Warrior G6 Living Review

[ThatCarGuy]

I know I said I don't like making reviews that often but I might as well with these. I received my Warrior G6 set back in mid June and have absolutely fallen in love with them since. 

Specs:

 

Leg pads-

32+1.5

Single break outer roll

1 piece core stiff thigh medium knee

Short and narrow outer wrap

Short inner wrap

Leather boot strap

Skate lace toe ties

 

Glove-

G6.0

Game ready

90⁰ palm

Wrist strap

Single tee

Skate lace pocket

 

Blocker-

G6.1

Large palm

 

The pads

Pros:

These pads definitely had an adjustment coming from my Mach set (and gnetik glove) and I didn't actually get them fully dialed in until I arrived in Sweden. Now that they've been adjusted and broken in they're just as comfortable as my EF5 pads while being much lighter and much more stable in butterfly. While playing on smaller North American ice I preferred to keep the slide plates off as I felt they would throw me wildly out of position. However here in Sweden where players have more time and space the slide plates have been crucial to making some back door saves and even keeping pace with a player as they walk across the crease. I can play much farther out of my crease and glide backwards much slower than before because I know the plates will allow me to still get there on time. Rebounds have been hotter than expected considering how soft the face of the pad feels and the thigh is as stiff if not stiffer than my Mach pads while still having a defined below the knee break that Mach lacked. Coveredge is not a gimmick and definitely helps the pads take up space from my experience. These pads also have a unique shin pillow that prevents the pad from having a gap in front of your shin usually caused by larger knee pads. 

Cons:

The pads feel a little loose around the lower calf for my taste and don't rotate well and ride up too high when you tighten them past a certain point. The calf wrap velcro for the knee strap is at a terrible angle and I had to wear the knee strap on the inner flap to achieve the desired feel. The pads are very prone to twisting over time but don't become torsionally flexible. Nylon in the boot channel is a stupid idea. My ankle also feels very exposed with the short calf wrap as shown in the picture in a reply below. The knee block has loosened a good bit since I've had the pads.

Modifications

Removed knee flap because it was useless

Moved the calf strap attachment point

Added velcro calf pillow to further increase butterfly stability and seal

Centered and inset toe bridge to help me better play the post in RVH

Added wear guard in the boot because the buckles on my konket skates were eating through the nylon

Removed leather boot strap because it was useless

The glove

Pros:

I've loved warrior gloves ever since I got my first one back with G3 so this was a perfect fit. Coming from the Gnetik IV and G5 this glove had a very high bar to achieve and G6 certainly reached it. It's as light as I remember and very easy to find the pocket. The feel is the same as my reliable G5 and G3 and the single tee still has the best snap that I can imagine only compares to an anchor tee. Playing the puck is super easy thanks to the flat fingers, flat thumb, and rigid tee. I did end up removing the wrist strap because it felt pointless and replaced the skate lace with waxed nylon string for lacrosse sidewalls. 

Cons:

The shape is different than G5 and G3 and I'm not sure I prefer it. Protection is not as good as G5 and the break isn't as consistent. The new shape also doesn't funnel as well as G3 or G5 did. 

The blocker

Pros:

Previously hated the G5 blocker so the G6.1 was a welcome change. It still pops as hard as G5 and much harder than G4 or G3. The finger protection is such a huge change that can't be overlooked. Paddle down is so much easier and the soft foam around the index finger isn't intrusive and very helpful to not jam my finger using paddle down. The sewn in palm eliminates the sloppy feeling warrior blockers have been known to have. I did remove the included velcro straight finger protection piece because the blocker does not need 4 layers of index finger protection.

Cons:

It's not a Bauer blocker. The palm could be more comfortable and the blocker pop could be better. The finger stalls have the tendency to twist when using sticks grippier than Warrior and especially with steep shoulders. The bridge over the cuff is annoying.

Changes

If I was to order a G6/G7 set again after having these I would likely make all the same modifications but I would definitely make a few changes to my order.

As far as pads I'd change to the long and narrow outer calf wrap, long inner calf wrap, and not bother to order a boot strap. I've thought about dropping to a 32+1 to allow better mobility and less interference and I probably will do that just because I feel I don't get much use out of the +1.5 thigh rise.

