Buy something else
Bought these for my son for HS football to replace the 7 year old Rawlings pads they had provide. For the price I was expecting something much better. They were practically identical to the youth shoulder pads we had previously with no upgrade in padding. The fit was fine, his ability to throw was fine. Riddell makes great helmets and I expected the same quality to go into their shoulder pads but it wasn't there. Its as if they concentrated on the rip chord tech vs. making them more comfortable when hit. Needless to say I have returned them. I had hoped they would have been better.
ProsFlat pads and rip chord are great.
ConsPadding is minimal and secured via a mix of velcro or screws. Screws cause large indentations in the pads reducing the thickness in the pads at each location through its local compression. There are a lot of these screws meaning your overall padded protection is already reduced. Where the screws are located there is a small thin plastic/strip covering the screw so when its jammed into you ...you feel it less. Hate to say it but you can feel it with a hard hit. If you wear a padded shirt under your pads its less of an issue.
Price - $$$$$ given their pads technology has not changed much I am not sure why they are so expensive. There are many other pads out that have better lining and impact dispersion. After looking for new pads...turns out one of the Riddell pad designers left Riddel and started his own brand of shoulder pads - Xtech. Guess thats where the innovation went.
Best UsesYouth sports. Light weight