Chenner29

Back in the mid-2000s, I bought a pair of RBK Premier 1 gloves off Nick Boucher on GSBB. I forget what team he was playing for at the time, but the gloves were awesome. Far and away the best 580 break glove I have worn - and those who have been around gear long enough know that as far as feel on gloves go, there are differences between gloves even in the same model year depending on how it is built/bound/strung together.

Not sure if OP would want me to disclose as that's his kid in there. Anaheim Hockey Club closed in the mid to late 00s, I think that's what you were thinking of. 2 big rinks side by side, divided by locker rooms on the ground floor, then stairs up to a long walkway/viewing area?

Pretty crafty. I grew up playing at that roller rink. Some people would put Armor All on their pads so they could slide around.

From what I have seen, as long as Lefevre has the original dyes for cutting the plastic/foam, they can go anywhere and still produce the designs they have always done. Back in the GSBB days, I ordered a Helite 5 chest pad direct from Brian Heaton when he left to start BHG. From what I remember, he said he took his molding and dyes with him and could produce the Helite 10 gloves and pads as well. A more recent example would be the JRZ stuff - some of their models look very close to the old Reactor style pads they were making for Bauer. This would be very interesting if "True" (see what I did there) - I have heard from a few sources they have been looking to get into goalie gear for a while.

Holtby chuckin some sauce from his knees with a 580 break at the beginning of the video.

Time for a good old fashioned spitroast

Finally posted my thoughts...5 months later. See post # 2

Going off your pics, you're probably like me. Perfectly acceptable pad flare for mid to late 90s goalies. But for a modern goalie? No way man. I'm pretty sure those ******* are genetically modified For the GSBB vets, ******* does not stand for Simmons

These are awesome. How big are those pads? The thigh rise looks "yooge"

Agreed - none of his product was truly revolutionary. Even his business model towards the end (take people's money and disappear) is based on the Agatone model. I believe the elastic toe tie originally came from Dave Wilcox, but it only came on one pad in the late phases of the TPS line and was never offered as a standalone accessory. Marketing wise, he's done what other companies have done for ages - sell on a value proposition. "This product will fix problem Y and it's made with the best materials" He was a good hype man, and built a good rep at the beginning for making a lot of obscure products easily accessible. Hate skate lace toe ties? They had them in stock ready to go. Want a knee block with some extra padding? They could make it for you and (supposedly) had every major pad spec on file to make it fit right. Keep falling off the back of your knee block? Here's a strap that'll help with that. IMO his real contribution was showing that there is a place in the goalie market for a specialist in goalie part accessories. Look at all the toe tie guys you find on Facebook nowadays - at least a half dozen have popped up in the last 6 months, all offering toe ties, some offering a bit more.

Haven't measured that in a while. I know offhand my ATK is 17". I've always been in a 33" Koho-Reebok pad. I tried a 34" CCM that was a bit too long in the shin. Someone also pointed out to me the way I did the graphic is very reminiscent of the old Vaughn 3500. A quick snip for you young kids:

Shared these in the EF4 thread but thought I'd cross-post here. Specs - Pads 33+2, pre-curved, single break Tight fit, no calf straps Recessed knee, no wrap Nylon leg channel Removable, under heel strap Ultra soft boot break Below knee single knee strap Glove 580 break, double tee leather wrist strap Blocker Straight finger protector Centered palm One piece cuff

Hope you like it! Let me know how it works out.

I wanna say the modern c/a unit you are seeing a lot of (from Koho 570, 590, Premier 1 and onward) largely borrows from his designs with the Pro 90Z/Helite 4 platform.

Got my gear off a police cruiser. Still paying off legal fees!

Got a photographer to come out to one of my games finally.

If you look at the left pad (on our right), it kind of looks like a bastardized version of the Canadiens logo Feature-wise, the design and build quality of the pads looks really good. I would be nervous about ordering a set, as JRZ was never able to do a comfortable enough glove for my taste. Which brings me to another question I've always had - when they were contracted by Bauer, did Bauer do the designs or did they let JRZ handle everything?

I played around with the customizer. What's crazy is, all the individual rectangles have their own color zone. I almost think we should do a group buy for one set of the most bizarre color buildout we can collectively imagine. Full custom graphics start at $290 CAD up to $450

That's a bummer to hear. Are you getting back in queue or going with something else?

Like how you keep prodding me about the wait? No, nothing like this.

