Vaughn trapper repair

[jcp2 2]

So in lieu of hunting down a better trapper, I drove to the Vaughn factory today in Oxford, MI (yes, I've been by the one in London, ON, but no glove with me) to see what they could do. A gentleman there came out, looked at my glove's condition, pronounced it good with the exception of the perimeter binding, which was in bad shape. He also offered to replace the webbing with either regular cord or skate lace as it was okay, but starting to wear. I took him up on both offers, and the best part is that he is going to do the repairs tomorrow and ship the glove back to me, so I hope to see it by my next ice time. Total cost with shipping will be about $60. I don't have any idea whether this is a fair price or not, only that I'll give the glove another chance based largely on the good vibes from Vaughn. Also, it is damn hard to find any non-custom trapper in all sport gold to match the rest of my used set.

[Netminder32 32]

I know first hand how time consuming it is repairing a glove. That's a great price and awesome customer service. Toronto Hockey Repair (Goalie Heaven) charges $50 just for restringing the pocket. Plus you would have the shipping on top of that. (And THR has some of the best repair pricing around...)

THR repair price list from their website.

It's nice to hear about manufacturers that still back their product and care about their customers. Don't forget to post pics when you get it back...

[hamstercaster 2]

I know first hand how time consuming it is repairing a glove. That's a great price and awesome customer service. Toronto Hockey Repair (Goalie Heaven) charges $50 just for restringing the pocket. Plus you would have the shipping on top of that. (And THR has some of the best repair pricing around...)

THR repair price list from their website.

It's nice to hear about manufacturers that still back their product and care about their customers. Don't forget to post pics when you get it back...

Reminds me of Eagle a couple of years back. I had purchased pads from the Goalie Crease on Ebay and inquired about getting letter straps and buckles instead of the nylon quick snap ones that came with it. Ross Agathos at Eagle Hockey told me to send them in and that he would change the straps free of charge and even offered to cover shipping back. I sent him a check to cover shipping though as getting free strap replacement was already way beyond what I had expected when I inquired about purchasing said straps.

[SirJW 207]

What are the advantages and disadvantages regular cord and skate lace webbing?

[Law Goalie 147]

Non-waxed skate-lace has a little more stretch to it than the standard 3mm nylon cord, so, in theory, it can absorb some extra impact in the pocket. Personally, I doubt it's enough to notice unless you were catching hundreds of pucks every day in an extremely rigid glove at high velocities -- ie. a professional's glove with a practice palm.

The advantages to the nylon lacing are the colour palette, greater cut and abrasion resistance, and a slightly 'cleaner' look in the pocket because of the smaller width.

Glad to hear the OP got such good service from Vaughn USA; it's always been my experience that these kinds of things go best in person.

[jcp2 2]

I've had good personal experiences with the staff at THG and Vaughn, and the folks at London Source for Sports humored me when I tried on gloves and masks in their store, so I must conclude that either goalie salespeople are really laid back and helpful in general because they are goalies, or goalie customers are very particular in their demands because they are goalies. Much better than the player experience, provided that the place has real expertise in goalie stuff.

P.S. Glove is fixed and in the mail back to me as of this afternoon. How's that for turnaround?

[SirJW 207]

Please post a pic when you get it back.

[jcp2 2]

Here are the pictures of the repaired trapper that was fed ex'd back today. I ended up getting the regular cord pocket rather than the skate lace pocket because I think the post-it fell off the glove at the workbench. Yes, no work order, just a couple of sticky notes.

Glove itself

Cuff, perimeter, new eyelets

Pocket from different angles

I'm still trying to get used to the break being at the bottom of the fingers rather than being in the center of the glove.

[Law Goalie 147]

The Velocity break definitely takes some getting used to, especially for those who grew up with baseball mitts, but a lot of superb catching goalies swear by it.

Very cool result. I really like the silver cord around the perimeter and in the pocket. Now I'm definitely going to have to restring my glove: I'd been thinking about doing that partly for maintenance, and partly to add another silver accent to better match my pads.

But then I'd have to re-lace the pads with silver cord too...

"I'm going to need more rope."

[jcp2 2]

I'm still not used to the break, and get a fair amount of pop outs unless the puck hits the pocket, as I can't close the glove quickly enough. I got another trapper on sale (Nike Bauer One75) that I'm having much better luck catching with. That one still doesn't open all the way as easily as the Vaughn, but my timing seems to better, and pucks that hit the palm seem to roll into the pocket rather than bouncing out.