Here's the battle-tried-&-tempered Schutt MaXV:
Now, as I mentioned, the breastplate has a crack in it, as does the lower torso plate, due to a fouled off fastball hitting me center mass in 2018. The crack spread, and as much as I tried to repair it with all cocktails of epoxies and glues, it would not take. So, I just duct-taped it and pressed on...
I debated whether to replace the plates, or the entire unit outright. No other CP appealed to me, save the All-Star Cobalt CPU5000. Trying that on was near-perfection, but... grrrr... I just couldn't give up on my best friend, now could I?
Well, @The Short Umpire made an offer I couldn't refuse – he wanted the shoulder pauldrons and TPU-EVA foam jacket from an XV-HDX, but didn't necessarily want or need the torso plates. So he sent them down here, and I swapped them out!
Good as new! But, I kept my existing shoulder arch plates, ailettes and pauldrons because I've got them bent just so. Well, I tried it for one intense game, but something didn't feel quite right, and it had to do with how the harness attached to the new side buckles in their default positions at the edge of the rib plates. One of the best, but most controversial, features of the Cobalt was the placement of the side release buckles, anchored more towards the centerline. So, I decided to do something similar...
I cut a slot, drilled a hole through the carapace and lanced it through some 1.5" webbing, then secured it all with a Chicago Screw. Tried it on again, and SNAP!... it's back to being a perfect fit, dramatically improved by not hearing the squeaks of metal T-hooks, nor having to fret on an impact causing a tear in my shirt.