Took a short trip to Hawk the other day and I was thoroughly impressed with their kit. As soon as I went in there I was greeted nicely and I had a nice look around their small showroom at all of their kit. I solely went in there to look at their softs but I couldn't take my hands or my eyes off of their bats.
After looking and feeling the bats I thought the Xbow2 was their best range and their top of the range bats deserve their price tags. I picked up a bat that was made for a certain pro that they were showcasing off and it was beautiful, sadly I didn't have enough money to purchase it as it was amazing. The G10 bat they had in was huge and went like a rocket, sadly it wasn't as nice visusally as the others and had been used a fair bit due to them letting it out for people to have a play(now I regret not having a proper play with it). The X10 bats were also nice, but just not to my liking however a couple of guys at my club have an X10 and they love it and they surely go! I would definately recommend Hawk bats to anyone and especially if you live within travelling distance I would go down and try out their bats even if you aren't looking to buy.
Anyway, I had a look around their softs on the website and I was pretty certain what I was going in for which was the X10 pro gloves which won 'Glove of the year 2010' by the Wisden Cricketer Magazine and the Xbow pads. After trying both on I didn't even bother trying their other stuff on as they felt superb and I didn't want to tempt myself into spending any more money!
The pads are very light and comfortable at 655kg per pad compared to my GM Duellist 909 pads which are 875kg. I chose these over the X10 Pro pads because of the padding(and price) as I was looking for something lightweight and without the extra calf padding that most pads seem to have now which add extra weight and also feel bulkier.
I had been looking all over different websites and different companies to find some that I like and little did I know that the closest company to me made some pads that I was exactly looking for.
The Gloves come with pittard palms which make them very comfortable, they feel very light weight and even though the protection on them is superb they don't feel bukly and feel superb on as well and also very well made. I've had a problem with some gloves fitting correctly as sometimes they feel big, but at Hawk they offer a small mens size which I tried on after trying the regular mens size and they fit just right which I've never had from a batting glove before. It's easy to see why they won the best glove as they are superb and I can't recommend the gloves or pads enough.