ArdeFIN

I have some curiosity to it too, it looks a lot like the 590 but with side by side inspection there is actually quite a lot of difference. I'll compare it to all of the 590 I have in my possession, like Premier, VE8, 1X, ... Might take some time to get into it though.

It's getting ready step by step. This process would've taken a day if I had the time in one continuous stretch. Shortened the Ultra Long wrist strap to a loop, easier to pull it tight too. Note also the thumb loop ties. Easiest way to do it that I know of. One picture of the glove with perimeter and body laces done. Looking good and feeling good too. The perimeter length was extended to about 113cm and there was a bit of a mishap as I made the holes ready for the thumb side first and the started to fit the break of T to work with the glove. And couldn't pull the T out from the finger side no more than 10mm and closer to none actually. Othervise the T break would leap too much to the finger side. Don't know exactly what happened here and why there is such a big change in alignment but it might have something to do with fixed break lining. One of the pocket sections done already. I used the old laces which are dirty but in good shape and will do for long time. The mid lane might need a new lace as the original one is really short from the spines being very close to each other in the original setup. Now there is a noticeable gap in between.

Not yet my being used -gear. But will get a try out after refurbish. M4G Venture - Brian's Opt1k 9.0 - Brian's Gnetik IV

And playing with custom options you get your Kova just as you want it. Or atleast just as you order it. Protection is proven in NHL and KHL level. I had one too, but the basic model wasn't what I need. Maybe I'll return to Kova with custom model. Not saying that I don't like my Warrior X3 Pro, it's a good piece too but hasn't proven the protection yet while I'm not looking for that to happen either.

While having too much to do and some lacking in motivational side of life, some progress has been made. New main plastic. It is very rough getting started -shape, but once again you can notice the straigth break line. Other than that the original shape of the plastic was very good and with only minimal sizing changes I tried to copy it. The optical look will change a lot after the molding to the final shapes. No after pictures was taken, sorry! One comparison picture of the original plastic straightening out. The polystyrene is pretty much form proof and only breaks into pieces. I tried to mold the new plastic to the shape of the polystyrene the best I could. And it feels good in that shape. Kudos to Bauer for that. One picture of the mis-alignment at the break area. Red line implies the alignment of the second holes and the needle is through the other holes. Blue lines mimic the break lines of the Poron padding on the palm side as well as the plastic quided break on the outer (or is it inner?) shell. The padding with plastics is tied to the shell with cord (holes between blue lines). The pocket perimeter has to be aligned with these to work well. As we can tell from this picture here is a huge problem in this glove. And matching these holes affects some holes right next to them on the perimeter to correct the alignment as a whole. Then some testing with the new extended T to see how it will work if at all. This really isn't giving almost any realization here as you can tell from the clipped positions. It seemed like the T was moved a lot towards fingerside as the break of the T was almost off in this picture and the thumb side is already some 20mm pulled out. But that was fixed later on. One thing I have to mention about Bauer catchers here is that they are extremely comfy to hand. Like if I took my skiing mitts made by Hestra. Those are comfortable and warm and feel nice. And then I take the Bauer catcher, let it be this US or 1X Vapor or Total One. These just add an extra level of comfort over the Hestra mitts. It's kind of unbelieveable how nice these gloves feel.

Which has a lot to do with "only available through custom order" atleast for the time being. I would think many atleast could give it a try if it was available in shops.

Yes. Atleast when it's well used one But for a brand new unit I can't tell. Atleast not yet, wishing.

Working on it. Well not actually as I've had multiple other projects and last five days been under fever and getting nothing done.

Alot of look-a-like to Bauer Hyperlite - Ultrasonic. Huge pocket though vs Bauer

You need to build an airbag with soft foam to kill the energy from the puck. There has to be something stiff (thin HD foam maybe) in front of the airbag to spread the energy too. But it doesn't have to be unprotective at all.

