Warrior Office Tour and Ritual Pad Information

After a great morning spent with the guys at Brian's, I made the 1.5 hour drive back from Kingsville, ON to Warren, MI to meet with Eric Marvin - Goalie Product Manager for Warrior Hockey. Eric was gracious enough to spend the afternoon with me where he showed me the warehouse, introduced me to members of the Warrior Hockey team, and, most importantly to me, gave me the low down on the new Ritual line.

A few weeks after our meeting, Eric set up a conference call with Pete Smith - Warrior's new head goalie gear designer - and me to talk more in depth about the Ritual line. I've been a huge fan of Pete's for a few years (I own and love his leg pads), so this call was a real treat for me. The excitement coming from Pete and Eric about this new line is palpable, and totally honest. I didn't get the feeling that I was being sold something new. Instead, I got the impression that both men were truly excited to launch this new line - and by the end of this post I hope you'll see why.

One caviat before we continue...... Due to the fact that Warrior is carefully crafting their marketing plan around the launch of the new line, I haven't posted too many pictures here at their request. In the coming months, Total Hockey will have some incredibly great news to share about the Ritual series, but until then I'm doing my best to honor Warrior's wishes to share only a limited amount of information. Keep your eyes on our Facebook Page towards the middle of December!

I thought that our warehouse was big! This shot shows perhaps 1/4 of it's overall size. Considering that Warrior Sports dominates nearly 80% of the lacrosse market, they're big (and growing) in soccer, and they have a huge presence in the hockey market, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at the size of this place.

Random pro patterns sitting in the office of the Warrior pro rep. It's always a treat to see these.

From left to right: the Warrior Ritual Pro Custom series (brown, yellow, red), the Ritual Pro line (white/black), the Ritual Sr/Int. line (white/red/black). The Ritual Pro Customs will be made domestically, while the rest of the series will be made overseas.

A note on gear made overseas: I realize that there is a big concern these days that a majority of the goalie gear manufacturers are shifting the production of their products to overseas factories. Economic and patriotic factors aside, Warrior has assured me -and proved to me - that there will be no difference in quality between the overseas and domestically produced gear. Consider the following as evidence of this fact:

- 99% of the materials and construction processes used to make the domestic gear are used to produce the overseas gear. While there may be an exception here and there, I honestly found it hard to tell the difference between the Ritual Pro Custom (Canada) and the Ritual Pro (China) lines when quality and materials were considered.

- Warrior has adopted many of the successful quality control practices of their parent company - New Balance.

- Those of you who know Pete's reputation with Smith Hockey will all tell you the same thing - the quality and workmanship of the gear was second to none. He built his company and reputation on the quality of his products (he did little advertising - growth was mainly due to word of mouth marketing), and he won't let a pad with his name on it be of poor quality.

Here's a good shot of some of the features that make these pads both innovative and unique: the "Table Top" boot design, the strap leather adjustment slots that hold the boot straps, the bindingless rounded boot, and the plastic sliding toe bridge. In my conversation with Pete, running themes throughout our discussion were his efforts to both (a) increase pad performance, and (b) decrease pad wear. The more you learn about these pads, the more you'll see how simple design features accomplish both goals. For example:

- "Table Top" boot design - the flat boot allows the pad to rotate easily on your foot while going into the butterfly, and the padded foam pieces on each side of the boot help return the pad to the center of your foot when recovering to your feet.

- Strap Leather Adjustment channels: In the past Smith 6000 pads (the predecessor to the Ritual pads), these pieces of strap leather served as the adjustment points for each strap on the pad. In the Ritual line, however, these strap leather pieces were only kept at the boot to save weight throughout the entire pad. By placing the boot straps in the front (closest to the toe) slot while running the strap through the back hole of your skate, the front edge of the pad sits near the front edge of the skate, giving the pad more height. By placing the straps in the back (closest to the instep) position and running the strap through the back of your skate, the pad is pulled down closer to the foot. Other strap configurations are also possible, but the main point to remember here is that the boot fit can be easily customized to fit your unique style, making the pad a great fit for anyone.

- Bindingless Boot/Rounded Inside boot: Any guess on where your pads wear the most quickly? Take a look at the boot binding on the inside edge of your pads and you'll probably notice significant wear at the corner that contacts the ice most often. By creating a bindlingless boot, and by rounding the inside corner, two things were accomplished. First, there is less material on the inside of the boot to interfere with pad rotation. According to Eric Marvin, who has used the pads extensively in testing, the pad face gets perpendicular to the ice almost instantly when going into the butterfly, due in part to the rounded toe. Second, because the toe is not scraping the ice, the pad does not wear as much as traditional boots with bindings (want proof? Visit the Smith Hockey facebook page and click on the pictures HERE of pads used in the AHL nearly every day for one year).

