Hi Dave,
As a fellow B3 nut, I've been toing and froing on the B3 pads all winter. I hope the following is useful...
First and foremost, I prefer traditional cane - not sure why but I always feel its more protective than HDF. Could be purely psychological, but I also prefer the look of traditional pads over, say, the Puma offerings.
I then look at quality. I will always buy top end pads and gloves - I need my legs and hands to be fully functional with my job so that's non-negotiable. On that basis, I assume that they will offer adequate protection for local Saturday leagues. I've seen the B3 pads numerous times on visits and they are probably the best quality I've seen and the gloves are incredibly comfortable and soft. Money isn't an issue in terms of equipment - having worked in sport all of my life I know that you get what you pay for. I will happily pay £80 for pads and £60 for gloves.
They clearly need to fit well - the straps can't be too long and I don't want to be adjusting padding between the pad and my shin once they're on.
My final proviso is they need to be a desirable colour. It's proved difficult to get all of the above, when added to the matching gloves criteria (which have to be sausage finger). My preferred colour of choice is light blue - you don't see it in games that often and I think its different, yet still understated.
So based on the above, I ruled out;
Kookaburra (I have the bubble pads for midweek T20 for the retro value, but the 2014 range aren't well made and use poor materials)
Puma (HDF and no sausage fingers)
GM (gloves weren't a great fit)
Gray Nics (everyone's got them, though I do admit the quality is great)
Adidas (segmented gloves, but love the colours)
...many more discounted...
B3 - If I didn't have a new found need to match gloves and pads, I would've gone for the pads, definitely. I dislike the look of the gloves and the neutral colour schemes. I totally understand why they have to be - the sticker choices make it impossible to cater for coloured straps, trim, etc. (my only thought was coloured finger inserts for the gloves, under a clear casing, but that would be very niche and expensive!). In the end the lack of colour did it for me. The quality is obvious but they, to me, don't stand out from the crowd - many of the smaller brands go for black and white and it just doesn't float my boat, although I do have the B3 wk pads and gloves - colour less of an issue there and I've gone for the outstanding quality. Hypocritical I know!
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Topic: Pads What makes a good one protection or looks or both or maybe you dont care... (Read 3897 times)