The only negative is the plasticcy clacking when you walk. But if you like the slide then you'll love the plastic slideplates. Consistent slide for the whole time on ice. Only the just frozen clean ice is a bit sticky.

Would've been nice to see a comparison with using some sort of leg-skate setup to proof the boot riser etc. Sure there would still be a margin of error but now only putting the pads on a flat surface to show how the height of two pads equal. Not comparing how they differ when set on top of skates.

Try playing with the lace of the cuff too, you could move it down by one or two holes and also give some slack there to open up the wrist area. Blocker is just a blocker until you try something that just isn't fitting your hand. Ofcourse there is a lot more deviation with catchers than blockers. Did you add any extra plate to the blocker? I don't think that the plate with already cracker Curv will last long fixed with glue only.

And toe ties. That's why the elastic ones do a trick here. They are stretched when the pad rotates and they want the pad back to neutral position in front of your leg. Some of the tight strapping or gear connected together is preventing the rotation back to "neutral position". What I mean by gear is like knee pads being edged and hanging against pads corners or whatever. Really hard to tell without seeing into the close and minor details.

https://www.usahockeyrulebook.com/page/show/1084401-rule-303-goalkeeper-s-equipment Tried to find some other rules about but could not find anything different. Materials are not mentioned. Tape is so thin that you couldn't define if it made the pads too wide. Or atleast it would be splitting hair. With any technique I could imagine you are never able to get similar slide than with more slick material. Neither you will get the same results with leg days. It's plain physics that the less you need energy to slide around the better the control to it is. Sliding around when butterflying is ofcourse a technical style which you have to learn and the materials and ease of slide naturally affects that. When it's easier to slide you need a different style, you need less force to start the slide and you need different moves to control the direction. And you even need to learn how to limit the speed and stop the slide. With all that said I don't mean everybody should fly around sliding like on skates. Some don't like it and their style of tendying is different and they might manage very well. For me the superior slide is the only way I like to go with.

@ser33 I'll return to your comments when I get the glove into a state where these issues can be evaluated. Then it's T time. Almost like classic British and still nothing alike. Beginning, inside. And outside. Very nice condition with only a bit of wear on the right end at the lip. What's inside then is nothing spectacular but normal plastic sheets sewn onto a synthetic leather strip. The gap in the middle is wide though. Took one from the inside too for some reason. The plastics are bent at the hinge points but not much. The lip was very stiff and kept the glove in a mid-closure position. The leather was also sewn into the lip, which gives some problems to DIY people if they want to change this setup. Then the last seam opened to see to the inside. Nothing to see here actually so need to do this if you are just to change the support strip. If the lip was worn through you would have to open it this far to replace the jenpro. On positive side of the design the jenpro parts are straight rectangulars and leave less leftovers compared to more traditional design. So what is the plan here? First thing is to add some 40mm of length to the lip. The perimeter of the glove was mere 109cm when I started and it really was optically small. Adding this much length will make a huge change on the covering area of the glove. Why is Bauer giving up this much in the perimeter? It cannot be explained by weight or center of gravity, adding this much material on T isn't doing a lot of change? This has been a tradition with Bauer gear since 1S/1X and seems to be continued. The double T is usually sewn together at the boot and I'll release them and fix the teared one with some sewing. It's not broken yet but going to be sooner or later if not fixed now. That's about it, not much but takes some time and effort to get it done. If I did it properly and had enough jenpro available I would've changed the whole inside sheet to a new longer one and only extended the outside with smaller strips. But saving the expensive material which I don't have a lot available I made four small pieces: They are to cover the old holes and add some extra length where the original material wasn't long enough. Then some sewing. Made a bit of a mistake here with the diagonal sewings that go along the break as these threads will get worn. Hopefully not too fast but they will. Those won't have a lot to do with things staying together as the material is doubled and there is no edge on the outside and these sews only connect the jenpro edges hidden inside. Making this whole piece from a new material would be a lot better choice. It's not a remarkable job with sewing machine so maybe one day I have the material and will to do it. Then more sewing, attach the front and rear parts at the top and renew the lip seam too but without the leather-plastic strip in between. Easier to modify it later on when I begin the closure project. The outer ends of the lip turn in a bit and with second layer of material it wasn't really willing to do it so I left the ends unsewn and only did the middle part. The contrast between original Bauer white and the weave is exaggerated by the cameras white balance. It doesn't look that terrible IRL. Still to do are the bindings and the support strip. I'm not sure if I should get rid of the original part and replace it with some new plastic pieces and a new leather. I would have to cut the original leather and maybe still had to replace the plastics so it might be even more work than make a new one straight away.

