Douglas - $$ ??

[Maineac]

The real beauty in all of this is that Douglas made every change that I requested. No offense to Wilson, All-star, Champion, Honig's or anyone else that makes chest protectors, none of these manufactures will give anything close to that type of personal customer attention. I would say All-star is a close second, with how they take customer input during the development phase of a product, but once a product is released no more changes will be done. As my chest protector continues to age, Douglas will recondition it and send it back to me at the fraction of the cost of a new protector. I don't know anyone else that will do that.

This is a great point about "reconditioning." Douglas is huge into the football shoulder pad business, where they make TOP of the line pads. Reconditioning is a yearly event for most of their products. As a "football guy" and football coach, I look at the Douglas CP and see their shoulder pad caps, and on the "Douglas-Douglas" models their shoulder pad caps covered by their epaulets. The inside padding on the CP appears to be similar if not identical to the padding on the inside of their football shoulder pads. I think the reason they can be so responsive to their customers' CP needs is because they specialize in padding and already have the parts on hand and can customize relatively easily. Same goes for the T-hooks. The only other company I can think of that would be able to be this responsive would be Riddell, but they got out of the CP business. With the possible exception of Wilson, I don't think those other companies mentioned are able to be as responsive as Douglas because it's not really a specialty of theirs (shoulder pads and accessories). All of those other companies are involved in a wide variety of other sports and may not be equipped to make changes once the models are in production. I don't know any of this for a fact, by the way, but this is just the impression I've gotten over the years I've both coached football and umpired baseball. I've never owned a Douglas CP, but I've dealt with their shoulder pads. TOP quality. Pricey, but you get what you pay for.

[Kevin Finnerty]

FWIW, the shot I took was a foul straight back off a 90ish pitcher.

I just pulled out my <acronym title="Chest protector">CP </acronym>to see how it would have been situated in my stance, and the answer becomes clear--the shoulder pads are so close to the collarbone plates that the edge of the collarbone plate is in the same plane with the edge of the shoulder cap when I'm set, with the collarbone padding overlapping the shoulder padding. I don't recall asking Jeff to have them brought in when I ordered it a couple years ago, but this eliminates the gap.

I checked mine last night when I had it on, and the gap is almost nonexistent. Personally, I think the people worrying about the dreaded "gap shot" are overreacting quite a bit. I would trust the Douglas up to and over 90 mph pitching with no worries.

KevinFinnerty, do you have research data to back up your "Under 90" claim about the Douglas?

And to compare the Douglas in a bad way to the Davishield, Champro, or any of the other protectors is just silly. It is far and away better than any of those.

Uh, no one compared the Douglas, unfavorably, to the Champro or other soft shell protectors. To infer that from what was written is just silly.

And, uh, research data? Is that a joke? It's hard to tell when you leave out the little smiley icon. Do you want a picture of the permanent bump on my shoulder bone? ... Research data... I got drilled at 97 in a scrimmage. I know it was 97, because that's what the dozen and a half guns read. At 97, there is injury, because those plates cave---read Pete's post! At 87, there's a little discomfort. So it's my estimate that 90 and over can be injurious if you get drilled in that gap. Get the modifications that Fittske introduced to us, or continue to take a chance. At this point, it's getting tired.

Pete, great post. And Fittske, great post.

[cardinalfan]

I wore a Douglas for 5 years and never felt anything until I took a foul ball to the shoulder in a high school game. I couldn't raise my arm to call strikes the rest of the game, but I thought it would pass. A broken collarbone ended my season!

I bought a Wilson Gold. At 6'2", I wish it had a couple more inches on the bottom, but the shoulder/clavicle protection is way superior to the Douglas.

After seeing an All-Star in person, I may opt to spend a game check on one. I won't, however, go back to the Douglas. Good company. Good service. But I only call H.S, legion, and college, and I wouldn't be able to "lock in" knowing I'm just a foul ball away from an injury.

[Mike Prince]

Looks like I will send my Douglas (black, bought directly from Douglas in 2010) in after the season for reconditioning and addition of the extra protection plates...

[Kevin Finnerty]

It's good to hear all these accounts and opinions, because it truly is a protector worth modifying to meet the safety needs of the umpire who works HS varsity and above. It is a sleek, comfortable rig and the company is an Old School company well worth supporting.

But there is no way a hard shell CP should allow its wearer to suffer a broken collarbone! I'm lucky mine wasn't broken, but it certainly was painful to endure, and somewhat crippling for quite a while.

But I also think that a slightly longer version of that little flap like Wilson has on the Gold is a more suitable solution than the solution pictured on Rolo's new Douglas.

[cardinalfan]

Just to clear up, guys. I was hit by a ball that was up and in to a left-handed batter. He didn't get the bat down, and the foul ball glanced down to my shoulder. I was working the Davis stance at the time. I think my arms locked to the knees contributed some to the problem.

The fracture was nothing that disabled me from work, and other than some initial soreness wasn't much of a hamper. The doc who looked at my x-rays advised me not to umpire for 4-6 weeks to ensure I didn't do more damage.

Unfortunately for me, I gave the CP to a guy who was getting started in LL. If I had known Douglas would attract a cult following... ah, the story of my life!

[Kevin Finnerty]

The retired umpire who put his on ebay didn't know what he had either. I think he listed it without the word umpire, and it wound up in a sea of motocross gear, so only one other guy bid on it other than me. I swooped in and got it for just over $30 ($42 shipped). When I won it, he sent me a message and asked me if I also wanted the matching shins for another $20. I said, we l l l l l l, okay.

I can't think of a better $62 gear purchase of mine than that.

[JaxRolo]

It's good to hear all these accounts and opinions, because it truly is a protector worth modifying to meet the safety needs of the umpire who works HS varsity and above. It is a sleek, comfortable rig and the company is an Old School company well worth supporting.

But there is no way a hard shell CP should allow its wearer to suffer a broken collarbone! I'm lucky mine wasn't broken, but it certainly was painful to endure, and somewhat crippling for quite a while.

But I also think that a slightly longer version of that little flap like Wilson has on the Gold is a more suitable solution than the solution pictured on Rolo's new Douglas.

I agree the new pad is a bit of an overkill. But it does its job.

[Thunderheads]

I agree in generic terms about the "Douglas-Douglas" modification in comparison w/ the flap on the Gold. However, the Douglas flap is fine as long as it doesn't sit too high (fullback look) which we've seen that it doesn't.