Bauer Performance Chest & Nike Bauer One95 Chest

OK, I've had the One95 for almost a year now both on the ice and inline. The performance chest I just opened from the box and have never taken a shot with it. To start, you'll notice the beefy difference between the high end One95 and the low end Performance chest.

Bauer Performance Sr. Chest & Arm Protector

The One95 is much beefier then the Performance chest. The blocks are harder and it doesnt deflate like the Performance chest when you set them down. I've never had a stinger in the One95 and on lighter shots it can be tough to tell where exactly it hit if you weren't paying attention. There are several spots on the Performance chest that are very lightly padded and many of the area's that are covered dont quite reach as far as they do on the One95.

A closer look at the Performance chest and you'll see its a nice looking chest, imo. It does have that extra little bit of protection on the upper chest area that your higher end models will have, but no where near as beefy or protective. The bottom portion is removable as is a small section that wraps around each side. I really like the double very large velcro straps to secure it. It feels very secure and in place when its on. The one thing that I first noticed was the lack of quality protection above and below the hinged elbow floaters. Bicep and forearm area's are not even in the same league or planet as what you'll find on higher end chests.

The One95 feels much more tankish when on. Like you could take a direct blow to the gut by Rocky Balboa. Even broken in, you are not as mobile as the unbroken in Performance chest, the price you pay for solid protection from much harder shots then what the Performance can take. On the One95 the outer layer of blocks and foams are much harder and all over there is coverage, just that little bit more area that you wish was covered on the Performance chest. The chest is much thicker and offers absolute protection in comparison to low end Performance chest. Some area's are 3+ layers of different foams and hardnesses.

The back of the Performance chest is pretty standard. You'll notice they left much of the back (when facing a shot) and sides of the bicep and forearm are left basically uncovered. It does have basic spine protection and a simple strapping system to adjust the fit. It works fairly well, but again, no where near as custom as a higher end chest can get you.

The One95s arm coverage outclasses the Performance chest by a mile. The sides of the arm protection is actually better then the front (main) arm protection on the Performance chest. The straps all have much more secure places to lock in the fit as compared to the low end Performance chest. Different style of snaps, 1 mid and 1 low secure this chest. Also the spine protection is more rigid and longer. I find you can really tailor the fit to your liking with the higher end One95.

I was quite pleased to see there was decent side rib coverage on this low end chest. It even has an extra little flap that is velcro removable (its the small piece closest to the strap) You can see in this pic the single shoulder cap is not very stiff and the protection it offers remains to be seen.

Again, we see the One95 with more coverage and stiffer protection. Its hard to tell from the picture but the entire rib wrap-around is actually 2 layers, with each layer being slightly better then the protection the Performance chest offers alone. Double shoulder cap, with the outer layer being very rigid. Nothing is removable here, but at the level this chest can perform, I doubt anyone would remove it anyway.

This shows how thin the single layer of foam blocks is on the Performance chest. There is a very thin layer of comfort foam on the inside of the front chest, it feels good when on and should be relatively cool when playing. The piece i'm holding onto is removable and it is what appears to be the "2nd" layer if your looking at the picture.

Hard to tell from the pic, but the entire front of the One95 is atleast 2 layers thick. Each layer has a different thickness and stiffness offering far more protection then the single layer on the Performance chest. The inside comfort foam is also much thicker and it can get pretty warm in this chest, especially when playing inline hockey. The inside fabrics on the One95 are more breathable also.

Lastly, we compare the arm protection. You can see how flimsy the area from upper bicep to shoulder is on the Performance chest. True, this area is overlapped by the shoulder cap, it still lacks any padding in the actual arm/shoulder underneath the shoulder cap and above the mid bicep. The One95 lacks the hard foam padding only in this area of the arm, but still offers better protection in this area then the Performance offers to cover your lower bicep and forearm. Floating hinged elbow caps are stiffer and stay in place better on the One95. The One95 has foam padding and hard cap on the elbow, the Performance chest has some comfort padding (maybe a little protection, hard to tell) and a stiff elbow.


All in all, the Performance chest isnt a bad chest at all. I do think anyone attempting to pay ice hockey in it would be crazy. I purchased it for inline with puck hockey and it should perform just fine. Both are very well made, with obvious edge in craftsmanship going to the One95. Performance chest is senior medium and the One95 is a senior large, i'm in that 5'9"-5'10" height that can be hard to tell if large or medium is the way to go. I'd honestly say the One95 feels a tad large on me and the Performance chest feels a tad small, go figure. But for ice I wanted the extra size and for inline I wanted the extra mobility of a smaller fitting chest. All outer foam on the One 95 are thicker and harder then that found in the Performance chest, i'm also going to assume the durability and longevity of the high end One95 dwarf that of the low end Performance chest. Sort of hard to tell from the pics, because the chest is black, but the low end Performance chest has a couple area's that are gaps in coverage, sort of. The gapped area will always be covered by something that overlaps it, its like they cut corners where they think they can to lower the cost of the chest piece. You wont find gaps on the higher end chests like the One95, worst case is they dont make the area that is overlapped have hard foam on it in the One95 (like the upper bicep/shoulder area) because the outer/overlapping layer is hard protection.

I paid 135 online for the Performance and caught a screaming deal of 229 for the One95. For the extra 95 bucks, the One95 is many times the chest that the Performance chest is. Anyway, there's a brief look at them and my little tidbits with pics to show how great a difference high end and low end chests have for all the other newbie's like myself. If your looking to use it for ice, never settle for the low end entry level model, spend 50-100 more and get the mid level or get lucky with a high end on closeout pricing.

The performance c/a seems identical to the older Itech models - RX5 and 4.8.

However the Elite, and the Pro are indeed based off the Vaughn Epic c/a's (or Vision C/A's in 2011 speak).