Bauer Vapor Trapper – Is it as fleeting as most of Bauer’s Vapors?
Written: May 11 '05 (Updated Dec 13 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lightweight slim design
Cons: It isn't cheap
The Bottom Line: This is a pretty good product (a rarity for Bauer's Vapor lines). It will work well for all levels of goaltending.
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| puckmugger's Full Review: Bauer Vapor 2 Catch Glove |
Ack not a Vapor!
Bauer’s Vapor line has been among the worst offerings that any major hockey retailer has sold in a long time. It just doesn’t live up to the company’s reputation for quality gear. The skates have been dismal, failing after several months the sticks have had similarly brief lives. Perhaps if Bauer had marketed them as disposable performance it wouldn’t bother me since in all truth the products work well, just not long.
This in mind I set out to take a long hard look at their goalie gear. I hoped that the Vapor line wasn’t going to infect their goalie equipment like the disease that it seemed to be. For all their faults, Bauer has always made pretty good goalie gear. Thus far Nike’s ownership of the company hadn’t messed that up.
Enter the Glove
The Vapor leg pads have some shortcomings. This is not to say that they are bad. They just aren’t very exciting in anyway. They aren’t lightweight, as one would expect from something proudly displaying the Vapor label. Could the glove live up?
When it comes to the new generation of catch gloves, I’m a big fan of the low profile designs like what CCM introduced us to in the Blockade. Funny, I didn’t like the Blockade Pads, but I loved the gloves. Here I was, under whelmed by the Vapor 2 leg pads and wondering if their new gloves would have the same affect.
It seems like the same thing might happen with the Bauer products to a lesser extent. I hated CCM’s Blockade pads. I found my self to have a rather lukewarm reaction to Bauer’s answer in the leg pads. However, I like the trapper. This is a pretty good glove.
The Design
Bauer’s Vapor 2 Catch glove is similar in weight to the Blockade. It is a thin design with a minimal wrist pad. One major difference in the Vapor is that the wrist pad is not an extension of the catching face. The glove is more of a hybrid between the new style and old with a separate pad attached to the glove.
This is a theme that Bauer has going in the Vapor 2 gear. The leg pads were similarly a hybrid bridging the old and new styles. The wrist pad is wide and flares out toward the thumb. This essentially replaces the cheater that many new gloves utilize to cover the area between the thumb and wrist. It is a nice feature that will keep a few stray pucks from going by. The surface of the wrist pad is very large compared to the rest of the glove.
The pocket is what I would call mid-deep. It is big enough to devour pucks even without a timely closure of the glove, but not so deep that the biscuit will get lost if you decide you want to put it back in play. A standard T-trap is utilized for the webbing. The angle is about 60 degrees, which is something of a nice middle of the road angle. It is comfortable opening and closing.
The overall size of the glove is average. It simply isn’t huge, but you won’t look at it and think, “Man, I need something bigger!” either. There is a nice shape to the catching face that will direct most pucks into the webbing.
The interior of the glove is lined with real ostrich feathers and tar (just making sure that you are still paying attention). Actually the finger material is a nice mesh that helps to reduce sweating and encourage the glove to dry out more quickly. It makes for a pretty comfortable glove as well.
Apparently there is one bit of Nike influence on the glove that isn’t all bad. Bauer borrowed the Velcro lacing system from the Nike Kukini running shoes to make a lightweight and easy to adjust system for securing the hand in the glove.
The Finished Product
Bauer has something that their leg pads are not in this glove – a lightweight product. They also have something that the Vapor line is not – a glove that isn’t disposable. The Vapor 2 is both light and well made. Much of the materials are Nike/Bauer exclusive to this glove, but seem to be top quality.
Synthetic leather makes up the majority of the glove’s exterior. Bauer uses a roboweave style material. This is a shiny metallic material. Some people like roboweave (I think it looks nice). Other people don’t.
The overall balance of the catch glove is nice. It rotates nicely around the wrist however it is predictable and comfortable. The Vapor 2 glove has an excellent off the shelf break-in. It is ready to use right away as is typical in a quality catch glove.
Colors and Sizes
The stock color choices on the Vapor 2 catch gloves are black, blue and white; black, red and white; black, silver and white; white, silver and black (sound the same as the previous one, but there is much more white and less black) and gold, silver and white. Bauer also offers the catch glove in custom colors. The only extra cost for this is typically a long wait.
The catch glove comes in both regular senior size and intermediate. The intermediate is slightly smaller. This size is appropriate for players with smaller hands like teens and women.
Parting thoughts
Despite my well-documented dislike of things that Bauer makes with Vapor on the label, this is a pretty nice glove. The leg pads didn’t really inspire me, but the glove is just a hair shy of, “Holy Cow!” (Or in this case one star shy).
This glove will serve goalies well at any level of play. At $359 it isn’t cheap. This certainly isn’t a beginner’s catch glove for the price alone. However, if price isn’t an object the Vapor 2 will work well at any level of play from novice to expert.
A few of my other reviews that you might find helpful:
Fitting Goalie Gear
Koho 14 Pro Trapper
CCM Blockade Trapper
Bauer Vapor 2 Leg Pads
Battram Custom Goalie Equipment
© 2005 Scott Noble – All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited.
Recommended:
Yes
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puckmugger
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