CCM QLT Gloves

[JR Boucicaut 3799]

Open

[Hills 712]

 

 

Personal Details

Male

6'3”

210 lbs

Forward/Defense

B-D level hockey

Usage time: 5 Skates

Glove History: Mission Fuel, MF2 4 Rolls, Warrior Retro Remix Prototypes, Reebok Sty2, Sherwood N10, Verbero Dextra Pro, Warrior DT1, CCM CL55, Reebok 11K, CCM QLT

 

This is by no means a full review yet, but just impressions with them after a few times on the ice and wearing them around the house.

 

Firstly thank you to MSH, JR and CCM for giving me the opportunity to try out and review these gloves.

 

Initial Thoughts: I have been always in search of a tight fitting glove that really works for me. It was why I bought the Warrior DT1s and part of the reason I have the Reebok 11K. When I put these gloves on the first time out of the box I had a “These might be them” moment and was ecstatic that I got the chance to use these, especially considering I have never seen them before and they are yet in stores to try on (at least around here).

 

Fit: These are 15 inch gloves and they are by far the tightest fitting gloves I have ever worn. Personally these felt tighter on my hand than the Ultra Tacks gloves do as well. When you put them side by side to my 11K and DT1 they look fairly similar in size, but on your hand they are extremely tight fitting. The backhand, wrist and fingers are all tight but the length is perfect for a 15 inch glove and I can’t notice the finger stalls like I could in the DT1s. This tight fitting nature is in part to the nice and soft liner. While I have always liked a loose fitting 4 roll glove these are definitely making me think I have a new favourite. These gloves are so tight that when I pull them off when playing the inner liner pops out, while this is slightly annoying it is no problem but is a good demonstration of how tight these gloves really are.

 

Comfort: I mentioned in my DT1 review that for this price point I believe you need to be wowed by the feel of the glove the moment you put it on. These definitely have that wow factor. The materials all feel really high quality, the palm is really soft and comfortable and the liner does a great job of being soft and smooth as well. In some gloves you can feel seams and that leads to some discomfort, with these QLTs even when I move my hands and fingers all around trying to feel a seam or something that is uncomfortable I can’t. Every piece flows into the next with soft materials, on the Warrior DT1 you can feel the nylon binding where the cuff meets the palm on the underside of the glove, it is not a big issue at all but this is not noticeable on the QLTs and I give CCM full credit for making an extremely comfortable glove.

 

Weight: These gloves are extremely lightweight, coming in at 290 grams. While I am a firm believer that glove weight isn’t a huge deal, these are really light while being protective.

 

Mobility: While these gloves aren’t broken in I have only worn 2 gloves that are more mobile than these. The Verbero gloves I reviewed were more mobile while sacrificing protection and my Reebok 11K are more mobile because they are extremely broken in. For a pair of new gloves right out of the box these feel wonderful. Only 1 finger is triple segmented but I believe this is totally acceptable, none of the other fingers feel hindered in movement because of the 2 segments, and I had issues with gloves that had 3 on the ring finger and pinkie finger before when they moved out of place during gameplay and the finger protection would end up opening gaps in protection. The surprising thing about these gloves is the mobility across your hand, if you close your pinkie and thumb together you can feel the backhand of the glove move with your fingers. CCM did a great job on the backhand breaks (known as “Plate Shield” on these gloves). A more segmented design can be found on my 11Ks, but both gloves do a good job in this area of mobility. The cuff mobility on these gloves are also fantastic, I can bend my hand as far back backwards as my wrist allows before the glove gets in the way, then if I bend my fingers back more with the aid of my other hand the cuff slides over the Plate Shield and continues to move with your hand. CCM has an interesting palm design on these where it looks extended down the wrist further than other gloves. It seems to allow the under cuff of the glove to open up more and contributes to not being able to feel the seam between the cuff and the palm. This is an interesting design as the undercuff stays open at all times (see the pictures where it should show this). These gloves also have a 2 piece flex thumb which also increases mobility and doesn’t sacrifice protection.

 

Break-in: These gloves are still brand new and have no broken in yet, and yet they feel very close to my very broken in Reebok 11Ks. Since these gloves are so mobile out of the box they feel great right away and don’t really require a break in period.

 

Protection: The protection on these from my ministick test is really good. CCM did a great job on the outside palm protection of which is the best I’ve seen on a glove. The fingers, backhand and thumb are all excellent in terms of passing the ministick test. The only place I am a little weary of is right under the outside cuff with CCM on it. While the cuff itself is thick and has plastic you can feel the impacts underneath since below it is a spandex like material to keep the higher cuff extremely mobile. Personally I think another piece of foam or D3O would be amazing here but it might hinder mobility. Besides that my dream would be to have the cuff that the 11Ks have on this glove as well.

 

Durability: Since I have just used the glove a handful of times I cannot comment on this yet. But so far not a seam out of place.

 

Palm: The palm on this glove is fantastic out of the box. Extremely soft and flexible it is the most comfortable palm I have ever worn on a glove. It has reinforcement patches that feel a bit rubbery and are textured (see photos). I was curious to see if these would have issues with my grip sticks since there is a seam in the middle of them, but I haven’t had any issues yet and I could never notice that there was reinforcement patches on them. It just felt like the normal palm of the glove.

