Warrior Bully Glove

[JR Boucicaut 3802]

Open

[tdjb 0]

First off, thanks to MSH and Warrior for giving me the opportunity to review these gloves, I'll try and make sure they get their money’s worth :)

I'll just give a quick overview of my background so you can understand why I might review things in a certain way. I started playing hockey right around the time Mario and the Penguins were winning their first cup together. Because of that I'm kind of "old school" when it comes to equipment and prefer the looser fitting, more open type gloves. For the past 9-10 months I've been wearing NBH 4-rolls and those were the tightest fitting gloves I've owned. I will probably reference the NBH gloves a lot in this review simply because it's the easiest way for me to compare to something that's already out on the market.

Now on to the review! I received these gloves on Tuesday so I'll post up my initial thoughts and response to the gloves before actually using them on the ice.

Looks:

Right out of the box I loved the look of the gloves (aside from the color). They have that clean 4-roll look that I personally love and the striping on the gloves is pretty subtle and adds just enough style without overdoing it. All the logos/markings are screen printed but look just fine. Not really much else to say, these gloves just look good to me.

Features:

My first thought when I saw these gloves is that they were designed to compete against the other various ~$100 4-rolls out there. The bully's have plastic inserts throughout the glove just like my NBH 4-rolls. The palms felt very nice although a bit thinner then the palms on my NBH gloves. One thing I did notice right away is that these gloves felt like they were already broken in. As soon as I put them on I didn't feel any of that restriction in movement you sometimes get with new gloves. I also noticed that there are no venting holes anywhere on these gloves. Not sure what that will mean when it comes time to use them on the ice, just thought I'd note it. The liner inside was nice and unlike my NBH 4-rolls I didn't find loose threads for my fingers to get caught in inside the gloves. As far as weight goes, I don't have a scale but these felt just about as heavy as the NBH 4-rolls.

Build quality:

The build quality is not bad on these gloves from what I can see initially, but there are some areas that I noticed fall short compared to the NBH 4-rolls. The nylon used seems to be of good quality, but it doesn't seem quite as thick or "tough" as what's on my NBH gloves. Of course the true test will be how it holds up on the ice. The sewing and everything seemed good on these gloves as well, but again, didn't quite meet the same standards found on my NBH gloves. That doesn't mean they quality on these gloves is bad (I actually think it's quite good), it just is a tad bit below what I've found on my NBH 4-rolls.

Protection:

This is hard to gauge just looking at them and trying them on, but the protection seems on par with other gloves in this range. I will note though that my NBH 4-rolls seem to be a bit "beefier" when it comes to actual padding. Perhaps Warrior has some better foam that allows them to use less? I'm not sure but will probably find out more when I actually use them in a game.

Fit:

The bully's fit a bit tighter then my NBH 4-rolls in all areas. It's not such a huge difference that it might impact my playing, but it was definitely enough that I notice it, especially around the wrist area. The fingers also felt a bit shorter as my finger tips are right at the end of the glove in the bully's where as with my NBH gloves I've got a little space there.

Overall:

Without using these gloves on the ice I have no issues with them right now. I think they are similar to the various other gloves at this price point and stack up against my NBH 4-rolls (that I love) pretty well.

[tdjb 0]

So a day after getting the gloves I was able to put them to use in a men’s league game. One thing I can say that I view as a huge positive is that I didn’t really notice the gloves at all. I think gloves are kind of hard to switch directly over to but I had no issues with these at all. We were short on d-men so I had to drop back and play defense so I probably didn’t handle the puck quite as much as I might have up at forward, but I didn’t feel any restrictions in my movements or anything the whole game. The padding seemed to be fine although I didn’t really get many hacks on the hand to fully test it.

I did have two minor issues that I want to note. The first one is that the palms got pretty soaked compared to my NBH 4-rolls. My initial point about the lack of vent holes on the gloves might have contributed to this or it might just be the palm material, I’m not sure. It didn’t impact my game at all, it’s just something I noticed later in the locker room. Secondly, I did notice during the game that it felt like on my lower hand that my index and middle fingers always seemed to end up on the seam where the palm meets the finger gusset. Is this a huge deal? Probably not but it’s just one of those comfort things that can sometime bother you when you are playing. I didn’t really notice it while playing but more during the downtime or on face-offs.

As I noted though, I didn't really notice these gloves which to me is a good thing and I'm looking forward to using them again.

[tdjb 0]

Tonight was my second time on the ice with these gloves and I nothing has really changed from my previous post. Tonight we had a very short bench so I had tons of ice time to try these gloves out. As before the palms got pretty wet but also as before, it didn't impact my game or anything, it's just something I noticed. Tonight I did not notice the small issue I had with my fingers ending up on the seams though but I don't really have any idea on why that might be.

Really the best thing I can say about these gloves right now is that going directly from my NBH 4 rolls to these hasn't been an issue at all, aside from the color I can't even tell I'm wearing different gloves when I"m on the ice. Right now the only thing I think that will need to be tested is how they hold up after a good amount of use. Right now they are doing all the right things so it's just a matter of if they'll last or not.

[tdjb 0]

My apologies to Warrior and MSH, because of some stuff going on I haven't been able to hit the ice as much as I usually do.

With that being said, I managed to get on the ice the other day for some pick-up hockey and get some more usage out of the gloves. These gloves "just work", as I mentioned previously probably one of the best things I can say is that I don't notice them at all. There really wasn't any getting used to them or anything, I've just switched directly to them and haven't had any complaints.

The earlier issue with my fingers sometimes ending up on the seams is no longer an issue so the only really thing I could suggest is better venting but even that is kind of a stretch as far as complaints go.

It's still probably too early to start talking about durability but as of now they are holding up just fine.

[tdjb 0]

Well, I put the gloves to work again for about an hour and a half, still no catastrophic failures to report :)

Palms are still nice and soft, no tears or rips to speak of, overall they just keep on doing what they do. At this point in time I feel safe suggesting these to people looking for an alternative to the Bauer 4-rolls.

If you are in the market for a 4-roll type glove, I'd suggest going to your local hockey store and trying these on. They fit a wee bit tighter then the Bauer 4-rolls, so they might be perfect for those of you who felt that the Bauer gloves were too loose.

From hear on out the only thing I think that is left to report on is how well they hold up to long-term use.