For the glove I'd opt for G#.1 with a double tee, game ready palm, no wrist strap, and (hopefully) removable 90 degree palm. After seeing pictures of G7 I really like the look of the double tee mainly because it appears they changed the shape to be more True/CCM/Bauer like. The reason I would still get game ready over pro palm is because I plan on doing the same as I did this year and just pick up a stock glove to use for practice. 

And finally for the blocker I'd go for G#.0 with a sewn in palm. As shown in the picture above, G6.0 and G6.1 are the exact same shape where they connect to the sidewall and the same thickness at the top and bottom of the blocker board. The only difference is the G6.0 is thicker in the middle of the board to give it that extra coverage and flatter face.

Edited August 30, 2023 by ThatCarGuy
Pictures added

[ZeroGravitas]

Can you show us some pics of the backside? IIRC Long & Wide is the stock leg channel option, would like to see how different Short & Narrow is.

[ThatCarGuy]

1 hour ago, ZeroGravitas said:

Can you show us some pics of the backside? IIRC Long & Wide is the stock leg channel option, would like to see how different Short & Narrow is.

Added a pic to the topic as well as one here but just left the rink for the night since it's 10:34 at the time of writing this

Edited August 29, 2023 by ThatCarGuy

[Chenner29]

5 hours ago, ThatCarGuy said:

These pads also have a unique shit pillow that prevents the pad from having a gap in front of your shin due to knee pads.

This is a very unique sentence

[IpaddyTECH]

Any reason you went for the short and narrow? (sounds biblical haha)

How do you like that compared to other pads? 

[creasecollector]

Setup looks great. Nice review.

[ThatCarGuy]

7 hours ago, Chenner29 said:

This is a very unique sentence

Fixed. Didn't bother spellchecking because I just wanted to get home after my third ice time. 

4 hours ago, IpaddyTECH said:

Any reason you went for the short and narrow? (sounds biblical haha)

How do you like that compared to other pads? 

In all honesty I got short and narrow because it was a new option and I wanted to see how it played. Next time around I would get long and narrow so my ankles aren't as exposed but that way they'll still play the same. Haven't really noticed a difference between this and most calf wraps around the skate. 

[IpaddyTECH]

Good to know. Great looking pads too! I gotta get my hands on one of those "shit" pillows, that is the next big thing in pad innovation.  

[coopaloop1234]

That short and narrow leg channel on a Warrior looks so weird. 

Good review. Looks like classic Warrior with a unique spin on goalie gear. I'm interested to see how they change the leg pads for the G7. 

I have a feeling the gloves won't see any large changes from the G6 line (I say this now...), but I can see this version of Warrior's pad being a bit divisive for some people. 

 

[ThatCarGuy]

18 minutes ago, coopaloop1234 said:

That short and narrow leg channel on a Warrior looks so weird. 

Good review. Looks like classic Warrior with a unique spin on goalie gear. I'm interested to see how they change the leg pads for the G7. 

I have a feeling the gloves won't see any large changes from the G6 line (I say this now...), but I can see this version of Warrior's pad being a bit divisive for some people. 

 

Just for you I added a better picture to show how short the calf wrap is

[coopaloop1234]

27 minutes ago, ThatCarGuy said:

Just for you I added a better picture to show how short the calf wrap is

Someone has to. It's not like Warrior was ever clear on what all their new customization options were. 

Hell, even how they describe the difference between the G6 and 6.1 glove with being a "wide shape" and "long shape" and ignoring typical goalie catcher break conventions is a bit annoying. Especially since they designate different liner breaks anyways...

Surprised you'd go with the 7.0 blocker though. I really didn't like the protruding board of my G5. My GT2 was a way better blocker. 

[ZeroGravitas]

1 hour ago, coopaloop1234 said:

Someone has to. It's not like Warrior was ever clear on what all their new customization options were. 

Hell, even how they describe the difference between the G6 and 6.1 glove with being a "wide shape" and "long shape" and ignoring typical goalie catcher break conventions is a bit annoying. Especially since they designate different liner breaks anyways...

Surprised you'd go with the 7.0 blocker though. I really didn't like the protruding board of my G5. My GT2 was a way better blocker. 

go off king.

Hope they really beef up the customizer booklet for 2024.

