Long-Term Review Miken Razor Z9 Glove

[JR Boucicaut 3802]

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[Davetronz 109]

Last week I received a pair of Miken Razor Z9 hockey gloves so that I could write a MSH Long-Term Review (LTR). I’d like to start by thanking the folks at Miken Hockey, the ModSquadHockey community and JR Boucicaut for this opportunity.

Product Received:

Miken Razor Z9 Hockey Glove

Model: HGRZ9-2N6

Color: Navy/White

Size: 14”

Reviewer Details:

28 years old / 5’11 / 210lbs

Location: Calgary, AB

Playing Level: Men's div A/B and rec league hockey (former minor league rep team player)

Current gloves: Easton Stealth S17, Tackla 5000

Prior to receiving my gloves I’ll admit that I’ve never seen any Miken Hockey products in person. I’ve read about them on MSH, visited their website, and followed their social media accounts, but I don’t believe we have a retailer in Calgary. When I saw the box on my doorstep addressed from Miken Hockey, I was pretty excited to try something completely new.

I was provided with a few options when ordering my gloves:

• Tighter-fitting style OR 4-roll style,
  
• Color preference, and
  
• Size
  

I really like using a snug-fitting hockey glove. I find that the Easton Stealth line usually fits my hand quite well so that is what I’ve been using prior to this. I requested the tighter-fitting style, in navy/white to match my primary team’s jersey, and 14” in size.

The gloves arrived FAST which made me even more eager to get them on my hands. The gloves were packed well in a cardboard box and sealed inside a clear plastic bag with display hanger.

I’ll admit, before inspecting the gloves to any degree I had them on my hands. My initial reaction was that the gloves fit…like a glove! The tighter-fitting style cradled my hand perfectly without being restrictive, the palms felt super soft, nothing felt uncomfortable or sharp, and most importantly, the glove fit perfectly on my hand in regards to length and width. I was quite worried when ordering the gloves that they’d be the wrong size. I’m usually pretty safe in a 14” glove, but I usually need a fairly narrow or tight-fitting glove to feel secure. I’ve spent a lot of time trying on various pairs of gloves and have only really had success in the Easton Stealth line. The moment I put the gloves on my hands all worries faded away.

I began to inspect the glove with a fine-tooth comb. I was quickly impressed with the craftsmanship and overall build quality.

The Miken wordmark is embroidered on the roll of the glove, and the Miken logo is embroidered on the top of the thumb (not pictured). Both embroideries looked strong, sharp, and crisp. No signs of loose or missed threads.

The wordmark “Razor Z9” and the white striped graphics that appear on the upper cuff, thumb, backroll, and index finger are not embroidered, but rather screened onto the glove. I’m initially a bit concerned that this will fade or break down over time, but new it looks crisp and strong. I’m not a huge fan of the design of these striped graphics and would prefer a solid color, but over time they’re growing on me.

The material covering the glove appears to be of high quality and well-stitched. I can feel the PE plastic inserts under the material on the backroll and fingers and the foam under them. Both feel secure, well-sized, and protective. While the glove feels very protective it remains very light (weight – in comparison to my Easton Stealth S17 gloves, and comparable in weight to my Tackla 5000 gloves which lack the PE plastic inserts). The glove also feels sufficiently flexible, although stiff right out of the box.

The thumb is quite stiff on this glove, and I find it to be angled backwards quite a bit back towards my arm. I’m not sure if it’s the stiffness or the angle, but it feels like something that I might need to adjust to. It’s not a “bad” or “uncomfortable” feeling, just different. I’m also interested to see how the stiffness of the thumb will affect the grip on my stick.

The cuff and roll on the glove rises up high enough to be protective above the wrist, but still feels soft and flexible enough to provide a very good range of motion. I can achieve a full range of motion with my wrist without being stopped by the cuff or roll or feeling any sort or pinching, discomfort or abnormal rubbing. Each cuff had a manufacturer’s tag affixed inside the glove. I removed these immediately after this picture.

The inside of the glove feels great. The palms are super soft and the moisture management liner is padded and soft as well. The glove feels snug, but not restrictive across my palm. I’ve felt the entire inside of the glove looking for any sharp, abrasive or otherwise uncomfortable areas and was unable to find any. The moisture management layer contributes to the snug feeling. When I lift it upwards (in a drying position) and put my hand in the gloves they fit quite loose and similar to my Tackla 5000 gloves. I appreciate being able to lift the moisture management layer upwards to facilitate better drying of the glove. The following picture was taken with the moisture management layer lifted upwards and sticking out from the glove.

