Don’t tell Easton I said so, but stick bags are more or less all the same in design and shape. There are a few that you can put a dozen sticks in, team bags. However, the two or three stick design is more common. The sniper is of the more common variety. So with the design of stick bags being more or less the same, quality of construction and appealing colors/graphics are the only things that really remain in making a decision.

▪ The Sniper
Easton’s Sniper Bag is big enough to hold two or three sticks. It will take a pair of goalie sticks as well. The design is pretty simple, essentially a large hockey stick shaped pocket. The shell is heavy nylon with a water resistant coating. A zipper at the blade end of the bag allows access to the stick pocket (which is the only pocket). There is a single, short sling style strap to carry the bag over the shoulder.

All in all, the Sniper is a fair looking bag. It comes in a rather bland black or red, but also in an attractive silver or semi-metallic orange material these days. I guess I would say that the silver or orange are equally nice looking to Mission’s metallic blue bag or Louisville’s bright yellow.

▪ Construction
Now that we have the less important part out of the way, the quality of the Sniper stick bag is far below Easton’s normal quality. Easton has a pretty good reputation in all for quality, but they’ve been making bags for a long time now. Making lots of different types of bags for different sports should have given them a little . . . no a lot . . . of practice in that department and ultimately yielded a better product than the Sniper Stick Bag.

So what’s the problem? How could they have gone so wrong on an item so simple? Well, I’m glad you subconsciously transmitted those questions as you were anticipating this article before reading it. The zipper on the Sniper bag is too cheap. Of the four brands of stick bags that I sold when I was working in hockey retail, the Sniper was the only one that got returned, and man did it get returned!

Nearly a third of the Easton Sniper bags that we sold came back in a few weeks with completely broken zippers. The low point was when we had three left, sold them in one week and got all three back before the end of the next week. That’s pretty pathetic construction. It was so bad that my shop stopped buying the Easton bags. Why bother when so many of them ended up yielding no profit?

▪ Parting Thoughts
The main reason that most people purchase a stick bag is to travel. Heading to a local game with your sticks in a bag isn’t all that practical. It only follows that having a zipper fail while getting ready to head home on a plane would be more than slightly annoying.

Mission’s bag has one feature in addition to the working zipper that Easton doesn’t boast. The M-1 stick bag has snaps on the shaft end of the bag to make it shorter, customizing the fit of the bag. Between this handy feature that keeps the end of your bag from flopping about like a wet noodle and the far superior zipper, I would highly recommend it over the inferior Easton Sniper Stick bag.

I suppose some might be appalled at the thought of putting their Easton Synergy sticks in a Mission M-1 bag – gasp! Sure, it will look really funny putting Easton twigs into a Mission bag. Someone in the locker room just might notice, and there is a tiny chance they might care too. Walking through the airport with your sticks falling out of your Sniper Bag which won't zipper up, that will look pretty sharp in comparison I’m sure.

Recommended: No