REVIEW: Brine Lopro Superlight Arm Guards

As an attackman, it's not always easy being in a ball carrier role. You generally have to take a lot of heat from the defence and bruises on the arms aren't exactly uncommon. To compensate, wearing really protective (albeit, bulky) arm guards is a pretty common pickup amongst attackmen. They do what they say on the tin and protect, however they generally lack flexibility. Here's where the Lopro Superlight AG's come in.

Don't be deceived by how simple these look.

First thing I can say, these are some of the best arm guards i've worn without a doubt. They may not necessarily look as good as some of the other options out there. In fact they're very understated arm guards, but they certainly make up in just about everything else.

Flexibility is the key selling point for these arm guards. They use a compression mesh sleeve that holds onto your arm really nicely in combination with a highly flexible compression moulded honeycomb for the padding. They can pretty much move in just about any direction with your arm and you won't feel them resisting your movement at all. I've worn Brine King 3 Arm Guards for a while, and whilst they were protective, they certainly lacked in flexibility compared to these.

The compression mesh sleeve and ample room for the velcro strap to be tied down to means these aren't going to be slipping anywhere either. This was also a problem for the Brine King 3 AG's which would often just slide down my arms after a bit of use. Additionally they are really really light which makes incredibly comfortable to wear!

For protection, these are certainly adequate, you barely feel most checks through them. However, it must be said they aren't the most protective as you will probably feel harder checks. Considering that they take most of the force out of checks, the flexibility they provide far outweighs this factor.

Overall:
Highly highly recommended. I would definitely buy these, especially as they come very cheap (especially with clearance sales happening). Very flexible, decent protection,.

10/10 - Buy these whilst they're still on sale for cheap!

REVIEW: Brine King 4 Gloves

Recently picked up a pair of these because they were going for pretty cheap off Amazon, it's pretty weird how their prices randomly fluctuate so much (the same pair is now $20 more than I bought it for).

Got mine in Forest Green, actually look sick.

I was originally unimpressed with the glove design from pictures, but eventually started coming around to them (obviously you want to look sick on the field too). Getting them in real physical form though, they are really good looking gloves. Some people might say they look a bit flashy and garish (something more for younger customers), but they actually just look sweet when you put them on. Everything about the glove looks quality, and for once there's no abundance of loose sewing thread.

Pretty impressed i've got to say. I was initially very skeptical about the arched back hand and how well it would actually hold up to some big checks but it seems to be pretty sturdy so far. It's probably not the best protection wise, but it's adequate. Personally, I would have preferred it to be a closed off back hand so that the entire arch doesn't end up getting slapped off one day. I can imagine there's a sweet spot where a lucky check would really hurt too. On that note, it certainly looks like the Brine King 5s are going to be a definite improvement.

The 'Skylight' technology (aka putting bits of hard plastic on the tops of the fingers) may also be a marketing ploy, but it seems to do the job. Checks to the fingers aren't really felt too much and thankfully the fingers are pretty flexible straight out the box. Not quite as flexible as my Reebok 10k gloves, but I don't think there's much potential for them to gradually get more immobile over time. I'm sure they'll break in very nicely over time.

The thumb is reticulated meaning that there's multiple segments to allow greater thumb mobility. This definitely seems to be the case and it's a pretty fantastic way of increasing flexibility without sacrificing protection. It probably wasn't as flexible as I would have liked straight out the box, but it's something that will probably break in nicely over time.

The rest of the glove is actually fairly low profile and a lot of the weight seems to have been sheared off, particularly around the back hand (as you might expect). I'm quite happy about this as I would definitely prefer to lose a bit of protection to get some more flexibility.

In terms of ventilation, the gloves at first appear to be pretty ventilated. Lots of breathable mesh on the palms, the large vent underneath the arched back hand and the vents on the knuckles all theoretically provide multiple ways for air to get in and out of the gloves. However, the knuckle vents probably don't actually do much venting as there is material directly behind them inside the glove. The large vent on the back hand doesn't really let all too too much through either as it's pretty thick mesh. Not quite as ventilated as you'd expect for something that has sacrificed back hand protection to throw on the large vent...

The palms are pretty nice and look to be durable as well as offer decent grip, although it could definitely be better. My Reebok 10k Gloves have excellent grip comparatively (albeit, not tremendously durable) and i've heard good things about the grips of other high end products such as the Warrior Regulator gloves. I believe these are pretty much the same as the Brine King 3 gloves essentially.

