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Warrior Ritual X3 Pro Goalie neck guard reviews?


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Just from the pictures it looks good. Throat collar looks pretty fat so protection should be there but it could interfere with mobility slightly (just a guess) but I like how it overlap shoulders and far down on back side. It would prevent rotation during play - I had this issue with Bauer Supreme before I saw it into shirt.

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  • 1 month later...

For the Black Friday I pulled the trigger and bought me one of these X3 Pro "clavicle guard" (as they've named it on the package).

The first impression while inside the plastic back. Yeah looks like Kova, slightly different details and no plastic sheets like inside Kova. Feels stiff so makes me wonder about the foams inside. It was straight in from -15 degrees Celsius so I thought it might also be a bit stiff from being cold as foams have that feature.

Package opened and the first feels:

- The fabric seems really thin and weak, not going to last a long time atleast if you build a lot of hair/beard around you neck and chin.

- The foam is like some memory foam, even when temperature has risen to room level and still when heated between my arms the foam is really stiff to change the form or bend. Most surprised about that as I thought it might be more like the gel foam or maybe even D3O that kind of flows from shape to other shape.

- Only on the neck area I could feel the foam being double layered, and overall feeling of the neck 'ring' is a lot like Kova protector has. Feels really good being on hand, has that same slowly adapting feel of the collar area foams, but maybe more stiff and firm. That might also come from being sewn to the round shape of the collarbone sheets opening for the neck.

They mention on the video above that the foam is a new type. I was hoping for there to be a soft foam against the clavicle area but there isn't. Neck area is good to be a stiff ring as it shouldn't be in direct contact to neck and also take the hits energy in and not let it go through to neck area. So the design seems to be good, quality from the first impressions is not in the high end, craftmanship is normal with nothing to mention on the downside.

The issue I had with Kova was that the clavicle area was so stiff plate that it rubbed against my clavicle bones and that was exaggerated with the C/A weight. Also the collar around my neck wasn't the shape I would've liked, not interfering anything but just not unnoticeable. I have to admit here that I only tried the Kova for two times but I wasn't able to dial the feeling at all. It just felt too much no matter what I tried. It is certain that it would've molded on me in time ie. broke in but I just wasn't keen to do it. It was affecting my playing having to thing of that feeling all the time.

Now I have some shoulder problems to add to all other problems so I might not see the ice as a goalie for some time. Also the local Covid situation is going bad and we are under 20 people limits starting next week so there might be some icerink close-up times ahead.

But I'll give this X3 protector some tryouts when I'm on my snowwiS project to get some idea how this one adapts when on use.

Anyone else that has this in use already?

Edited by ArdeFIN
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Continuing from what said, the foam accepts bending slowly and even goes to almost double if you give it time to do so. But more interesting feature is that the foam returns to the original shape when the stress is relieved. Holding the plate on one edge the the other edge bent down and under, it has the strength to return to flat without any help. Even the throat collar tries to open out straight when I opened the velcro.

The foam is double layered and it hard to tell if the layers are of different type of foam. The collar feels like the inside foam would be a bit softer and easier to press fingertip into the foam while outside layer feels more stiff. Productionvise it might be the same material all over as it would save a lot of cost while having only one type of foam sheet to use.

The smaller wedged parts over the shoulder are cut from the top layer and only bottom layer is intact. The covering fabric is then sewn through and foam is basically cut also. With few bending moves all the small parts were separated. I think it was also meant to happen that the small pieces are on their own to help the plate to form better  over the shoulder area..

I'll add some pictures later when I get them sorted.

Edit: faster than I thought, here we have some details to explain what I tried to write out. 🙈

DSC_0271_8x6.jpg

DSC_0272_8x6.jpg

DSC_0273_6x8.jpg

DSC_0274_8x6.jpg

Edited by ArdeFIN
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  • 2 weeks later...

Now with two hours of use I like this one more than the Kova. Main reason for that is this one is softish on collar area. Like it should I don't even notice it while playing. And with one medium snapshot to the clavicle where I got stung (with RBK-Vaughn before upgrade) last time, now it felt, gasp, uh oh, well nothing bad happened and the play continued. So the Warriors specific shock-what-ever -material does the job pretty well.

The collar is a bit too stiff to my liking and as it is the shape is not the best it could be. Maybe even rounding the top inside edge of the foam would help. And by no means it is terrible, not even bad. Just so much that it isn't completely un-noticeable there.

The foam does soften when heated up to body temp and that helps the clavicle area to mold really well to body shapes, and does not make any pressing feeling that I had with Kova on which the plate is very stiff.

Seems to me that I'm going to use this one from now on, having the RBK-Vaughn hybrid as a realiable backup.

I'll come back here when I have something to tell about the durability of the materials on this Warrior RX3Pro.

Edited by ArdeFIN
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  • 2 years later...
32 minutes ago, RichMan said:

@ArdeFIN time for an update brother 😁

I used this for over a year. Honestly I loved it. It was super comfortable and the protection was great, took a couple of shots off the neck/clavicle and barely felt it.

 

That being said, the foam on the back of the collar started to separate recently which caused the fabric to stretch out and make it not fit as well. Didn’t have any other durability issues with it, but had to replace it with an eco pro foam cause the fit issue. But I got a solid 1.5 years out of it, and honestly I liked it more than I like the eco so far.

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On 12/17/2021 at 7:57 PM, ArdeFIN said:
On 3/11/2024 at 3:09 AM, RichMan said:

@ArdeFIN time for an update brother 😁

I'll come back here when I have something to tell about the durability of the materials on this Warrior RX3Pro.

Lucky that I said the above. Nothing to tell so far. The fabric on top is still feeling super thin but even with my beard is like steel wire and usually keep it short and then super abrasive there is no real damage to the material. Yes you can tell the wear from fade of colors and so on.

I have only gotten one shot to the throat with Warrior, got a bit scared but that was it. Not a real hard shot but from close distance.

The foam feels really brittle when it is very cold but I have been patient and let it warm up before wearing it so no problems. I haven't really bent the foam so I don't know if it would ever break even when cold and stiff.

I might want the collar an inch taller and the rounded edges to the collar foam too but other than that it does the job.

Edited by ArdeFIN
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Those started to pop up in clearance. I upgraded from Heaton neckguard I’ve had for 20 years. 
 

The materials do feel thin, and I can see them wearing out but mines been good in the 15 times I’ve worn it. It is rock hard when cold and gel when warm I find. 
 

Overall I’ve enjoyed it. If I could change anything it would be a dip on the front of the neck like some of the Roughneck ones. And I’d like a dip at the back as I’ve had my backplate catch on it on occasion. 
 

I am thinking on looking up Dave Wilcox or someone to reskin it in the summer if that were even possible. 

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On 3/14/2024 at 12:11 AM, RedX said:

I am thinking on looking up Dave Wilcox or someone to reskin it in the summer if that were even possible. 

Reskinning should be an easy job as the foams have a gap between them to sew the parts together. 

For reference I remember reading that Kovas neck protector has so difficult seam that only Topi (the owner) knew how to get it done. Maybe they have improved the design or taught all their workers how to do it nowadays :) 

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