puckmugger's Full Review: Shock Doctor Loose Senior Ice Hockey Jock with Fle...
Don’t they make mouthgaurds?
Shock Doctor breeched the sporting goods market with mouthguards. Not just any mouthguards, mind you, but really good mouthgaurds. They pretty much have a stranglehold on premium mouthguards. However, the company has branched out adding insoles, bags, jocks and even gloves and shoulder pads for lacrosse. They’ve created a premium brand in the hockey and lacrosse market and make some pretty darn good stuff.
The Switch
I’ve always been a fan of the all-in-one jocks. It’s just so much easier to pull on a pair of shorts than to put on a jock strap and garter. WSI invented the all-in-one jock and that’s the brand that I’ve used most of my career. I thought that I preferred the tighter fit of a compression short until I needed a new pair.
I’d had several customers rave about how nice the fit of the Shock Doctor Loose Fit jocks were, so I picked up one of them in a size large in time for a four game tournament. I was oddly excited about trying out the new Shock Doctor. I say oddly because really, it’s not like a new pair of skates or stick. It’s frickin’ underwear, right? I put them on, got out on the ice and hated them.
The Loose Fit
Loose is a term that was being used loosely in the first pair that I bought. In fact they fit tighter than my compression shorts. I felt like the blood to my legs was being somewhat restricted they were so tight. After the first game I checked the packaging and found that the sizing ran a little odd. It wasn’t the jock that was wrong, it was the size that was wrong. Dangit, I’m an extra-large in Shock Doctor land, not a large as I thought. This is one important thing to know about the Shock Doctor Jocks. Check the waist size guideline and err on the side of too big! They run much smaller than most people expect.
Fortunately, I own a hockey shop so it wasn’t the end of the world. I bought another pair from myself the next day. I tried to convince myself that I doubled my profits, not my expenses, but failed to believe my own lies, shrugged and headed back to the rink for double-header day.
The first impression on the second pair (in the proper size) still wasn’t great. The cup on the Shock Doctor is a much different shape than that of the WSI I was used to wearing. It feels a little odd at first. Also, the loose shorts seemed oddly tight in places and loose in others. I wasn’t at all sure that I was going to like these new all-in-ones.
However, five minutes on the ice had me completely unconcerned about my underwear. My socks weren’t falling down (an improvement over the worn out Velcro WSI’s I had been wearing). The shorts and cup were comfortable. I was cool and ventilated.
The shorts
The shorts are mesh almost like a sports jersey. However, the material is a much softer synthetic than that of most jerseys. It’s a nice blend that stays cool, dry and comfortable through a game.
There is a waist string with a single sliding adjuster that makes things easy even of one-handed players. (I haven’t met any one handed players, but more power to you!) Essentially it’s a spring-loaded cinch like you’d find on light ski jackets and such these days.
Four Velcro tabs keep up the player’s socks eliminating the need for garter belts. These tabs also have Velcro backs to keep all of the laundry from sticking to them in the washing machine.
One of the nice features is the fit band in the shorts that holds the cup in the proper place. Itech’s loose jock essentially used a regular supporter integrated into a pair of shorts. The Shock Doc still has a bit of extra stuff inside in comparison to the WSI, but the overall system seems to hold things in place quite nicely. On the negative side of this, it’s very hard to get the cup back in place after washing the shorts. Since I play mostly early morning games these days making it even more difficult, I’ve just started washing the jock with the cup in it.
The Cup
Shock Doctor makes the most amazing looking cup in the world. While it has all the appearance of a carbon fiber shell for the player’s one ice valuables, it’s really just graphics on a plastic cup. That’s both good and bad. Carbon Fiber is extremely tough, much harder than plastic. However, it does break in hockey and it tends to split into sharp shards, not something I would want to have packaging my package thanks.
There’s more to the cup design than just a sticker to make it look tough. The cup itself is longer than the normal cup and supporter come with. It’s bordering on a goalie style banana cup. The rubber shock absorber is both wider and thicker. But most important is the fact that this is essentially a three-piece cup.
The fake carbon fiber shell is mounted almost like a spring on the base of the cup with a rubber layer between. This means that when someone rings the cowbell, it actually absorbs the blow. Rather than transferring all of the impact in one quick (and possibly painful) moment, the Shock Doctor cup absorbs and diffuses it.
To test this I had a couple friends come by with sledge hammers. Unfortunately, none of them were willing to try on the cup to see just how much energy it would absorb. Instead we had a beer, discussed the merits of the design for ten seconds and watched some football. I’d say this was a pretty successful test as no one was injured.
Sizing
Did I mention you should go by your waist size? Here’s the size range with appropriate waist size recommendations.
Boy’s Small – 20 to 23-inch waist
Boy’s Medium – 24 to 26-inch waist
Boy’s Large – 27 to 29-inch waist
Men’s Small - 27 to 29-inch waist (yes, small men and large boy’s are the same).
Men’s Medium – 30 to 32-inch waist
Men’s Large – 33 to 35-inch waist
Men’s Extra Large – 36 to 39 inch waist
Men’s XXL – 40 to 43 inch waist
Men’s XXXL – sorry, they don’t make it that big
Parting Thoughts
I’ve had a coupe of customers tell me they had the same feeling that the cup was a little weird at first only to like it better after trying it for a while. In fact one wanted to return it because he only wore it briefly. I gently as possible informed him that I wasn’t interested in taking back a used jock and maybe he should try it a little longer. He came back and told me it was actually great. So, if you do pick one of these up, give it a chance before you decide you don’t like it. You might be wrong.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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