Overall:
A surprisingly good glove, overall it is a very sound choice and is only getting cheaper as the release of the King 5s draws closer. Generally well designed throughout however some questionable choices in terms of ventilation and protection on the back hand. If you're looking for reliable protection on the back hand, you might want to look elsewhere as it is definitely something that could be torn off with a good check (rendering the glove unprotective there). Not advised for someone that gets abused a lot on that part of the hand.

8/10 - Good choice that ticks most of the boxes. Might want to wait for the King 5s though if you can't get them cheap.

REVIEW: Reebok 10k Gloves

This is a pretty old product now and Reebok have pretty much pulled out of lacrosse all together by the sounds of it, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. These gloves are going for VERY cheap on most lacrosse websites, and for the price point, they're actually really good value for money.

'Reptile' pattern apparently.

I personally think these gloves are pretty decent looking, not the best gloves i've ever seen but they don't look bad. I got mine in black/silver (as above) and they're not particularly flashy, which could be considered a good thing compared to other gloves on the market. You can take off the floating cuff as well if you don't feel like you need it. Overall, not too shabby.

In terms of protection, these gloves are more or less standard. Pretty good padding all round for the most part, although there are some weaknesses in it. The index finger has padding on the sides which is nice and something you'd expect from higher end gloves. However, the pinky for the right hand doesn't quite have the same proper padding (just a small simple piece sewn on) and the left hand doesn't even have any at all on the pinky! This is a really odd design choice that I don't quite understand the reasoning behind...

Additionally, the wrist protection (cuff) could definitely be better, really hard checks will be felt there. They don't ride particularly high either, something which I was a bit disappointed about as I initially expected them to come up a bit higher on my arm.The curved wrist pieces are apparently supposed to deflect checks nicely, but I wouldn't say this is necessarily the case.

The use of '3D Gel' on the thumb is an interesting idea, but seems a bit flawed in execution. I would say it's actually worse than just having the standard padding as hard checks have still been felt by my thumb at that particular spot. I can't say I would recommend these for anyone wanting to take care of their thumb...

Ventilation is pretty much non-existent for these gloves, there's some holes in the palms and the Reebok logo looks like it could allow air in, but doesn't. A bit of a tease really. There's the 'breathable' mesh that you get on the fingers, but I wouldn't say they provide much (if any) ventilation to the glove. If you get excessively sweaty palms it may be problematic, but the material on the inside is fairly good at keeping the sweat at bay. Still, you would expect better from a glove that was marketed to be sub top-end.

The palms are probably the gloves biggest selling point, but also present a double edged sword. They are probably some of the most grippy palms I have ever used. The 'Griptonite' along the inner palm allows you to really hold onto a shaft which is excellent for feel. Perhaps the Warrior Regulators may top them, but I have never worn them and they also cost over £100/$170. Hands down, recommend them based on that.

However, the problem lies in the palm durability. I've seen people report that these glove can barely make it through a season of regular use (followed by pictures of incredibly torn up palms). Perhaps, they haven't been drying the gloves out properly before reusing them, but having gloves that may break down on me half way through a season is unacceptable. Stopping the rain in England is just an impossibility after all! This is ultimately the downfall of these gloves unfortunately.

For flexibility, these were very good straight out of the box. Finger and thumb mobility is probably the best out of the gloves i've owned so far. However playing with them in wet weather seems to end up contracting the leather when they dry out. This causes the leather to pull on the fingers making them curl them up a bit. Kind of like a permanent claw or something... This may become an even worse problem over time, making these fingers gradually more immobile as the leather gets harder and more dried out. Not something you'd want from a glove! Thankfully, they're still pretty flexible still and i've had them about 4 months, hopefully that'll continue for some time.

The rest of the glove is fairly low profile and they aren't particularly bulky. There's some compromises on protection for flexibility, but that's a tradeoff with just about any lacrosse kit. Besides the 3D Gel issue, they provide a pretty good middle ground for protection/flexibility a

Overall:

I would recommend these gloves to anyone looking for a cheap, low profile game glove with amazing grip. There's some minor sacrifices for protection but you get overall nice flexibility. However, these are not practice gloves or even gloves that should be anywhere near wet weather. These do not offer durable palms and should be looked after. Throw them on the radiator for a bit after any wet weather and don't play for hours at a time with them. You will both love and hate the palms of these gloves.

7.5/10 - Far from perfect, but you can't complain excessively at the price point they can now be found at.

Intro

Testing... Testing...

Okay, so i've recently wanted to start blogging a little bit again, so i've decided to start it up on something i'm pretty damn passionate about... Lacrosse!

I'll be posting reviews of kit, various thoughts on the game and anything interesting that crops up in the English Lacrosse circles. Yes, I live in England. No, it's not a particularly popular sport here (yet).

Check my stuff and comment if you have any thoughts yourself!