Roloson's Warrior Pads (from Ingoal Magazine)

[Law Goalie 147]

Ingoal Insider: A closer look at Dwayne Roloson’s [Warrior] Pads

First off, a really cool picture showing the foam core of a Warrior Messiah pad in the hands of its most capable demonstrator:

The similarities with Lefebvre's RBK/Reebok pads (especially the first generation) are very evident, but the Warrior foam is *much* better formed and cut. Even the molded EPE that forms the backside of the boot, ankle, and shin on the RBK Premier 2 and later pads isn't as clean as this. I'd be curious to know what the red pack on the backside of the knee is on the Messiah core: it looks like an air or gel pack, and it's never a bad idea to add a little extra protection to a sensitive joint. Could be a neat material for Dr. Smith to play with too...

The article then goes on to show two neat shots comparing Roloson's 'gutted' leg-channel with a stock Messiah pad. Chris Paul (the rep who took the pads to him) has a great line about how Roloson took an Exacto knife and sliced most of the stuff off their already stripped-down demo pad as soon as he got his hands on them. The result was, much like Roloson's pads since the Bionic, a protective from with two flaps and some straps: nothing else. When they finally got his spec sheet hammered out, he'd asked only a 3/8" HD knee-block, HD foams in the knee- and calf-wings, and practically no LD foams. The functional description is of a pad that he "floats" in the pads -- or, rather, that the pads float around his legs. (Interestingly, this is exactly the description that most wearers of the Smith 6000 pads use.)

Two neat shots of how thin Roloson's knee-block really is, and how he's had all the lateral protection removed from the pad:

All that aside, the most peculiar part of Roloson's pads, and what appears to be a Warrior innovation if you look at his previous pads, is the angled rather than tapered boot:

Put simply, the boot is a parallelogram attached to the bottom of the pad, rather than a square with the medial side tapered or rounded off. Chris Paul mentions that, like TPS, they had to taper the inside of Roloson's boot quite a lot - he figures about 2" - but that he (or someone else in the design team) had the idea to effectively take the part they cut off top create the taper and put it on the outside of the pad, so that the whole face would still add up to 11", and this lead to simply angling the whole boot to one side: hence the parallelogram. Oddly enough, I had the same idea a few years ago when I was speccing out a set of custom pads, but it never quite worked out.

You can also see clearly in the second picture how much Roloson's custom toe-bridge has been offset to the inside of the pad. When the medial edge of the boot is flush to the ice in the butterfly, even if one assumes he's going with no toe-bridge slack, the toe of his blade would only be a couple of inches off the ice. (The article says that this brings "the skate as close to the center axis of the pad as possible," which is, unfortunately, exactly the opposite of what it actually does: it in fact moves the skate *away* from the centre axis toward the medial edge.

The one functional issue with this setup is that unless the pad in question has extreme lateral flexibility (or Roloson simply twisted the hell out of it while breaking it in), it won't naturally seal both the boot and the thigh in the butterfly. In sealing the boot, the pad will tilt slightly forward and 'lift' the thigh of the pad up off the ice, creating a triangle of space at the bottom of the five-hole in the butterfly. A diligent active stick (and Roloson certainly has that!) will keep this covered from straight shots, but dekes and off-angle plays can expose the hole. Conversely, (though less commonly) if the thigh of the pad seals to the ice the toe is pulled up in the air. The only ways around this are to break the pad in by twisting the pad at the ankle or knee, or by making the pad extremely flexible in the lateral axis.

Looking at Roloson's TPS pads (as I did when I was kicking around my variation on the angled/parallelogram boot idea), you can really see how much the boot has been tapered, and how much he torques the pad around his leg to create the seal:

In the first picture, you can clearly see the taper, but also how much the ankle-break has been broken down. It's almost been broken in at a corresponding angle to the taper of the boot. Look closely at the lateral (outside) gusset at the ankle, which is just a bit out of focus on both pads: the way it's puffed out shows much much the structure of each pad has been deformed.

In the second picture, you can see exactly where the Warrior angled/parallelogram boot came in. In torquing the pad at the ankle to bring the medial edge of the boot to the ice while still sealing the thigh, the lateral gusset of the boot effectively slopes away toward the ice at the angle corresponding to the taper of the boot: this is the coverage lost when a boot is tapered. What Warrior has done is, in effect, created a solution to the problem of a taper costing coverage.

Now, I have my doubts you'll ever see this parallelogram boot on a retail pad: it's tricky to build and looks peculiar enough that it might put off some consumers. (That in itself is an interesting saga in the history of goaltending equipment: how innovative gear got rejected because it looked strange, or became camouflaged to sneak the innovations in.) That said, it's a fascinating example of how companies can cater to pros, and of a possible option for someone ordering Warrior pads that I've never seen offered elsewhere.