As I’ve already stated, the palms are extremely soft and comfortable. They appear to be a very good quality material. From what I can tell, the palms have three separate pieces of material. The Miken website describes the palm as “Sensa-Tec palm for improved hand to glove palm interaction” and “Nash combo palm with tech palm overlay”. The palm wear area looks well protected and like it will stand up to some abuse.

The gloves have solid gussets in the same material as the palm, which I really like. I’m not a fan of mesh or fabric gussets so I was glad to see the solid gussets. The gussets really add to the soft and comfortable feeling deep inside the gloves.

You can easily put your thumb in the thumb tab or in the thumb area directly behind the thumb tab. Both positions feel very comfortable, but I tend to keep my thumb in the area behind the thumb tab for greater protection and security.

The only cosmetic concern I was able to find during my inspection of the gloves was that the blue stitching used on the exterior of the glove seems to be more royal, rather than navy. I had to look pretty close to see this, and it is purely cosmetic, but the color of this thread definitely appears lighter than the color of the glove fabric. Aside from me, I doubt anyone would see this. I’ll try to get a picture, but I’ll likely need decent sunlight or patience to capture it correctly. Not a huge issue by any means.

After my detailed inspection of the gloves, I headed down to my basement to stickhandle and pass around a small hockey ball that has a similar weight and feel of a puck. The stickhandling and passing felt great – no concerns. I had my Easton Stealth S17 gloves and my Tackla 5000 gloves next to me to compare, and I liked the feel of the Miken gloves the best. The Miken gloves also fit the snuggest on my hand. When I’m practicing passing and rapid passing in my basement I aim for an area about 1-2” long drawn on my boards. I found that I was hitting my target more often than not, which isn’t too far from normal, but I was expecting worse with a stiff, new pair of gloves. Due to the size of me and the size of my basement, I’m not really able to practice shooting too well. I took a couple wrist shots, but I wasn’t really able to get a definitive feel for the gloves while shooting. I’m quite excited to get out on the rink with the gloves and test them in a practice or game situation.

Subscribe to this topic to continue reading my LTR on the Miken Razor Z9 gloves. If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a private message. I’ll try to include all messages regarding this topic in future posts so that everyone can benefit from my answers. Thanks for reading.

[Davetronz 109]

The night I received my new gloves I had a rec league game. I planned on wearing my Miken Razor Z9 gloves in warm-up and then wearing my Easton Stealth S17 gloves during the actual game. I took a few wrist shots in warm up and focused on stick handling and passing to get a feel for the puck. Everything felt really awesome. My wrist shots were on target, and I was really enjoying the feel of the puck while stick handling. The Zamboni driver left a small lake on the ice before our game, so it was hard to experiment too much. Before I knew it, warm-up was over and the game was starting. Despite the Miken gloves still feeling a bit stiff, I decided to continue wearing them rather than switch to my Eastons. I was not disappointed!

As I wore the gloves they felt less stiff and became slightly more flexible as I started to sweat a bit and generate body heat. My puck control while stick handling felt a little bit off, but I wasn’t going to blame the gloves themselves, more the lack of break-in and adjustment time. I didn’t notice anything weird with the thumbs (as noted in my first post) or the palms while playing. Everything felt great and really light weight. I usually pick up on everything in regards to equipment not feeling right, not responding correctly, or simply not working for my playing style. I end up focusing on my equipment rather than on my game. In regards to the gloves, nothing was bothering me at all. I took a few wrist shots early on and they crisply hit their intended target.

Then the time came to take a slap shot - something I hadn't tried in warm-up. I consider my slap shot to be slightly above average. I usually experience ringing in my hands after teeing up a good hard shot, and after a few shots my palms are usually stinging a bit. The first slap shot with the Miken gloves felt great, and I scored... Not bad. I distinctly remember thinking to myself that I didn't feel any ringing or stinging in my palms. I chalked it up to adrenaline and kept on playing. We were playing a considerably weaker team, so I was getting a lot of shots. I was mixing a variety of shot types, passing with no issues, but still getting used to the feel of the gloves while stick handling. I did note that the gloves felt slightly looser as I kept playing, but that the mobility remained great. Next, I teed up a one-timer from the top of the circle on a pass that was wobbling slightly. Usually, these are the type of shots which kill my hands while wearing my other gloves. I caught the puck perfectly, but lost control of my shot which nailed the 'tender square in the center/top of the helmet. Aside from feeling like a jerk for the wild shot in rec league, I felt no ill effects in my hands. I finished the game with 4 goals, 2 assists. The game was pretty casual, so I wasn't able to get a feel for the protective qualities of the glove. A few of the guys were pretty interested in seeing the gloves in the dressing room, having not seen Miken products in person before.

My next game was one week after the first time I wore the gloves. After dressing and warming up, the other team told us they didn't have a goalie but wanted to forfeit and play shinny instead of our league game. I usually don't turn down hockey, even shinny, but my knee was bothering me and I had an early morning the next day, so I ended up showering and going home instead of sticking around to play.

