Bauer 3000 Pants: The term lead butt comes to mind
Written: Aug 14 '04 (Updated Aug 14 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Outstanding protection and good durability
Cons: Weigh as much as a dump truck
The Bottom Line: Might be OK for checking leagues, but these are too unwieldy for most recreational players
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| puckmugger's Full Review: Bauer Supreme Pant HP3000 |
Hockey pants come in as many varieties as things that comes in many varieties (Hey, I’m not in a creative writing class, I’m doing a hockey review).
There are European style pants. The angry Canadian and North American skaters who fear the talent of their rivals overseas refer to them as Euro-pants. Geez, I bet that makes the Czechs and Russians stay up all night crying. Kinda the way that I sit and feel sorry for myself if they call me a Yankee . . . oh, wait, that doesn’t bother me, hmm. What was I reviewing again?
Yeah, European pants are generally long and fit a little tighter on the waist. They are lightweight and have a nice slimming effect in comparison to North American pants. North American pants, if found in the boy’s section at K-Mart would be labeled Husky size. They are wider and a little shorter. Bauer’s 3000 pants are the epitome of a North American style hockey pant.
▪ The 3000 Supreme
Yes, Bauer modestly titles their pants Supreme without any input from unbiased judges as to how good they really are. From some perspectives, they are pretty good, but Supreme to me would have to indicate overall excellence. I’m not sure that these have it all. I’ll give you the facts and let you draw that conclusion.
Shell
The shell of the 3000 is 420-denier nylon. This is the typical material for any higher end hockey pant. Bauer coats the material with polyurethane to make it more water resistant and durable. For this they get pretty high marks in my book. The shell is as good as any on the market.
Legs
The legs on the Supreme 3000 are a little tighter fitting than you would find in a CCM or Mission pant. This will require a little extra break in time and impair skating when the pants are new. All pants do require some break in so it isn’t a huge issue in my book. It just will take a little longer.
The 3000 pants do have leg zippers. Incidentally the addition of zippers to hockey pants was the invention of Wayne Gretzky (cool trivia for the day there). Zippered legs make it easier to get dressed since you can put on your shin pads and socks before your pants. Many of the European style pants don’t have zippers.
Belt
The belt is encased in a padded band that resides inside the pant. This keeps players from forming a train on your belt, hooking it with a stick and possibly from “pantsing” you during a game. Inside belts are more comfortable and effective in my book.
Padding
The 3000 Supreme is a fairly heavy-duty pair of hockey pants. These are more suitable for defensive players than forwards as the padding adds a great deal of weight and bulk to the pants. The Bauer 3000 and 5000 pants are easily the heaviest pants on the market. Every time I picked up a pair to hand to a customer I was dumbfounded by how much these pants weigh.
With this much weight one would expect exceptional protection. Expectation granted. The 3000 is a full on Sherman tank. Heavy-duty plastic thigh pads are backed up by gobs of padding. There’s more padding in these pants than you might find in a 172 page review of dental floss.
Belt
You already mentioned the belt you moron.
So I did, oops.
▪ For those who don’t want to come to their own conclusion
There are some redeeming qualities in the Supreme 3000 pants. Unlike much of Bauer’s recent gear which is heavily slanted toward planned obsolescence through rapid deterioration, the 3000 is a sturdy, well made product. They are good enough that I would expect them to last close to a lifetime for the casual player who doesn’t mind the rare cut from a stick or pair of skates.
The protection, as mentioned is excellent, perhaps even unmatched by rival brands. There is no arguing that. But the weight issue is horrendous in my opinion. Here we have the heaviest pants (along with Bauer’s 5000) on the market from the brand that skimps on quality to make things lighter. Maybe Bauer needs to find some middle ground and do things right.
Frankly, the single factor of the weight in these is enough to keep me from ever owning a pair. I skate slowly enough already without strapping twenty pounds to my rear.
▪ Final Thoughts
Well, I have to finish this up quickly. Some guy named Guido from Jersey is at the door yelling about how Bauer sent him to ask me some questions and telling me I need to step outside so he doesn’t mess up the carpet. Maybe Bauer is selling vacuum cleaners now?
I really hate trashing Bauer so much. They really were a good company that made some awesome products. But lately it seems like they’ve lost their sense of direction. There are still a few good things that they make, and maybe for some people, these pants will fall into that category.
Players in junior hockey, or even elite level travel leagues will probably benefit from the outstanding protection of these pants. I don’t play checking leagues so I really would rather go fast than be bulletproof. Essentially it all comes down to your place in the greater scheme of hockey. So the bottom line is that I will give these pants 3 stars. They aren’t for me, but I don’t need Kevlar britches on the ice and maybe you do.
A few of my other reviews that you might find helpful:
Fitting and Selecting Hockey Protective Gear
Itech HP 7000 Hockey Pants
Mission M-2 Hockey Pants
Recommended:
No
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