I tried this on today at the Hockey Stop here in Columbus. The palm on this is definitely thick. It also is not easy to close right off the shelf. You can close it, yes, but you definitely have to heat-mold it and/or break it in a bit. It is not playable right off the shelf.
When I first walked in, I nearly crapped myself when I realized they had a ton of RX-9 catchers in there and the leg pads as well.
But to be honest, right off the shelf, I still liked the way the Vaughn 7500 felt over any glove I've tried on.
I'd love to try on a broken-in RX-9 though. It's a very lightweight but protective glove.
One difference over my beloved T5500 is the back flap. On the RX-9, the backhand flap is really padded and about twice as thick as the T5500 backhand flap, but the Itech seems like a lighter glove (due to smaller NHL reg size and modern materials no doubt).
The backhand of the glove looks like an armadillo kind of.
All these over-lapping segments and so forth. Really cool-looking in my opinion.
I'm hoping I can find a used one to try on.
- Rip