Man, I hate it when my stuff gets hard to replace. That seems to be a common theme in my gear reviews, but damn. I’ve been like that since I was a kid. I like MY stuff. When you get older and you see your stuff wearing out, it seems like it’ll be fun to get a NEW one.
In this instance, I need new wristguards. Skating and Riding Unicycles (think about it, if you don’t already ride unicycles- you wanna bust a wrist? Easily done, riding a one-wheeler down some dirt trail somewhere.) I’ve been wearing some old Harbinger wrist guards.
Harbinger wrist guards are really, really nice. They have this long, faux-leather wristwrap strap that secures the glove and the plastic splint (curved very neatly to fit your slightly bowed wrist) The gloves are solidly made, and look, feel and work well after they’re broken in.
When I say “broken in”, I mean you’ve stained them with those creepy white streaks that form when you’ve sweated them through dozens of times, and you’ve fallen enough that the gloves look slightly chewed.
Mine are no longer slightly chewed. They’re actually chewed. My new dog, who now chews on NOTHING he hasn’t been specifically given to chew on, chewed on these. The gloves never had fingers in them, but now they don’t even have all the nubby little sleeves that you’re fingers stick out of.
Y’know what? They’re still really good, and I still ride with them, but I looked on their desecration as a good excuse to get NEW ones. Yay for me, right?
Except, of course, they quit making them. I went to http://www.harbingerfitness.com/ looking for the wristguards in amongst their fine looking workout gloves and they weren’t there. After a couple of searches, I started to think the worst. The worst being the Truth.
I returned to the site where I bought my wristguards in the first place. Here’s what they have now. http://www.unicycle.com/safety-gear/hillbilly-half-finger-gloves-3.html/
This product review SHOULD be about these ‘HillBilly’ gloves, but I haven’t ordered them yet. The price is better than I remember the Harbingers being (which worries me a little) but the design seems to be pretty darned similar.
So this product review is about yet another bit of gear I miss. Harbinger wristguards. Another product I wish I’d laid in a lifetime supply of when I first realized how much I liked them.
If I need workout gloves, and I have the extra buck to put into something I know I’m going to like, I’ll go to Harbinger. Except I don’t work out THAT hard. Those gloves look like they’re for guys who start conversations with “Whattaya Bench?” Guess maybe I’ll become a Hillbilly and see if those gloves are something that, ten years from now, I wish they still made.
