excited about the 1S pads skate after skate. There are a lot of unusual quirks with these pads that I do not understand. I have confirmed knowledge that many of these issues have been addressed on the 2S  pad that releases next summer, so if you’re on the fence, you might want to wait. 

As for the head scratchers, first and foremost, the inner calf wing sliding surface. For the life of me, I cannot understand why this is not flush against the inner gusset like every single other pad on earth.  I also find it odd to use a fabric binding in this area when the trend is to get rid of any bindings on sliding surfaces.

These both seem like very backward design choices for the most revolutionary pad launch in a long time, if not ever. The fabric binding collects a lot of snow and slush throughout the game. This will inevitably reduce how well the pads slide. The recessed inner wing leaves the pads unbalanced at times in the butterfly. The only explanation I could see from Bauer is that by only the gusset touching the ice, and not the calf wing, there is less surface area during a slide and therefore less friction. Maybe this was one step too far at chasing the ultimate slide? Regardless, it’s bad design that is fixed on the new pad. I am glad that Bauer has fixed this feature and will speculate it makes for a much more stable pad.

The other main area of concern with me on this pad is the leg channel. I personally don’t care for many of the components or how the leg channel is laid out. To start off, I’m not a fan of the knee landing. It’s my least favorite part of the pad. Although the Poron material seems like a fine material choice for landing area, it’s not quite stiff enough to stay in place. The knee elastic constantly pulls on the Poron landing block and causes it to curl up.  I initially had the misconception this was a fit issue with the XL pad. I went as far as to sell my XL pads and buy a pair of M. Unfortunately, I had this effect on both the XL and M pad.

On XL pad, my knee would slip during the butterfly. It would move from the landing circle in the middle of the knee block and fall off the knee block. It got to the point where I was getting bruises and moved the M pad. On the M pad, it has same effect though. Given the shorter pad, I am now slipping from the top of the knee block to the bottom. It’s not ideal, but at least it’s tolerable now. I also have given up doing the Velcro down to the calf warp, which is my desired way to wear it pad. There’s just too much slack in the knee area and I had to do the knee Velcro across the knee to give the pad any sort of connected feeling.  I can confirm that Bauer has updated the landing blocks on the 2S. Hopefully the new landing gear is an improved design, which I anticipate it to be.

Moving down the leg channel, we have the wraps and elastic straps. The center CRS straps are nuisances to take on and off. You need to unvelcro and re-velcro both ends of the strap every time. Most of the time velcro is saving time in the locker room, but I am not sure that is true with the 1S. The CRS center strap also feels constantly loose and I question what unique benefit it is actually adding. Even with the short strap option, I cannot get this strap tight enough to even feel during use.  I have thicker calves than your typical goalie too!

I also find that the wings are in no man’s land. They are not super spread apart like a Premier pad and they are not close enough to get  tight. I cannot find a strapping set up to actually have them wrap around your leg. With the 1S, you are basically limited to loose and super loose fit. 

 

Lastly, there is 1 other part of the leg channel I find to be a head scratcher. I loved the concept of the pads being available with long and short straps to dial in the fit. However, with the fact that elastic flexes quite a bit, I don’t understand why the short straps wouldn’t be short enough to actually wear the pad snugly. I would suggest Bauer consider a 3^rd size of strapping and offer  S, M, L straps. The S would be the new size and the existing short would become the M .

If you are reading this and thinking, it’s a butterfly pad, it’s supposed to be loose! I get that, but the beauty of elastic is that it gives. With modern strapping it is possible to have a pad worn snuggly to the leg and still rotate perfectly. There's no reason Bauer couldn't offer my suggestion of a tighter fitting elastic strapping set up. In fact, I think loose strapping will slowly fade away. There’s no benefit to it anymore. It served a purpose 15 years ago to help pads rotate. Pad designs and modern strapping have fixed that.

Getting back to the positives, there’s a lot to like about this pad. That’s why I went through the trouble of buying a second set to see if I could dial them in for my game.

As I’ve already mentioned, but it’s worth saying again, the pads slide amazingly and make me a faster goalie! As frustrating as I find the leg channel and strapping, the performance is there. Getting back to the Ferrari analogy, they go fast, but they are not the most comfortable ride over bumps.

 Other things I like about the 1S are the pad core itself, the seal, and the rebounds.   The pad core itself is very stable. There is not very much torsional flex and I like that. The lesson learned I have from wearing GNetik’s for the last few years and trying 1S is that I prefer stiff over very flexible.  When dropping into the butterfly or sliding, the pad core doesn’t move in a positive way. It stays in place and stays sealed. I know where the pad is at all time and I feel like the ice is well sealed.  I have not found any gap in coverage around the boot or thigh rise. Speaking of which, I also love the boot angle. It never interfered with my stance and always gave a great seal.

