I'll get pics up later, but I skated with my new vk7's last night, and I'm all grins.
I'm coming from:
- vk5 33+1 11.25 width
- nhl spec vk5 gloves
What I ordered:
Pads:
- vk7 33+2.5 11"
- soft boot
- medium internals
- 2nd break
- no thigh boards
- thigh strap
- all nylon except for boot
Glove:
- Game ready lace
- Cheater pocket (+1" depth)
- medium internals
Blocker:
- Intermediate (medium size) palm
Stuff I didn't have to order custom because it's standard now:
- Sliding toe
- Nylon knee cradle
- stripped leg channel
- no eyelets in bottom edge of trapper
- stiffer top of T
- jenpro on inside boot
- Thinned thigh rise
Build quality is a given having owned a set of Vortek's in the past. Stitching is heavy duty and no thread ends. Weight is marginally lighter than my vk5 despite larger size.
The flexibility of the thigh rise was awesome straight out of the box and they hold shape fantastic. but the shin, knee, and rise sections are still stiff enough for dead rebounds (preference). This is the first set of pads I've had where I have gotten the thighs to break parallel to the front of my knees and than makes me smile.
The improvement of using nylon in the knee cradle is huge. Great rotation and sliding. I may even remove a lift just because it seems a little tall. I'm strapping almost exactly like my vk5's, boot one looser than snug, two finger through the shin, knee cradle loose, top knee snug crossed over to looser bottom knee.
When I asked for the top thigh strap I was thinking that I would need it to pull the pad tops together. Marc warned me that I wouldn't need and made it a removable strap. Marc was absolutely right and I removed the strap after about 15 seconds.
A nice little improvement was the excess strap retainer on the out side of the boot
Glove was usable right out of the box, but I took 2 days of TV time break in and it got even better. Feel is very similar to vk5. Having smaller internals is a must for people with smaller hands, once you get a glove that fits, you won't want anything else. For example, I measure 7" from the base of my palm to the tip of my middle finger.
Blocker is also great size wise and the finger protection seems a little beefier than the vk5.
The bottom line is that they have fixed or allowed me to modify around every concern I ever had with my VK5's and I've gotten a pad that truly feels like everything I asked for. At the same time, they are similar enough to my vk5's that I was very comfortable wearing them the first time out. Kudos and thank you!
I normally wouldn't write something like this after just one outing, but my impressions are solid enough wear I'm comfortable.
Harrison