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Gear Review: King III Arm Guards by Brine Lacrosse

With lacrosse season at full throttle, we wanted to make sure you’d have the scoop on all the newest equipment, so we teamed up with Lacrosse Panda, Warrior Lacrosse and Brine Lacrosse to bring you a great line-up of Gear Reviews over the next two months!

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Company: Brine LacrosseProduct: King III Arm GuardsPrice: $99.00

This month, along with our great line-up of Warrior/Brine Lacrosse Gear Reviews, we’re hosting the March Lax Madness Giveaway in The Lacrosse Shop to hook up the most loyal LAS supporters. When you make a purchase of $50 or more, you’re automatically entered to win Brine King III Arm Guards and Shakedown Gloves. That said, we wouldn’t want to giveaway gear without giving you the scoop on what it’s all about, so today we are reviewing the King III Arm Guards by Brine Lacrosse.

Right out of the package, these look pretty nice with a very clean design. They also appear to be really protective, and from everything I’ve heard, the King line of gear has performed really well for players at all levels. Time to get down to business!

Appearance… +10.0

These arms guards look fantastic. The ones we used for the review (and are eventually giving away) are white. They have a lot of silver/grey details on them and a reflective Brine King design along the back of the arm. Brine also advertises the new “butterfly” strapping on the arms, which look like it will help the stability of the arm guard and keep the elbow cap tight to your elbow.

Most of the padding is traditional looking with nice ventilation placed around the upper and lower parts of the pads. However, the elbow cap is a little different from your normal hard plastic elbow cap. The grey King logo on the tip is hard plastic, but the surrounding area is a mixture of reinforced padding and a rubber cover that looks like it will double to help hold the structure of the cap and absorb some of the hard checks coming your way.

Brine Lacrosse King III Arm Guards
KING me.

Comfort… +7.5

I’ve slowly been transitioning to more protective arm guards as I get older, so I felt very secure in these the moment I put them on. They broke in fairly easily after a couple of short games.

The padding on the arm guard is very comfortable, and the “butterfly” strapping actually does help keep the pad really close to your arm, preventing it from slipping too much. That said, I’ve never used an arm guard, pad or even cap that doesn’t slip once I start sweating and running around. Overall, I was still really impressed with how little these do slip.

Brine Lacrosse King III Arm Guards
Butterfly strapping

Along with the “butterfly” strapping, Brine uses an internal no-slip grip to prevent constant slipping and vents to help your arms breathe once you get moving. All of these features did pretty well to not only prevent slipping, but to keep my arm from feeling like I was in a steam room.

One feature I really liked was the strap itself, it is the same material as the “butterfly” strapping, and it’s actually somewhat protective in the fact that it is a thicker, cushiony material. As the padding on all arm guards usually just covers the outer parts of your arms, it’s nice to see companies taking note of the inner forearms and finding ways to protect them as well.

Brine Lacrosse King III Arm Guards
So protected.

Protection… +10.0

Normally I use an arm pad because they have most of the protection of an arm guard, while allowing for mobility like an elbow cap or defensive arm pad. From time to time though, I take a check and wonder if an arm guard should be in my future, so as soon as I heard I’d get the opportunity to review these, I was relieved – I knew our indoor games would be the perfect testing zone. Things get rough in there!

Brine Lacrosse King III Arm Guards
More cushion for the dodgin!

Given the nature of the game I was playing, I have never felt more secure. Checks seemed to just bounce off of the padding, and the added length of the arm guard helped when I got in close and someone was hacking on my arm. Even with my go-go-gadget arms, the King III’s went pretty far down my forearm and didn’t leave too much room between the end of the arm guards and my gloves.

The straps that I mentioned above actually made a pretty solid impact too. There were several times that I took a check on the inside of my arm and didn’t really think twice about it. I really enjoyed that feature of the pads.

Brine Lacrosse King III Arm Guards
Such a hack!

Durability… +10.0

I am really impressed with the quality of this product. So far, I haven’t been able to find anything that really stands out as a weakness. The vents are inset and have a little give to them so they don’t seem like they will break apart or fall out. The padding is very secure and hasn’t made any notion of giving or falling apart.

The strap loops are set subtly inside the pads which help the straps to really hug down onto your arms once tightened. The straps themselves are very nice, obviously with what I’ve said before but also the stitching used is more of a plastic material that is much more pliable and has a little more give then your typical fabric thread.

Brine Lacrosse King III Arm Guards
Inset ventilation

Value… +7.5

At $99, the King III Arm Guards are higher-end pads in both functionality and price. Personally, I don’t really care what brand I use – it’s all about the price point. If the price was in the $75-85 range, then I would have given these arm guards a two in a heart beat. Despite that, the $99 price tag is definitely an indicator of the high quality of this arm guard.

Overall… +8.8/10

Comfort and protection on a product that both looks good and will stand the test of time brings the King III Arm Guards to a nine out of ten on the gear review point scale. The King III’s are a great choice for any attackman or even midfielder looking to protect himself from all the punishments of the game without breaking a sweat. While being a little steep at almost $100, the King III’s won’t disappoint and should help you take that hard dodge to the cage without worrying about getting a goose egg on your arms (unless you’re into that).

Luckily for you guys, any order over $50 in The Lacrosse Shop puts you in the drawing to win these AND some Brine Shakedown gloves that will be reviewed soon as well.

Brine Lacrosse King III Arm Guards
Now if I could just work on protecting my stick a little better…

Have some gear you wish we would review? Hit us up and let us know what you think we should review next.