[Axxion89 32]

That is a great article, I always wanted to do that to my pads but if I took a knife to them and didn't like the feel I would be SOL!

Also, is it me or does it seem like in the picture of his skate the toe ties aren't tied around his boot but all tied in the cowling??

[Law Goalie 147]

The laces could be hidden by his second boot-strap (through the heel), but I'd say you're right: he looks to have tied it either in front of the toe of his skate, or somewhere in along the holder.

What sort of pads do you have? More often than not, there is a way to simply remove and replace most major external pieces. One of the neat points about the Messiah pads, in fact, is that almost everything Roloson removed from his pads can be removed from the retail pads simply by undoing a couple of knots and removing some 3mm cord, and can be put back just as easily. Mind you, that does leave a few Jenpro tabs behind, and Roloson may have objected to those as well. He's extremely particular about his gear -- in a good way. I have a feeling he's going to love the Smith 6000 design - in one particular configuration, it's the most clean, flat, open leg-channel I've ever seen, like a prairie for the shin.

[Axxion89 32]

I have Warrior Swaggers and I have removed the thighboards, knee lock, and toe ties for the time being as they have been giving me issues and so far I must say their removal has no consequences on my playing so far. I would like to remove the Knee wings and calf wrap for some more open space but they are sewn in and I am hesitant to cut them. I may also remove part of the knee stack but they can be easily modded because they are velcroed and meant for adjustment. I would personally love to try Messiah pads as the Swaggers are made top notch themselves.

[Law Goalie 147]

I can't say for sure, since I haven't laid hands on the Swaggers in a while, but I'm almost positive you can remove the entire leg-channel and the knee-lock (not just the knee-lock velcro/elastic strap) by unlacing the main stays of the pad: that is, the 3mm cord that passes through the face and back of the pad, holding the foam core to the shell. You might want to run that by someone from Warrior first, or the shop where you got them. If you have a lacing needle you can do it yourself, otherwise it's a VERY easy job for any competent repair shop to unlace those stays and lace them back up again.

The only real issue is whether and how Warrior hid the top-knots for the stays. If they're under the top binding (the Jenpro cap sewn on top of the thigh-rise) the way they are on the Messiah pads, you or your shop should be able to undo the knots, unlace, re-lace, and re-knot without taking that top binding off; if they're even more in the open (which is common on senior (non-pro) gear), it's even easier. If they aren't so accessible, you or you shop will need either a big mattress needle (8-10") and some heavy thread to re-sew the top binding after removal, or a very small lacing needle that can thread what's already there as if it were, and effectively re-lace that stitching. That's how I've undone and re-done most of my top bindings in the past, since those giant bayonet-point needles are a bit unwieldy and a wee bit dangerous.

Whatever you do, DO NOT cut those 3mm stays for any reason -- the whole pad will come apart.

Just to be clear, it's not that Warrior 'cheaped out' on the Swaggers. Lacing the leg-channel in with the stays is how just about everybody else on earth does it. They did, however, choose to add an unusual degree of flexibility to the retail Messiah, including the removable leg-channel and knee-lock, which required more materials and demanded more craftsmanship both in the design and construction of the pads. It's just one of those little premium perks they added on to their pro line.

BTW, if you want to try a harder knee-block, I know Warrior does have them as an option on the Messiah, and while I don't think ti's a standard retail or catalogue item, you might be able to order a pair and just velcro them in place of your current soft ones.

And just out of curiosity, since you're going sans toe-ties, have you noticed whether or how well the boot of your pad, especially at the toe, is sealing the ice in the butterfly, and more particularly in the half-butterfly? I understand the arguments behind removing the toe-ties for injury prevention (which at some point does become an overriding concern), but it still seems to me that the pull of the toe-ties on the toe of the pad down toward the ice in butterfly and half-butterfly saves is key to getting a good seal at the toe of the pad. Something for a future thread, maybe.

[Axxion89 32]

On the Swaggers they did hide the know under the Jenpro and it appears the leg channel is sewn into the pad and knee roll is laced. I'm going to just loosen the velcro on the calf wrap or remove it and that might do the job as there is no LHS near me I would trust with relacing a Goalie Pad but I might do it one day to see the difference.

As for the Toe Ties question, I would have to say that it seals about the same, last game I played I remember making a few stretched butterfly saves and just getting the puck on the boot end. I will definitely look at the seal more closely as I never even thought about that. My main purpose for getting rid of the toe ties was twofold in that: 1, They would sometimes get under my skate and cut and 2, would not really help with my rotation coming out of butterfly. Next game I am going to loosen the pads a little more to see what happens but overall, I am not missing the toe ties too much.