Fixing the closure and break. Or atleast an attempt to that. First pictureis from the beginning. The original plastic is once again cut so that the break line doesn't go through the the palm but turns in over 10mm in the heel end. This has a big efefct on the hinge on the break. Sure this is only the 20-30% of the closure normally but still that amount is wasted right away. The area that was in the first picture of the previous messagelooks ok here but the white nylon on top is really loose and lets the finger plastic to push out from the palm and sort of open while it should be only closing in when glove is closed. Like a hinge opening over 180 degree and then cannot be closed over that full open angle. Then I opened some sewings to get the original plastic out and change the nylon lining to prevent the over opening and retain the proper range of motion for the break. Quite easy to reflect the changes with both pictures side by side. Then from old experiences I decided to make a new plastic to the palm with a bit more length to cover the heel of palm too. It is also a bit narrow compared to the original. This is not from break operation but just easier to fit the plastic in and prevent from stretching the nylon again as it was originally doing. 2mm thick plastic is used as was the original one. This piece don't have to be overly rigid to do it's job. Then the padding is done and ready for the next phase. One thing to note that is different from almost all of the gloves I've done before. The holes for the main lace on the thumb side. Those have been off from where I'd like them to be. Usually some millimeters but some have been of over 20mm which is a lot. These holes however are pretty much spot on and only two of them I had to punch a 4mm hole on the side widening the original hole that much. I did a triple check before I could believe it and hopefully I didn't make any repeated mistake on the measurements.

Forward now to get it done some day. Closure issues once again seem to gather to padding and specifically to the break area. Yellow XRD foam is in steep angle towards right while it should be pretty flat in the picture with the glove in open position. Funny how the exact same looking felt+foam+aluminum foil material is used by CCM. Not that it's bad material at all, but two main manufacturers using the same. White thin soft foam sheet that was used in the 1X too. Doesn't really do much as it's pretty much flattened. Then we get into the plastic and the rest of What's in there. Cracked plastic isn't surprice but I expected more at the thumb area due to it's flexing and wasn't expecting the classic wrist strap cracking. Well it's not completely done yet but happening. The plastic was covered with some MD foam all over and the cuff area with Curv had a second layer of it. And there is the precious Curv! It is on both sides of the wrist plate in addition to the plastic. What's the use of it? I don't know as there has been lots of catchers before that didn't need any reinforcement there and made it with only the plastic sheet. Maybe the designer had some great idea that just doesn't show. So I need to make a new plastic which was expected. I had the soft parts being washed out in the mean time and then made some fixings right away. This is pretty easy glove as there aren't any big repairs to be done except the plastic sheet. First turned the pinky loop around, soft side against finger. Then the same for the thumb loop and while getting it set up I fixed the wrist/backhand strapping end to a new location. This attach is something I really don't know if it's going to work this way. Just can't tell before I get the glove back together with the base lacing in. It might rub my wrist too much or be too tight and pulling when trying to close the glove. The worst part is I have to figure out something completely different if it doesn't work this way. And last part of repairs for now is the cuff flap. One more of those "let's see what it does" things. And easy to make changes if needed.