- Plastic sliding toe bridge: If there's one complaint that I have with my Smith pads, it was that the leather and seams on the toe bridge started breaking down after only a few months of use. On the Ritual pads, the leather has been removed from most of the bridge which both fixes my problem, and allows the lacing to slide in the bridge channel more easily. After all, lacing sliding against plastic slides more easily than lacing sliding against leather, right?

Here again is a design so simple that you'll wonder why it hasn't been thought of before. This triangular "Post Wedge" helps seal the gap between the post and your bent knee. It is made of rigid HD foams, and there is a softer foam "pillow" behind it that sits between your leg and the pad for reinforcement.

A closer shot of the "Knee Leveler" - an elongated knee riser that sits between your knee and the outmost landing pad. This creates a larger surface on which your knee can rest in the butterfly, and it also provides for an additional blocking surface for pucks that sneak between your legs.

Another example from the "Why didn't anyone think of that sooner" file. Instead of lacing multiple knee risers into a tab located on the back of the pad, the Ritual features an innovative knee riser pocket where the goalie can easily insert or remove foam sheets based on his/her preferences. Goalies who wear separate knee protection under their pants will find this feature especially attractive as it will allow them to easily customize the width the the knee risers to accomodate this extra protection.

Gloves:

Unfortunately, I'm not able to post pictures of the catch gloves or blockers yet. However, here's a brief description of the Ritual Pro Custom options that are available:

Ritual Pro Custom Blocker - bindingless construction, hand placed 1" higher on the board to give the goalie more blocker surface below the hand. There are two adjustment straps at the wrist -the traditional strap over the wrist, and a strap that runs from the side hand protector to the cuff. If you wanted, you could set this second strap so as to allow the side hand protector to "flare out" towards the goalie's body, increasing blocking surface. The finger protection is made of pre-curved armadillo-like padding that expands and contracts as your fingers flex or extend.

Ritual Pro Custom Catch Glove - based on the old Fortress catch glove, but this is not a Fortress catch glove. Lacing and construction have changed to give the glove a much more comfortable closure, and new full palm foam protection protects against stingers and helps keep the palm more open. Available in single, double or triple t-web pockets in both a traditional and "Megadepth" option.



Ritual Custom SE Blocker - traditional binding construction, hand placed at center of blocking board for a more traditional feel and exceptional balance. Same strapping and finger protection as the Pro Custom model.

Ritual Custom SE Catch Glove - Designed for those who like more of a "Vaughn-type" feel (my words, not theirs). The custom SE fits and feels like a cross between a Vaughn T5500 (closure, design) and a Bauer RX10 (somewhat cocked forward wrist position). The pocket is wide and deep -goalie who prefer to catch the puck rather than block it will love this glove. The full palm foam in the Pro Custom glove is NOT available in the Custom SE, but the same pocket options are available.

Here's the Ritual Senior set, which is their "Senior Pro" level gear. Pricing and performance will jprobably be comparable to the Vaughn 7400, Bauer One80, and other similar series pads. The gloves will be based off of the Pro Custom models - the SE gloves are only available through custom orders.

The Ritual line extends all of the way down to Youth and Junior sized gear (Youth on the left, Junior on the right). The Youth sized gear will feature traditional leg and boot channels to help hold the pad to the goalie's leg, and they also feature and "EZ Toe Tie" - a velcro strap that easily attaches the boot to the skate. The Junior and Youth sized gear is incredibly light and the gloves are easy to flex and use. A new Ritual Youth Chest Protector will be available as well.


Stay Tuned to our Total Hockey Facebook Page in December!

According to Pete, Warrior's purchase of Smith Hockey gave him the opportunity to make upgrades to the Smith 6000 leg pad that he had always wanted to make (but could never get to, give the fact that he was always building these popular pads!). The Ritual line is truly innovative, and after seeing them for myself I'm convinced that anyone who tries them will fall in love with the set. Warrior's excitement for the new line is contagious, and it's taking everything I've got to keep many of the specs and details of the gear to myself!

That being said, we'll have some exciting news to share regarding the Ritual line in mid-December. Make sure you keep your eye on the page for more news on the Ritual line! In the meantime, feel free to contact me and I'll do my best to answer any questions that you have.

Do you know what date you will be able to start taking orders?

Cheers
Jim