[rwp-review id=”1″]
Company: Warrior Lacrosse / Product: Rabil Series Arm Guard 13 / Price: $109.99
I’m going to start out by borrowing a quote from Andrew Ratzke’s review of the Brine King IV Arm Pad:
If there is one piece of protective gear that I feel is worth investing in, it is arm pads. An arm pad can make all the difference when you are throwing, it can keep your arms from looking like you just left a bar fight, not a lacrosse field, and they can either be SO annoying, always sliding down your arms, or they can fit so perfectly you forget they are even there.
Truth! Ratzke lays out the most important aspects of an arm pad or guard succinctly, and it is the basis for this entire review (while also factoring in the price).
Appearance… +7.5
It’s not all about first appearances, but it helps! The Rabil Arm Guards definitely look great. They are mostly white with light grey, and are accented by black and red Rabil logos. The pads look substantial without appearing bulky, and the only visual knock on them is that they only come in that one color right now. Don’t like white pads? Then these aren’t for you. Other than that, they look fantastic. Not a bad start.
Comfort… +7.5
The Rabil Arm Guard definitely protects you, but I’ll get to that later. For now, I’ll focus on how the pads feel when you’re wearing them, and not getting checked. At first, the Arm Guards are incredibly tight… in fact, they are cut the circulation in your arms off tight, but they do loosen up. I was testing a pair of LARGE Rabil AGs, and even though I have chicken arms, the pads were really snug. The MEDIUM guards probably wouldn’t have fit on my arms, and that’s not saying much.
Now, as I wore the arm guards, they definitely loosened up a bit, but not to the point of slipping or moving around on my arms. I had three other people try the pads out, and each and every one of them came back with the same comments: when you put them on, the pads are super tight. That being said, every person who tried them also liked them, so while they take a while to break in and stretch out, the end result seems well worth it.
Protection… +10.0
The Rabil Arm Guards deliver, plain and simple. I used them for field, and some of my friends used them late this Summer, and no one suffered a single bruise while wearing the AGs. On the protection front, they do work. In fact, I’m so impressed by the level of protection the AGs offer, I’ll be wearing them this Winter while playing box lacrosse.
The only drawback in terms of protection is that the Arm Guards are a little short. So if you want to be protected from head to toe, you will need to buy an additional wrist guard (from a company like Evo Shield) and perhaps some additional bicep padding. However, when one compares this Arm Guard against comparable AGs, the Rabil Series matches up very nicely.
Durability… +10.0
I have been using these Arm Guards for well over 4 months now, and I have yet to see any deterioration of the pads or their protection levels. They have become more comfortable, still don’t slip around on my arms, and show no sign of quitting. Great durability on this high-end product. Tried, tested, and true.
Value… +7.5
The Rabil Series Arm Guard is not the most expensive AG available, but it is up there. At around $110, it is a no joke purchase, and only the STX Assault AG sells for more. Usually, this would knock the product WAY down in the Value section, but thankfully for the Rabil Series AG, its quality is almost high enough to demand this type of pricing… Almost.
Ideally, this pad would sell for around $90. Maybe $100 when it first came out. However, the fact remains that while this is an EXCELLENT product, it is not a game changer, and for that reason is priced just a little too high.
Overall Score: 7.6/10
Will people buy this product? I’m betting they will.
The Series has Rabil’s name on it (which is sure to draw people in immediately), is a great product offering, and it comes from Warrior, the brand people can’t seem to get enough of. I personally think the price tag is a little out of line, but in the past we’ve seen that people are willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money for gear… and I don’t think the Rabil Arm Guard is going to be any different.