Good job once again. Comment on the thumb protector wear. That occurs from too big or curved plastic inside and which has very sharp edge. And that then contacts the paddle all the time and wears through. Can be fixed by adding new layers but better fix would to cut a bit of the material away to give more room and lessen the pressure against the fabric between paddle and protective plastic.

Good discussion here, thanks for all for that. My first post got a bit messed up and lead to areas I didn't intend. @ser33 got it right as I meant to ask why do pads have a break under knee? What is the use of that or has ever been? That I referred to with knee being a hinge and if any it would benefit from a break in front of knee. Double break in under and above would do that atleast kind of, but still the main question remains; why there are any breaks? I might have one answer that comes from times when there was leather strapping for thighs and that required the pad to flex around the knee to allow the thigh strapping to be used at all. Then my last caption of S curve was meant to leave the break discussion behind and leave the breaks out of the pad. Idea of a "new" pad style, boot break is there if needed (I might for feel of it), straight shin continues to knee level or just above for constant reflecting surface and the thigh rise is curved for 5-hole closure without break so the whole face of the pad is a stiff plate. Except the boot that might be flexible. Definitely this kind of pad might look weird at first and I really don't know if it would work at all. Just a vision of how I would try to improve things and get rid of options that don't give any benefits. Modern goalies with almost 180 degree flare don't really need this S-curve at all and that is new trend, but I don't know if all the hobbying goalies will ever reach that sort of flare?

Thanks. But for sure you have capable gear fixers over there too, Dennis/FMAD and Sarah/PAW, Simmons, and many other that were not mentioned. Some of them could fix this too, and you could dismantle the backhand piece out of the glove and not having to ship out the whole glove. Though atleast FMAD could do some prepping for the glove at the same visit. For the color, if the right shade of green is not available then get it with black nylon or maybe the right green jenpro?

Breaks on the pads are some sort of relic in these days, what is the use of them? Exception here is the boot break, that is a working thing. Why do we have to have a break below knee? Knee is hinge and bends not below but in front of if you see it from pads direction. Is having a bend on a pad below knee some sort of deflecting direction thing? Again thinkin of a leg physically you would need a pad to bend in front of knee, not below. I began thinking of this as I got a bit frustrated with my XLT pads. I love the S shape on them though and as I love Warrior pads I was thinking why Warrior (and all others) is bent below knee and the thigh rise is straight? With my non-existent flare I have to have S-shaped pads and Warrior doesn't offer that as standard. Looking for other choises like Bauer Supreme the shape is just the same, only curve on the face is below knee? Why not at the knee or even a bit above? That would give you pretty constant direction for puck reflections when most of the pad is straight eg. boot to thigh and only the thigh rise would curve in to close the 5-hole if needed.

Just mentioned it to give a reference against Vaughn having to start it all over. They just don't want to do it.

I could change those green nylon patches without a massive project and I'm only hobbying in my garage And still the pads are made with different/right shade of green nylon? What a customer service and it's custom...

One more aspect to the discussion. Hand size, it does matter a lot to how you feel a certain glove. Me, I'm equipped with long fingers so that I use size 11/XXL working gloves just to fit my fingers. Those working gloves are usually way too wide to feel comfortable but at the same time there is no way I could use smaller sizes and have the glove fingers start at my second joint below knuckles. For goalie gloves I struggle with CCM, the fingers are way too short for me. Bauer is close secong and I think Brians is pretty small too (haven't tried the newer models). Vaughn is well useable but the best is Warrior XL palm. It is super wide though but that can be handled with some strapping etc. Same with catcher, basic rule is you should set your knuckles at certain point to make the break work ideally with your hand closure. This leads to thumb placement which changes with the hand size and affects the feel and also to the wrist strap. None of these are adjustable directly to your hand size lengthvise, but more so with how fat or thin your hand is. Warrior has benefit in cathcers with their palm design, that you can also adjust a little to your hand size. But not much.