Simmons 996 Pads/Gloves/Chest First Impressions

Hey all, I've been lurking here for a little while (the video review of the 996s was really helpful), and have just joined up, because somebody on the big green board suggested I post this here.

I received my 996 set today, I'll eventually be making a detailed review, focusing on the differences in build and play vs my old Vaughn 7400 set (which is a senior level mass-produced set from 2008). For now, here are my first impressions.

I ask that you please indulge me in my unboxing photos. My wife is out of town, and I enjoy taking photos, experimenting with various angles, etc, so this process was equal parts time-wasting and hobbistry. (Feel free to let me know if you'd like detailed pics of any particular aspect, if I have time, I may indulge.)

(click all pics for +4 sizing)

Buying
I had been looking for Evangelists in Vancouver who were willing to let me try out their Simmons gear, I wasn't sure about going from the Vaughn Velocity style to the supposedly more 'butterfly' pad of the 996s. I knew that the UL6s would have been a closer fit to my old ones, but I wasn't sure that I wanted that. Lots of people offered to help me out, and that in itself helped speak to the experience of Simmons ownership.

I spoke with Mark at Simmons, and he was very helpful, as everybody who has actually spoken to him has reported. I told him that my aged body was going the route of the modern goalie technique, working on the fundamentals of the butterfly saves and appropriate associated maneuvers. I suspected that this meant the 996s were for me and he definitely agreed. Mark was more than willing to send me a demo set, but I decided to go for it and just order the 996s. I knew that I'd be able to tell if I absolutely couldn't work with them on the carpet at home, and he agreed that it would be no problem to send them back for the UL6s at that point (I didn't ask, but I'm sure that if I decided I couldn't work with them after I'd used them on the ice, Mark would have bent over backward to make sure that I was in pads that I loved and that we'd both be happy).

I purchased the 996 combo, off the shelf, all stock in all-white, 34+2 (I'm 6'0", my FTK is 20.5, and my ATK is 17.5).

Trapper
The trapper came pre-formed with a finger curl, and was shipped tied closed. Putting it on for the first time, I was amazed, as has been reported, by the ease of closure. I could very easily make a one-hand-clapping sound the first instant I'd put it on. To say it is game ready is an understatement.

It didn't close quite as easily as my 7400 trapper (it was very close though), but the 7400 only has a Senior level palm, not a pro, and was very well broken in (used the hot-water method). I have just tonight (after my first ice-time) used the hot-water break-in method on the 996 glove and it is now perfect, it's as easy to close as I'd ever want, pretty much identical to my well-broken in 7400 senior level glove, which in itself is pretty amazing because there's a pro-palm in the 996.

I didn't have a puck last night to play with. Picking up pucks was difficult with my 7400, I would have to do a swooping/sweeping grab to get up to 75% efficacy. Last night, I did try picking up my iPhone 4. It's very thin, 0.37in (a puck is 1.0in), with straight edges. Well, the 996 was able to easily pick up my iPhone, something that would be absolutely impossible with my old glove. Today on the ice I was picking up pucks without having to think about it, no sweep, just pick it up. It seems like a small detail, but personally, I find that to be a serious up-side. I can now pick up a puck easily, I couldn't before.

I didn't get many pucks today, so I can't really speak to the trapper's ability to snag the puck. I'm hoping for less pop-outs than my old pancake 7400, but only time will tell.

Blocker
As for the blocker, I'm not much of a connoisseur. It was comfortable and light. Comparing it to my 7400, it had identical blocker profile, but the glove was higher up. There is a air-pad between the sideboard and the glove, the glove itself is double-palmed, and the finger protection has better coverage when I'm holding my stick.

Chest
I am coming from a Vaughn Epic 8600 chest protector. In comparison to the 996, the 8600 looks like a child's toy. It has much less coverage and is smaller overall. Honestly though, I'm not sure I'm sold on the 996 Chest. For my style, I actually prefer the extreme mobility of the 8600, I just wish it had slightly more arm and armpit protection.

Out of the box, the 996 C/A was definitely fairly mobile, and has an order of magnitude more protection. Both the coverage and the armour-like quality of the blocks are night-and day compared to my senior-level 8600 chesty. I'm not sure I want all that though. I spent a few hours fiddling with the strapping and have gotten it pretty comfortable, but it still feels a lot more bulky than my current child's toy of a C/A (obviously).