[ThatCarGuy]

3 hours ago, coopaloop1234 said:

Hell, even how they describe the difference between the G6 and 6.1 glove with being a "wide shape" and "long shape" and ignoring typical goalie catcher break conventions is a bit annoying. Especially since they designate different liner breaks anyways...

Honestly simply comparing shapes would be great if they actually felt the same but unfortunately they don't. I get beat low glove more than I'd like to and since I hold my glove fingers out I think having longer fingers on the glove would help eliminate that issue. Plus G6.1 is a better funnel shape. 

3 hours ago, coopaloop1234 said:

Surprised you'd go with the 7.0 blocker though. I really didn't like the protruding board of my G5. My GT2 was a way better blocker.

I agree G5 was awful but G6.0 felt and played the same as G6.1 when I borrowed a friend's. G6.0 definitely punched pucks out harder and contrary to the booklet it sent less pucks straight up since the bottom half of the board wasn't angled up as much as G6.1

[coopaloop1234]

22 minutes ago, ThatCarGuy said:

Honestly simply comparing shapes would be great if they actually felt the same but unfortunately they don't. I get beat low glove more than I'd like to and since I hold my glove fingers out I think having longer fingers on the glove would help eliminate that issue. Plus G6.1 is a better funnel shape. 

I agree G5 was awful but G6.0 felt and played the same as G6.1 when I borrowed a friend's. G6.0 definitely punched pucks out harder and contrary to the booklet it sent less pucks straight up since the bottom half of the board wasn't angled up as much as G6.1

Yea, that was a problem with my GT2. Shots I wasn't able to directly control had a habit of going airborne, but the control and dexterity overall was higher than my G5. 

G5 was also a lot wobblier. 

 

 

[ThatCarGuy]

42 minutes ago, coopaloop1234 said:

Yea, that was a problem with my GT2. Shots I wasn't able to directly control had a habit of going airborne, but the control and dexterity overall was higher than my G5. 

G5 was also a lot wobblier. 

 

 

Agreed. G6.1 is better about not sending shots straight up compared the previous warrior blockers but it's so much more connected than before as well and I think a lot of that comes from the thicker backhand padding. Trying a friend's G6.0 it's just as connected as G6.1

Edited August 30, 2023 by ThatCarGuy

[ThatCarGuy]

Looking back at that picture of the glove it is super strange how similar of a shape it is to optik 3 but I'm not sure it shares a shape with anything else on the market

 

[ThatCarGuy]

Starting to see small wear spots on the top and bottom corners of the pad, nothing out of the usual. The nylon stitching at the boot break on the sliding surface is disappearing though it would probably be worse if it had a binding. Plus that stitching doesn't appear to have any kind of purpose.

The slide plates are definitely very useful on the larger ice. They allow me to make backdoor saves that I wouldn't otherwise make and allow a lot of energy saving since I don't have to push as hard to travel the same distance. Now that I'm getting used to them I don't over slide and often have time to even recover to my feet. Still wouldn't recommend on North America sized sheets

[coopaloop1234]

45 minutes ago, ThatCarGuy said:

Still wouldn't recommend on North America sized sheets

What about for lazy fat beer leaguers? 

[ThatCarGuy]

39 minutes ago, coopaloop1234 said:

What about for lazy fat beer leaguers? 

Highly discourage them from using the slide plates. If changing direction is already a struggle then going faster won't help lol

[keeperton]

4 hours ago, coopaloop1234 said:

What about for lazy fat beer leaguers? 

Get good

[ThatCarGuy]

As previously stated, nothing out of the normal for wear. Tried to be as picky as possible with finding wear spots

[RichMan]

Those wear spots are no different then when our gear was all real leather. Of course, if it's only after 1 season of regular beer league, nothing elite, it's a little bit of a let down for the money spent.

[ThatCarGuy]

1 hour ago, RichMan said:

Those wear spots are no different then when our gear was all real leather. Of course, if it's only after 1 season of regular beer league, nothing elite, it's a little bit of a let down for the money spent.

This is after a summer of training and about a quarter the way through a season of swedish junior hockey

[ThatCarGuy]

Willing to bet a lot of these wear spots are because I ordered weave. My standard black jenpro practice glove has no wear spots. I love weave though so I'll still order it as long as I have colors to match

Edited October 15, 2023 by ThatCarGuy

[ser33]

I like the combination of colors and textures of the materials in your set