Lastly, and definitely not least, are the rebounds. They are hot. Very few times now does a puck come in, hit my pads, and just stop in front of me or trickle out to where an opposing player could get it. It moves away from me and gives me time to recover. This is probably a positive outcome 8 of 10 times. In those 2 of 10 negative situations, a softer shot has some more pop off the pads than I want and ends up in a dangerous place. In summary, the hot rebounds are truly more helpful than they are harmful. It’s also very effortless to utilize the extra zip to steer your rebounds easier.

I’ve written a lot here, but I feel these pads truly deserve this level of dissection. They are way different than anything else in front of them, there’s a lot of hype around them, they will inspire lots of copycats, and most reviews I see people are only talking about the positives, which there are a lot of. However, this pad is not without its faults and we haven’t talk about the durability.  I think the concerns about durability are well known and Bauer updated the pad year to improve them.

If you like a loose or really loose fitting pad and don’t plan to keep them for more than a year of heavy use, I don’t think you can wrong with them. The performance on these pads is second to none. All my concerns pertain to comfort, durability, and how they fit. These issues may not apply to you at all and you may love them.

If you are a beer leaguer looking to keep these for a 3+ seasons or like a really tight fit leg channel, I would make sure you do your research ahead of time or figure out how to demo a set. These pads perform amazing, but they are a Ferrari and cannot be confused for a Cadillac.  You’ll go faster, but it may not be the comfortable ride you are used too. 

 

 

 

[mik]

Thanks for great detailed review. It is allways good to read the negatives, not only positive hype. Good job TGN.

One think I still can not understand - why bauer is giving such a miserable material to knee landing area. I realy hate when it starts to tear appart an it is completly unnecesary, just bad materials. It is not their first model with that issue...

 

[TheGoalNet]

10 hours ago, mik said:

Thanks for great detailed review. It is allways good to read the negatives, not only positive hype. Good job TGN.

One think I still can not understand - why bauer is giving such a miserable material to knee landing area. I realy hate when it starts to tear appart an it is completly unnecesary, just bad materials. It is not their first model with that issue...

Yea, I'm kinda fascinated to see what CCM is using for the the new 3D landing in the P2s. I might not be forward thinking enough, but I have a feeling that it will be like Speed Skin. A retail only option that's not widely adopted by the pros. 

The pictures of the P2s I've seen and the EF4 protos, pad Varly was seen in, don't have the 3D foam 

back to Bauer...

They seen the error in their ways. The 2S and Vapor both have traditional knee landings. Here's a spy photo of 2S. This marked as 1S because it's for a CHL guy and they are not getting pads marked 2S until later in the year 

[mik]

Looks good, glad to see Bauer works on this.

[Big2]

TGN for how long did you have these and where they new when you got them?

How many times a week did you use them?

[cwarnar]

Any idea if the gusset and inside edge issues are different on the 1X or 2S?

[TheGoalNet]

2 minutes ago, TheGoalNet said:

2S and 1X and have basically the same design. There might be some nuances between, but too early to tell with only photo evidence. 

 

 

[Big2]

TGN at my sons practice today I overheard one of the fathers saying that his son who wears the Bauer 1s or 2s not sure was raving about how well the pads slid on the ice! Not sharing anything new, however he went on to say that they slid better than the EflexIII who his son got to demo recently!

i was not sure where to put this info - I thought there was a post on a slide off between these two pads but I couldn't find it!

[TheGoalNet]

16 minutes ago, Big2 said:

TGN at my sons practice today I overheard one of the fathers saying that his son who wears the Bauer 1s or 2s not sure was raving about how well the pads slid on the ice! Not sharing anything new, however he went on to say that they slid better than the EflexIII who his son got to demo recently!

i was not sure where to put this info - I thought there was a post on a slide off between these two pads but I couldn't find it!

No worries, I'm a big believer in The Wisdom of the Crowd. The more info we have from different sources the better!

here's the other thread 

 

[slade037]

Just wanted to thank @TheGoalNet and @djtendy for their reviews.  It helped me make a decision on sizing when I purchased a set of Bauer 1S for myself.  

It looks and feels like my RBK 33+2 fit the same as the 1S Medium.  Strapping and all that will vary your fit, but so far I am liking the pads.  

Hopefully I can pay it forward and answer any questions you may have.

 

 

[TheGoalNet]

Love the light blue logos! I had the same thought about the strapping recently. I with some of my mods, I like the strapping and feel now. I wish I still had my XL to see if they worked for me.