Aside from the added bulk, which I consider a feature of the chesty, and which I can definitely get over if I indeed want the added protection, I don't like the way the arms are attached to the chest/shoulder. I've read similar reports, and I spent most of those hours above fiddling with different setups (some rather creative, using eyelets from two different rows, to change the angle, raising the attachment higher and lower, etc). Nothing has quite solved it. The problem is because the arms are attached more to the front of the chest, and when I move my arms backwards a bit, it pulls, digging into my shoulder, and dragging the bicep protection across my armpits. I understand that putting your arms back isn't exactly the normal use when tending goal, but it is what it is. Looking at it, the problem may be that I'm in the wrong size, that the chest section itself is not wide enough for me (I've got a broad chest). I may ask Mark to send me an XL to see if that's better.

Anyway, I didn't bring the C/A with me on the ice today, as I'm not certain that it's the right one for me.


Pads
The pads are gorgeous of course. As reported, they come out of the box with a nice S curve. The only other pads I've worn were some 34+1 7400s, so I'm mostly comparing
to them.

Note, before even trying them on, I removed the thigh-guards. I use knee/thigh pads, specifically Goalie Heaven Knee/Thigh Savers (super comfy, but I always hoped they were a little more protective, though perhaps now that my 5-hole isn't a gaping maw, I may not need it). Getting back to thigh-guards, the ones that came with the 996s look to be an excellent implementation of thigh-guards, but I want nothing to do with them, I think thigh-guards are a flawed technology from the outset. I wrote about it here: How Thighguards Affect the Butterfly - Goalie Store Bulletin Board

I also removed the sliding-toe-bridge before wearing them. I recently shrugged off the oppressive yoke of toe-ties, another broken technology, a vestige from the time of stand-up goalies. I am safer, more flexible, and much more comfortable. I will never go back. Read about the experiences of those in the movement: Goalies' Liberation: Burn Your Toe Ties! - Goalie Store Bulletin Board

First impressions of the pads were that they were huge! I noticed right away the pads touching each other and hanging up on each other when I tried to move. I was a little worried to be honest. Of course, within ten minutes of wearing them and carpet-flying, I had completely adjusted to the thigh-rises. They were no longer hitting each other or getting caught up (only once today during my first ice time, did they catch, the rest of the time they were completely out of the way). I've since remembered the first time I wore my 7400s, with their relatively tiny thigh-rises, I had the same issues, but it took me a lot longer to adjust to them. Whenever I saw video of goalies with modern (aka huge) thigh-rises, I wondered how they could even move in them. Now I realize that your body is pretty good at what it does. Unless you're a complete klutz, your natural agility will adapt to almost anything you throw at it (I find this is the case for most sports I try).

The second issue I worried about, before the pads arrived, was whether the thigh-rises would kick up my stick when making a butterfly save. You see a lot of soft goals in the NHL go 5-hole, often on a narrower butterfly save, because a huge thigh-rise sticks way out from the leg, causing the stick to cantilever up and out of the 5-hole when the goalie pulls their arms in tight (Calgary lost a series on this a couple years ago). Well, with the 996s, I had no issues. I tried specifically to replicate the cantilevering today on the ice, but the thigh-rises have such a lovely out-of-the-box S-curve, that they stayed quite close to my legs while in the butterfly (even my narrow butterfly).

Continuing with the thigh-rises, I'm going to have to get used to the idea that I can now close my 5-hole! The hole seals *very* easily, even on my most narrow of butterflies. My old 7400s would always have a 4-6 inch gap between the pads, even when I was trying my best to seal. I would take a lot of shots to the inside of the knees and thighs. The 996s are a night and day difference. I no longer have to try to close my 5-hole, it just closes. As I said, I'm going to have to get used to that idea! I had also wondered about potential overlap of the thigh rises potentially interfering with the closure. This wasn't an issue, when there is overlap (when your b-fly is wide and knees are tight), they just sort themselves out. No issues with this at all. I suspected as much, seeing as this isn't a problem for all the other goalies out there with huge thigh rises, but it was nice to confirm.