I played shinny on Friday night and wore the gloves again. I found them to feeling tighter fitting at the start, and then relax a bit as I kept playing. Again, I observed all of the same details as above. The palms felt great again for shooting (wrists, slaps, one-timers) and passing, but I'm still getting used to stick handling and general puck control. I find that the tighter fitting style allows me to have a bit better control of the puck overall, but I still need to break in the gloves a bit more. I still haven't had an opportunity to test out the protectiveness of the gloves, but I'll continue to keep everyone updated.

So far so good, I'm looking forward to wearing the gloves again this week. Thanks again for reading.

[Davetronz 109]

Time for an update. I've used my Miken Razor Z9 gloves for approximately 10 ice times now.

First off, an update to a previously posted comment from my first impressions post on 06/20/2012:

The only cosmetic concern I was able to find during my inspection of the gloves was that the blue stitching used on the exterior of the glove seems to be more royal, rather than navy. I had to look pretty close to see this, and it is purely cosmetic, but the color of this thread definitely appears lighter than the color of the glove fabric.

I got a picture of the lighter blue threading that I mentioned earlier. You need to look pretty closely to see it, but the shade is definitely different. It's worth noting, but I'm not overly concerned about it.

We played an overly chippy team last night. To call them chippy is even an understatement. This resulted in more than one good whack to my hands either during faceoffs, while carrying the puck, or just as a nice reminder that the defender was there. I definitely felt the whack to the hands off the faceoff, but the sting wasn't anything over the top. I felt that the gloves did a pretty good job at softening the impact. I didn't really notice the whacks to the hands during puck carrying or general play. I also had the opportunity to glove down a puck that was in the air. The palms responded well and I barely felt any sting, despite the puck having decent speed. Overall I'd rate the Miken Razor Z9 gloves at an 8.5/10 for protection compared to my Tackla 5000's at 6/10 and my Easton Stealth S17 at 9/10. This rating is based on the fact that they are quite protective, but still lightweight and not really a tank on your hands. For their size and weight I think they are adequate and offer significant protection.

I have noticed that the gloves have felt a bit looser on my hand as they've broken in. Nothing too significant, but definitely less tight than when I first started to wear them. I'll continue to observe this.

After the game last night I noticed two areas of concern regarding stitching on the left glove (I shoot left handed):

- Outside edge of the 5th finger:

As you can see in the pictures above, the stitching appears to have come out a bit in this area. You can also observe the thread holes in the palm material where stitching used to be, but isn't anymore. This hasn't escalated to a hole completely through to my hand, but I'm definitely going to keep an eye on it. At this point I am not going to repair this particular area.

- Between thumb and pointer finger:

As you can see in the pictures above, the stitching has also come out in this area. This is the lower hand on my stick, and I tend to use a stick with grip. Perhaps a reason for the wear in this spot.

This spot bothers me a bit more than the area described in the paragraph above, so I think I'm going to re-stitch it before it becomes a bigger problem. I'll try to do this with blue or black colored thread so I can differentiate between my stitch and the Miken factory stitching going forward. I'll provide another update on this with pictures once I've done the work.

Lastly, I thought I'd take a picture of my hand length and width using a ruler. This might be helpful for someone who is interested in ordering a set of these gloves online and would like something to compare against if they're unable to try them on in person. I usually fit perfectly into a 14" glove, that is what I ordered with the Miken Razor Z9 and got a "perfect" fit in my opinion.

Again, thanks for reading. I'll continue to keep everyone updated.

[Davetronz 109]

I had a couple games this week that particularly tested the protective qualities of the Miken Razor Z9 gloves, so I thought I'd give everyone a quick update.

On Tuesday night I subbed for a team, and ended up blocking a few shots on defense. Two average speed slap shots hit me directly in the backrolls of each glove.

In both cases, I felt a slight sting and slight impact from the shot, but was really pleased with the level of protection. The PE plastic inserts seem to be doing their job!

Last night I played another game and ended up taking a pretty good slash on the side of the hand during a face off early in the first period.

Here's a picture with the impact area identified on the glove:

In this case, I felt the impact and sting from the slash and went off the ice right after the face off to check my hand.

Upon looking at my hand it was already starting to swell and discolor on the side, just beneath my 5th finger. I didn't suspect anything to be broken, so I continued playing, but due to the swelling and pain, I was unable to properly shoot or get a strong grip on my stick with my lower hand.

When I got home I compared this area on the Miken Razor Z9 glove to my Tackla 5000 gloves and Easton Stealth S17 gloves. The Miken glove had more protection in this area than my Tackla gloves, but less/softer protection than my Easton gloves. I would definitely prefer to have more or better protection in this area, especially while taking face offs.

