Did All-Star modify the Cobalt chest protector and fix the lower extension problem??

[Recontra]

I was just on www.ump-attire.com, and for the Cobalt chest protector, they have one new photo which looks like an improved version that fixes the lower abdominal plate issue (flappy wings on the lower sides) for many of us over 6 feet tall who need (or at least want) to use that lower abdominal plate.  Anyone have any intel??  Here's the photo from the website.

 

[Mr Ump]

I am at 5‘11“ and while I don’t get a lot of hits, the two or three that I get are worth the price of a solid plate that is made properly, interested in seeing new ones like the picture above

[wolfe_man]

FWIW, I highly doubt that they have changed it yet.  Until they sell the current stock, then I doubt that they'll be making any changes.  It just costs these companies too much to keep modifying things until a new run is afforded (and desired).   The photo is new and from the side: on the LH side of the picture, the harness strap covers the top LH corner of the bottom plate - but on the RH side, you will notice that it does not catch it in the same place meaning you will still have the fly-away/flaring wings issue on that plate.  

An alternative work-around that you can do is to add a separate set of buckles and a single elastic strap going around your body to that lower plate.  The separate strap would keep that bottom plate tight to your body and prevent the appearance of "wings" growing out of your mid-section.  I've done this to 15" Douglas CPs before and it works well.

Recently, I am re-learning how many, sometimes in the thousands, units of gear need to be produced at a time in order to make it cost-affordable to sell to a small market (umpires).  This is why All Star (and all good companies) try to produce a few samples, then test them like crazy to get feedback and identify the needed fixes before having a mass production run.  Once the mass production run is produced, then they almost always have to sell it out before making changes.

I honestly believe that is why Force 3 hasn't fixed their issues on their V3 CP yet.  They have to sell off their old stock of CPs before releasing a newly updated V4 with the fix to the tearing neoprene issue. 

It's not that companies don't care, they just can't afford to throw out the old stock each time an issue is identified.  If if were a safety issue, then that's something else - but for improvements and updates, you'll have to wait until current stock is diminished to a place where it's affordable for them to make a new run. 

Short answer, I wouldn't hold my breath for a fix for a few more years.  I'd guess that they ran a couple thousand of these at a time, so I'd think that they probably have several hundred or more to move before they sell out of current stock (UA alone has 102 on-hand for example).  

[BT_Blue]

On 11/30/2023 at 6:09 AM, wolfe_man said:

This is why All Star (and all good companies) try to produce a few samples, then test them like crazy to get feedback and identify the needed fixes before having a mass production run. 

As I have stated several times before. I was fortunate enough to be picked as a guinea pig for the Cobalt. Sadly, I didn't get to take it out for an actual game until 2021 because of... well... YOU KNOW in spring of 2020.

So any info I was able to give was purely of a cosmetic or visual kind. Rather than how it performed in live fire situations.

That being said. I do not use the extention. Though I did move the pec pads down to the bottom to act like the plate extentions on the old System7 (to which the very next game I got dotted on each side right where those pads originally were🤬). I do recall Ray coming up with a fix for it. But I think it was basically the same one Keith mentions above.