What To Look For When Buying Ice Hockey Pants
Let's face it, hockey gear is expensive! It can cost thousands of dollars to get outfitted from head-to-toe in gear that you want to feel safe in. Not every hockey player will need the best elbow pads or the best skates, but one piece of equipment that I think everyone should invest in is the pant. Ice hockey pants are the thing new skaters rely on the most when learning how to skate as they will be falling a bit more often. However, even if the falling starts slowing down, there will be a ton of different factors that your pants have to face up against! As your level of play goes up, so does the speed of the shots, the acceleration of the other players, and the intensity of the battles in the corners. You are gonna want to have high quality hockey pants that really help keep you protected during your skate. Even if you still use elbow pads from your Bantam A season 10 years ago or rental skates you stole from the local rink, you are going to want a high quality, well padded hockey pant.
Hockey pants can range from $40 to $200 but buying a more expensive pant does not necessarily mean you will be more protected.. Often times I find that the best price points for pants are the ones right in the middle. A $100 pant will offer a great amount of protection without breaking the bank. The biggest differences you will see between the lower end pants and the high end pants is the amount of padding included and the material used to pad the pants. The top-of-the-line pants often use newer lighter materials and while they claim to offer the same protection as the more traditional styles of padding, they often compromise protection for weight. If you want a lightweight pant that offers the most protection, it may be best to go for the model under the top one. As for the lowest end pants, there is not much to be said about the amount of protection they offer. They are very basic, lightly padded pants that often lack sufficient tailbone & hip protection. I will never recommend a low end pant to someone unless you are comfortable with bruises on your butt and hips when you inevitably fall down. It will happen and the falls will hurt!
Whether you're a AA Travel Hockey Kid, a D3 Beer League Allstar, or a brand new ice hockey player, a decent pair of hockey pants with sufficient tailbone and hip protection will be the difference between how happy you are on and off the ice. You can't put a price on how great it feels to not have bruises all over your body after playing hockey... Well I guess you can and that price would be around $100 for a solid pair of ice hockey pants.
Make sure to check out our huge selection of ice hockey pants. Thanks for reading and we'll see you on the ice!