How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

MalkinIsMyHomeboy
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby MalkinIsMyHomeboy » Mon Dec 16, 2019 9:19 pm

Was buying some hockey equipment on Cyber Monday and it got me thinking

Personally, I really just go for cheap stuff. Got new Bauer x400 skates for like $60. I want them to hold up for a while, but there's no chance I'm paying $200 to play amateur hockey

Same thing goes for golf. I don't think I'm at the point in my skill level to really care about getting high end equipment. If certain equipment helps me be more consistent with my swings, I would actually consider it, but I'm much more about value rather than pure quality

mikey
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby mikey » Mon Dec 16, 2019 10:08 pm

Skates matter. Stick matters. Gloves matter. Not sure there's anything else I'm really concerned about to that level...

MWB
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby MWB » Mon Dec 16, 2019 10:15 pm

I had a set of starter clubs for about 15 years. Got a set of used mizuno irons a few months ago for $130. Nice upgrade, but wasn’t going to pay a ton for something that I won’t be able to really tell that much difference in.

willeyeam
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby willeyeam » Mon Dec 16, 2019 10:26 pm

Depends what sport and what piece of equipment. I could never go cheap on a good glove for baseball. Nice leather is just good for the soul.

Golf, I don't see a need to get too crazy unless you're getting under 5 handicap or so. Getting fitted is more important

faftorial
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby faftorial » Mon Dec 16, 2019 10:33 pm

The only sport I play these days is with my cat (fetch) and yes, I am particular about my equipment. I usually get these:

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MrKennethTKangaroo
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby MrKennethTKangaroo » Mon Dec 16, 2019 10:37 pm

At this point, there really isnt much incremental gain in technology for most golf clubs these days, especially irons. Drivers may be a different case but I’m not fully convinced.

I wear Chris Pauls to play volleyball (the same style that Zion Williamson broke). They aren’t cheap but they aren’t expensive either.

I invest a lot of time, thought, and effort into my hobbies so i might as well spend money on them too.

MR25
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby MR25 » Mon Dec 16, 2019 11:22 pm

I go for last year's model for skates, due to price difference. Gloves and stick, I try to stay under $100, mostly because I know sticks can be expensive but also could be easy to break. Might go a little more for a good helmet.

Golf, I try to replace clubs every 10ish years or so. As mentioned in the golf thread, I just bought new wedges to replace the Slazenger Crown Limiteds my uncle had in the mid-80s. Previously I upgraded on a 10 year old driver, and the woods and irons of a cheap Dick's set from around 2006 or so (irons were high school graduation, woods were the next year or year after, hybrid from the set replaced last year).

meow
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby meow » Tue Dec 17, 2019 7:04 am

Buying hockey equipment is like buying toilet paper. You can go cheap, but you’ll go through move of it and probably get poop on you. It is more cost effective to buy higher end models. Especially skates and sticks.

Freddy Rumsen
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby Freddy Rumsen » Tue Dec 17, 2019 7:56 am

I spend money on necessary stuff. In other words I'll buy a nice putter and a nice loft wedge, go skimpy on irons.

When I played college soccer I got the best gloves I could afford, that stuff mattered.

MrKennethTKangaroo
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby MrKennethTKangaroo » Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:04 am

That point also applies to outdoor gear. Do I like spending a lot of money on insulated, waterproof hiking pants? No. Do I love my insulated, waterproof pants? Oh hell yes.

Freddy Rumsen
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby Freddy Rumsen » Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:10 am

When I was working outside I paid good money for quality boots, likewise gloves and jacket.

That carhart stuff is worth every penny.

Kane
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby Kane » Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:11 am

Always spend the money on boots. I have a pair of Red Wings at home that I could wear 24/7. At work I wear Keen boots. Much comfy.

MR25
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby MR25 » Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:25 am

Buying hockey equipment is like buying toilet paper. You can go cheap, but you’ll go through move of it and probably get poop on you. It is more cost effective to buy higher end models. Especially skates and sticks.

Oddly enough the only stick I've ever broken was a high-end stick that I got on markdown. Everything else has been the lower tier.

robbiestoupe
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby robbiestoupe » Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:36 am

That point also applies to outdoor gear. Do I like spending a lot of money on insulated, waterproof hiking pants? No. Do I love my insulated, waterproof pants? Oh hell yes.
Were you a participant in the old days of REI garage sales? The ones where it was first come, first serve? I may or may not have participated in one or two sleepovers and came away like a bandit. I stocked up on some really nice equipment for cheap.

robbiestoupe
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby robbiestoupe » Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:37 am

Always spend the money on boots. I have a pair of Red Wings at home that I could wear 24/7. At work I wear Keen boots. Much comfy.
I get a new pair of Keens or Red Wings every year through work. They are safety boots, but I barely notice. The previous year's model end up as my hiking boots.

shoeshine boy
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby shoeshine boy » Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:47 am

as others have said, skates need to be good skates. that doesn't mean you need the latest and greatest $1K+ pair of skates. skates are your most used piece of hockey gear. they need proper support and need to fit you properly. everybody differs when it comes to how hard they are on their skates. my gf is on her 4th pair in 20 years. I'm on my original pair of MLX (later bought out by VH and then True) which was my 2nd pair of skates. I'm just not as hard on the boots as she is. if you're playing non-check you can use lower end models on most of the other stuff. disclaimer: I collect pro stock gear so I also might be biased about buying the good stuff :D
for golf, I'm still a newbie so I'm not looking to upgrade my clubs for awhile. the only exceptions were 3 wood (I wanted more loft) and putter. I bought myself a nice but far from high-end Scotty Cameron putter because kind of like the skates, it gets used more. I think only twice have I completed a hole without my putter.