Thanks for reading!

[Davetronz 109]

We had our final Summer season game last night, so here's my "end-of-season" update for my Miken Razor Z9 gloves.

I'd estimate that I've logged approximately 30 ice times with the gloves, and I am still very happy with them overall.

Here are some of my observations to date:

To confirm my thoughts earlier, some of the white striped graphics screened on to the backroll and fingers of the glove are starting to wear off.

This is very minor, and you might not even be able to observe it in the photo. It really holds no bearing on the glove itself. Normal wear and tear.

I've also added some of my own design to the gloves in the form of "DNA" as a result to a high stick to my chin about a month ago.

Generally speaking, the glove has softened a bit, but all the PE inserts are still in the right place, and everything still feels protective.

I've noted absolutely no problems with the inside of the glove. They remain comfortable, but are starting to develop a bit of the normal glove stink.

The glove does feel a bit looser as I've broken it in, but it seems to have stopped, and hasn't become any looser past that point.

The palms are holding up really well and remain very soft, almost exactly like the first time I put the gloves on.

There's a bit of wear on the palm of my upper shooting hand, but it is consistent with normal wear and tear.

The palms still feel like they're working to absorb any shocks, while still feeling responsive.

I've noticed that the palm material seems to "bunch up" a little bit at the point just below the fingers.

It feels like the palm material has perhaps stretched a little bit in this area, and the extra material collects there while playing.

I don't notice it too much while playing, unless I'm actively thinking about how the gloves are feeling for the basis of this LTR.

I'll also note that I haven't sewed any of the areas of concern that I previously wrote about, but I continue to monitor these spots.

I've observed a degree of loose threads around the thumbs, index fingers, and 5th fingers on both gloves.

Again, I'm really happy to have the opportunity to review these gloves. I recently purchased a Miken baseball glove based solely on the positive experience I've had with my hockey gloves. So far so good with the ball glove - it's ridiculously comfortable and protective! I'm also looking to add a Miken Zero Limits twig to my arsenal in the near future, based on the recommendations and experience of other MSH members.

Thanks again for reading, and I look forward to providing you with additional updates.

[Davetronz 109]

Back for another update on the Miken Razor Z9 gloves.

The gloves continue to perform exactly the same as noted in my previous posts. They're my primary set, and they're currently getting used about 1-3 times per week.

The palms in the Razor Z9 are amazing. Aside from some very minor wear on the palm of my upper shooting hand the palms are still in flawless condition.

Not only have the palms held up in regards to durability, but they've also remained extremely soft, and the gloves have little to no smell whatsoever.

I'm actually really impressed by this. Most of my gloves will either have holes or be extremely smelly after a few months of use. The Miken gloves are the exception!

Protection is still unchanged and quite good. I haven't had any issues aside from the area on the side of the hand which I noted above.

I've noticed that some of the PE plastic inserts seem to be disfiguring a bit inside the glove. They seem to be curled or bent a bit, perhaps from impact.

The areas where this has occurred are slightly more worn on the finger material. This doesn't seem to impact performance or protection.

The stitching issues seem to continue a bit, but nothing major. About once a month I notice some loose threads which get trimmed.

Nothing has evolved to a hole yet. Some of the embroidery on the Miken word mark on one cuff has begun to come undone, but it's extremely minor.

The screened graphics on the backroll and fingers are also fading or wearing off, but this is purely aesthetic.

These gloves have surpassed most of my expectations and I'd recommend them without hesitation.

Check back in the New Year for continued updates. Thanks for reading!

[Davetronz 109]

Ok, time for another somewhat end-of-season update with the Miken Razor Z9 gloves.

I've used the gloves consistently for two teams this past Fall/Winter season. That's about 50-60 games on these gloves now, plus shinny and some practices.

I haven't updated this LTR because there wasn't really much to new note. The gloves are holding up GREAT.

I'm really impressed by their durability and their quality.

Last night I looked down at my palms on the bench and was quite shocked to see that they look practically new, after nearly 1 year.

The only signs of slight wear on the palms is my right upper stick hand where the knob of my stick rubs.

I have the same amount of palm wear on other gloves after wearing once or twice that I have on the Miken Razor Z9 gloves after wearing for almost a year. Very impressive.

The only two other "issues" that I can mention are:

- The gloves seem to be loosening up quite a bit. I'd no longer consider them a "fitted" or tight-fitting glove. They've really relaxed.

- The screened graphics and logos continue to wear, but are still very visible.

Thanks for continuing to read and subscribe to this LTR. Stay tuned for future updates when I note any changes, wear, or items that I feel worthy to note for you. Questions and comments via PM are always welcomed.