In short, the huge thigh-rises are not an issue at all, indeed, I'm in love with them.

The next thing I noticed was that these pads have a boot channel, where my old ones did not. Because my feet are free to rotate further without the toe-ties/bridges, I did notice that they were occasionally hanging up on my skates and this was causing my pads to not snap back square when coming back up. The leg and boot channel is removable, so I figured that would be a potential solution, but I also knew that things change quite a bit on the ice. Well, today on the ice it was no problem at all. These 996s, like my old 7400s without the boot channel, just want to snap back square. I wouldn't mind feeling what these pads are like without the leg channel, but I don't really have any need to try. The tie-ins would be a bit of a pain to remove, play with, then put back, so I think I'll probably just stick with what works perfectly right now.

As for pad mobility and movement, I had a brief moment of terror when I first got on the ice. I took a skate, and when I went down to give a little range-of-motion stretch, I noticed that my pads stuck like glue to the ice. Ack! What the hell? All was fear and confusion and doubt. When one of the guys asked about how they felt (he was wearing RBK Premier IIs, basically the same pad the 996s are inspired by / improve upon / knock off / liberate from the evil clutches of international corporation), I mentioned that they didn't seem to slide very well, and he said that goes away very quickly. Sure enough, by the time I tried a half-dozen slides, they were sliding as well as my old pads. Phew! I'm not sure if this is just a coating on the jenpro, an issue with brand-new jenpro, or if this is something that will always happen until I get a coating of ice/water on the pads. Others can probably speak to this, as I've had only one session with them.

Aside from that brief moment of terror, the mobility was great. I was at Ron Veit's goalie program in Burnaby, and we were going though the motions (this was my 7th class, and I've been getting comfortable with all the various techniques). I was a little shocked that I had essentially zero adjustment. I expected there to be a 'fish out of water' phase as I was relearning to play in pads which were substantially different from my old 7400s, but there really wasn't (this was probably helped by a couple hours of carpet-flying and strap fiddling). In fact, I felt a little more mobile in these in scrambly situations, as the 996's conform to the leg a little better. My 7400s have a huge blocky calf-wedge which has a tendency to make me feel a bit like a turtle when I'm on my butt.

I haven't had a lot of time on-ice, but it was all movement drills and situations. I know that I'll only get more comfortable in my new pads, but I'd be happy if every day was the same as my first impression. That's definitely saying something!

Overall Fit and Finish
Hoooboy these all-white baby's are bright! The pads are gorgeous and I was definitely the belle of the ball today at class. It was a rink full of goalies, and of course nobody could keep their eyes off me. I was in the corner during our warm-up shuffle/t-push drill and I could see Ron Veit was distracted a bit, he kept glancing over at me. They are noticeable right now, that's for sure. I'm not actually that wild about the added attention, and I can't wait until these suckers are filthy with puck-marks (there's nothing quite as bad as letting in a soft goal when you're wearing obviously brand-spanking new gear!).

Compared to my 7400s, the materials are obviously higher quality. The lether straps are thicker, the nylon strap is much, much better. On my 7400s, it was like cheap back-pack strapping, which was always bunched, crumpled, and frayed in the back of my knee. On my 996s, it is like a miniature version of seat-belt nylon. Much thinner and lighter than a seatbelt obviously, but that same shiny texture and the feel of substance.

Interesting tidbit, under the rink-lights, the jenpro is a 'warmer' white than the nylon piping (and trapper back) used throughout, the nylon is a little 'cooler'. The jenpro looked identical to my white plastic water bottle, while the piping looked a little bluer. I have a few thoughts on this. 1. I thought it looked pretty cool. 2. Some might hate it. 3. It won't be noticeable after the pads lose their brand-new sheen.

Overall, I am very happy with all aspects of getting my new gear. The service was great, the price was fantastic, and the first impression of the product is wonderful. I definitely have a case of love-at-first-sight for my 996 pads and gloves. I have a feeling that a new size in the C/A will work for me (or, failing that, a C/A that is intended for different usage, not a pro-level one).

Time will tell how or if the gear helps my play (possibly), and whether my love will deepen (likely).

hahahahahaha i love this line.....

"Cleanliness is next to goalieness"

Someone has been watching the Sponge Bob movie! hahaha