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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby dodint » Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:55 am

Auto racing is a little different. When you're paying more you're usually paying for lightness. All qualifying helmets are certified to the same safety standard, but the $400 helmet weighs considerably more than the $2500 helmet. As a fat guy in a touring car it doesn't matter much, but if I were in a formula car I'd have to shell out a lot more for the incremental gain.

For hockey, I pay a little more for skates. Get a mid-range model from the last generation and you're pretty well set for comfort and quality without breaking the bank.

tifosi77
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby tifosi77 » Tue Dec 17, 2019 11:57 am

As the saying goes, if you can spend the same amount of money and get either 10% more power from the engine, or shave 10% off the sprung mass, take the weight reduction every time. Lightness improves just about every other performance metric.

I wrote up a post about hockey gear last night, but apparently didn't actually his 'Submit'; basically I agreed with mikey's comment. I was a guy who had VacuTack boots and Tuuk blades/holders, and I did the whole Paul Coffey wear-skates-that-are-improbably-small-for-your-feet thing (and to this day I have hammer toes that don't lay flat unless I push them out). If you had a guy who could repalm gloves, it was sort of priest/penitant level of relationship. I only ever used wood sticks for ice hockey, because by college I was a grown-ass man and didn't need sci-fi bullshit to lay waste. True story: I actually used to have my own blade pattern sticks from Koho in like 1994 or so. Don't know if they can/will do this today with the $100/twig carbon fiber nonsense, but back in my day they'd pattern your own blade if you bought sticks by the dozen, so I did that a couple times. Not sure if this was a regular consumer-level thing, or because I was working with a pro team pro shop (the guy that ran the shop at the War Memorial in Johnstown was sort of like the equipment buyer for the whole ECHL or something like that; you could gear ridiculously cheap). But I'm reasonably sure I still have fiberglass splinters in my palm from that nonsense.

iamjs
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby iamjs » Tue Dec 17, 2019 12:29 pm

It depends on the sport.

I don't play much hockey anymore. Ice time for a low level beer leaguer is usually late at night on a weekday, so I'm all but retired from ice. I'll still play pickup occasionally. So you can probably tell from those last two sentences that I'm not gonna spend a good chunk of change on equipment. I'm in my mid 40s and probably have a few lbs to lose, so having a set of Bauer Vapor 2x Pros that I'll use for maybe 300 minutes a year won't benefit me at all. My sticks - a pair of Richard Park Easton Stealths - that I picked up on a good discount when the Pens were selling their game used stuff. I think I paid $150 out the door for both sticks. Considering they're still intact, I have no reason to shop for them right now. If I managed to break one this weekend, I'll be honest I'm not sure what I would do. Prior to that, I bought a lot of my sticks in a pro shop back home that has since been taken over once the previous owner passed away. The shop has new ownership and their prices are on par with Total Hockey if you include the shipping charges. Since he's the only shop in town, I guess he gets away with it.

Golf? I finally did some upgrades over the last two years since I seem to be playing more. Upgraded to a set of graphite shaft Hot Metal 900s last spring and it made a huge difference to my game. That was after playing a set of Cobra S2(?) that weren't all that old. Ended up selling those to a friend who was looking to get back into golfing, plus with my pitching wedge missing it gave me a "reason" to get rid of them on the cheap.

Curling? There's not really much to spend on. Broom and shoes, maybe gloves, but **** does that add up quickly. Between hockey, golf, and curling, I need to find some cheaper hobbies. Spent $160 on a carbon fiber broom, and the difference between that and a regular fiberglass shaft broom is night and day. I got a deal on my shoes, but the gripper pods for my right foot and the teflon pods for the left still ended up setting me back another $100. If I upgrade my teflon pods from a 7 to a 10, it will be another $80. But with the now-outdated shoe that I have, I probably wouldn't be able to re-sell the pods unless somebody was wearing a lower numbered slider.

iamjs
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby iamjs » Tue Dec 17, 2019 12:33 pm

True story: I actually used to have my own blade pattern sticks from Koho in like 1994 or so. Don't know if they can/will do this today with the $100/twig carbon fiber nonsense, but back in my day they'd pattern your own blade if you bought sticks by the dozen, so I did that a couple times. Not sure if this was a regular consumer-level thing, or because I was working with a pro team pro shop (the guy that ran the shop at the War Memorial in Johnstown was sort of like the equipment buyer for the whole ECHL or something like that; you could gear ridiculously cheap). But I'm reasonably sure I still have fiberglass splinters in my palm from that nonsense.
I miss Ziggy :(

tifosi77
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby tifosi77 » Tue Dec 17, 2019 1:08 pm

Is he.... gone? Or just gone.

iamjs
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How much do you care about equipment when playing sports?

Postby iamjs » Tue Dec 17, 2019 2:14 pm

unfortunately since 2010. Found out he had brain cancer in April, passed away later that summer.

Image

He was doing work with the Dana and Chris during the 09 Cup run and made it in to the team pic with Mario.

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