 

Intangibles: So far everything about this glove feels great. The glove’s materials feel great and high end without feeling gimmicky like the DT1’s Covert Mesh. The graphic is pretty simple, yes these are all black but you can still tell where the colour options are. The materials all feel really high end and make the price feel justified. I really think CCM has a great option for a top end glove here and I can’t wait to use it more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hills 712]

 

Usage time: 3 Months

Glove History: Mission Fuel, MF2 4 Rolls, Warrior Retro Remix Prototypes, Reebok Sty2, Sherwood N10, Verbero Dextra Pro, Warrior DT1, CCM CL55, Reebok 11K, CCM QLT, Warrior QRL Pro

 

Fit: In the initial review I stated that these gloves were the tightest fitting gloves I had ever worn, now that they are broken in they have loosened up quite a bit. They are still tight fitting gloves and don’t slide off unless you really shake them and I like that. The finger stalls are long enough that they don’t bother the webs of my fingers at all 10/10

 

Comfort: These are still the most comfortable gloves I have worn. The inside of the palms has started to get stiffer and I can feel that they are no longer new with the palm having minor pilling. This is all normal wear through gloves but while the palm is still very comfortable and probably my favourite material ever used in terms of comfort, it isn’t as smooth and soft as it was originally (obviously). I am still amazed at how great of a job CCM did with the interior of the glove ensuring that all contact points with your hand and wrist is covered in very pleasant to touch materials. Since the palm is not as ridiculously soft as when new I have to dock the gloves a point here, but they are still one of the most comfortable glove I have ever worn. 9/10

 

Weight: These gloves are extremely lightweight, coming in at 290 grams. While I am a firm believer that glove weight isn’t a huge deal, these are really light while being protective. These are still the lightest gloves I have ever worn (and had a scale with me). 10/10

 

Mobility: These gloves are still not fully and completely broken in but I really don’t think it matters that much considering how mobile they are out of the box. The way these gloves are built they allow your hand to freely move around and the finger movement is seriously fantastic and like I said in the original review there are only 2 gloves I have worn that are more mobile than this (which were also broken in much more than these are). The flex thumb is good and better than Warrior’s 2 piece design but Bauer’s 3 piece design is still better. The mobility across your hands on these gloves is really good and something you don’t notice you want in a glove until you wear one with that feature. 9/10

 

Break-in: Like stated above these gloves are not fully broken in yet but don’t really require a break-in period and don’t hinder performance or comfort. 10/10

 

Protection: I am just going to re-iterate what I said before. The protection on these from my ministick test is really good. CCM did a great job on the outside palm protection of which is the best I’ve seen on a glove. The fingers, backhand and thumb are all excellent in terms of passing the ministick test. The only place I am a little weary of is right under the outside cuff with CCM on it. While the cuff itself is thick and has plastic you can feel the impacts underneath since below it is a spandex like material to keep the higher cuff extremely mobile. Personally I think another piece of foam or D3O would be amazing here but it might hinder mobility. Besides that my dream would be to have the cuff that the 11Ks have on this glove as well and the spandex that attaches the bigger cuff to the glove is almost allowing an 11K style here but the undercuff is open and doesn’t move with your hand. Having worn the QRL gloves now I really wish CCM continued the 11K cuff style. Since the cuff isn’t a moving cuff like the 11K I do wish it was slightly longer as well just to ensure you are covered up to you elbow pads. During a game I fell on the ground and a player digging for the puck ended up getting me on the fingers. The impact hurt but the gloves did a good job in making my fingers simply sting for about a minute rather than actually cause damage. 8.5/10

 

Durability: The palms show use in terms of no longer being completely smooth and some piling but there are no uncomfortable wear spots or worrisome issue. On some of my other gloves the piling is more pronounced and feels like a hole could form, but this so far has been very minimal and I do not feel a hole will happen anytime soon. On the outside of the glove the only sign of wear is some scraping on the design on the nylon (see pictures) 8.5/10

 

Palm: I still think these gloves have my favourite palm I have worn on a glove, but the piling has downgraded its comfort a bit. It does a good job in not being overly slippery when wet and playing back to back games. The only negative from the palm is that using it has made it lose the extremely soft and smooth feeling that was from a brand new palm… so I was just spoilt with how great it felt brand new. 9.5/10

 

Intangibles: I feel like I have given enough praise of this glove so far… but here is some more. The spandex finger gussets are really great on this glove. They move with your fingers well and stretch when needed. I feel the stretch material is a big reason for why these gloves are so comfortable in between the fingers on the webbing of your hand. I also find that they breathe very well and keep your hands relatively cool. When I was shooting outside in the summer heat or playing 3 games back to back I never had issues with my hands sweating or getting too hot. I think the design is pretty good for these gloves, even though I got all black I was looking out for other options and I like the overall design but always wish for other colourways and the lack of a custom option is saddening. 8.0/10

Conclusion: Since I have the QRL gloves to review now I have been switching between those and these gloves for the past few weeks, but I must say so far I prefer these QLT gloves. It isn’t that I want to get out of the Warrior ones but rather I want to just continue using the the QLTs as they are now my go-to and preferred gloves to wear. Whenever I am bored and sitting around I sometimes put on hockey gloves just to fiddle around and I constantly keep coming back to the QLTs. For any retail glove I have worn these feel the closest to feeling like they are non-existent, their lightweight and construction really makes them feel like an extension of your hand without adding bulk. I am happy to recommend these gloves if you are looking for a more tighter fitting pair and my only real complaints are asking for a bit more protection and a bigger cuff, something I know I am in the minority for. 9/10

 

I will continue to update this with my findings if anything changes.

 

 

Small and superficial wear on the graphic line on one of the gloves.

 

 

Pilling on the top glove is a bit concerning. But the palm is still comfortable and soft feeling.

 

No wear on the thumb layer at all.

 

 

Durability layer has worked well so far.

 

 

Lower hand palm pilling is significantly less than the top hand.