No real reason. The larger chest plate is stock and I didn’t see a need to change it. You probably would have. I did not pay until he shipped. Let me be clear, I do not have an issue with the company, the product, or the service. There was some frustration with the wait, which I shared with a few select people and with Mike. I don’t think he knew how popular these would be at the pro level, and as with all manufacturers, the pro clientele comes first, which I completely understand. My order was pushed back a few times because new pros kept coming in or units came back to get tweaks. It’s one of the challenging aspects when working with a small manufacturer. Mike expressed some regret at opening these up for preorder before the pro ordering season was over. He said he’s working on developing some new product but will not be taking preorders on these moving forward until he has a sense of demand at that level, so he’s learning from what happened here

Blocked: 90 day

Blocked: 60 day

Wow I've been really bad at following up with this stuff. At this point, I've had the unit a bit over 5 months, and have been wearing it non-stop for the last 4 (needed to finish a very brief playoff run before trying out new gear). I'll just post some overall thoughts after using this unit pretty extensively, particularly in the last couple weeks. I've been very impressed with this thing. It's damn solid - my first skate out with it I was taking bombs from a guy on a KHL contract who was back in town for the summer. I took a fair number of shots to the chest and arms, and came away bruise-free. Mobility wise, this thing has been incredible. I picked up a pro return CCM ABPro around the same time and this thing feels more like my old Bernier pro return (about 5 years old at this point) than the CCM did. I ended up switching the collar back to the original single lip instead of the double lipped version it shipped with. I'll probably do a Price mod one of these days and stitch in a Vaughn style bib into it. One underappreciated mod that ended up feeling really good is the high rib pad (see pic #3) - it was a nice suggestion by Mike since he knew I wear this thing outside my pants. I know I've opened up the arm a few times and taken a shot up there as I've woken up sore the next morning in that area a few times, but no bruise. If I had to reorder, I would probably go back to a Large/6 row body and ask him to extend the oval pad on the bottom.

I took receipt of this beauty last Tuesday and wanted to start off by showing some pics and discussing some changes I made to the unit. Wait time was tough on this thing, but based on what I've seen so far it was absolutely worth it; Mike killed it with the mod requests and the fit is fantastic. @TheGoalNetshared this on his IG earlier this week, and I promised him I'd start the process of digging into this piece of gear. It's received a lot of hype in the goalie community, with some NHL guys adopting it right away (Crawford, Rask, Helleybuck) and others using parts off of it (Ward, Rinne, Saros). My initial impressions: Beefy! I was told the blocks are about 1/4" thicker in the belly and ribs than a stock Premier 1. They certainly feel thicker and stiffer than my pro return Bernier P1. Good flexibility; I was able to touch the top of my head right out of the box. It's been going through some steaming in the shower to soften it up a bit more. the NHL spec arms are noticeably narrower than the old spec. It seems as if the arms were made to wrap around more. Arms seem thinner than the original P1 (if you look at one of my mod threads, you will see the original P1 uses a layer of HD sandwiched by layers of LD) - but noticeably stiffer. I don't think protection will be an issue, and there is some mobility to be gained by thinning out the layers. Here's the body portion. I went with a 7 block (XL) body because I wear my chest pad outside my pants. The arms are a large bicep pad and medium forearm pad. I'm 5'11, with slightly shorter arms for my height. I was able to achieve about a 1.5" desired clearance between the bottom of the forearm pad and my wrist bone. I also added a higher collar. After trying this out a few times at home, I think the second collar is going to come off. On the backside, you can see I changed the chest and shoulder height adjustment to be like the CCM Premier. There's a lot of flexibility to be had here, which I will enjoy tinkering with. I also added a forearm pad to the bottom of the glove hand, had the belly tie down sewn to the inside of the body, added a fight strap to the backplate, and removed the elastic across the waist in favor of nylon. Here's an outside shot of the arm, you can see the forearm pad and back strapping a bit better. You'll also notice a high rib pad (in blue air mesh) that was added just above the rib protection. Here's the inside of the forearm. I had it lined with nash to give a bit of grip. The inside of this portion is a soft foam that will allow me to really cinch these down if I prefer. I've found that with stock C/As, this portion is the same layered LD/HD foam that tends to into my forearm if I go too tight. I also removed the elastic at the wrist in favor of jenpro to stay more consistent over time. That's it for now, I'll block out a couple response windows below to reserve them for further updates. Feel free to ask any questions you may have and I will do my best to answer.