Gear Question—- Easton Prowess

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Sep 29, 2010
1,082
83
Knoxville, TN
DD has the Prowess 14” Chest protector and really likes it! It replaced her Mako which left too much of her sternum exposed IMO. The Prowess fits much better. The difference in the back harness seems to do a better job of not letting it drop down in front.
 
Apr 5, 2013
2,130
83
Back on the dirt...
I have been waiting for feed back as well but DDs Wilson shock fox helmet is literally coming unglued and is 3 years old. It was time for something. I have been looking at just helmets for about 6-8 months and nothing fit her melon or the helmet was extremely heavy.

I just received a full set and I will give my personal out of the box thoughts.
(DD is 12, 125# 5’5” and wears the largest batting helmet in every brand she has used. )


Pros:
Weight: every piece feels light but not cheap.
Easy to get on.
Fits good for my DD, except maybe the legs. Just have to see on those.
Price for set was right at $200 for the intermediate size.

Legs are well designed. They do wrap around the leg more than the previous Wilson legs ( which D doesn’t like the new one as much but she only tried them in the living room.). My initial feeling is I like the new clasp design. Looks to be a faster design to get them in. Interior padding around knee looks up to par and is removable so you can wash the stink out.

Chest protector is light and great fitting and looks to have good padding. She really liked the fit and ease to get on. It feels a little soft but I think it will be adequate. I had purchased a Mizuno protector last summer because the Wilson was worn out and she didnt like the fit from the beginning.

Helmet is light and looks good on. It doesn’t have the face cheek pads that tends to smash the cheeks into most helmets. It does cause me a little concern that the padding feels a little hard but there is a thinner layer of softer padding just over the hard padding. There is also a ton of adjustment on the helmet straps. ( I had to buy elastic to make the Wilson youth helmet big enough for my dd but the adult was massively too big.). This helmet could fit a larger girl but also sizes down quiet nicely for a med size girl. Field of vision is really good.


Cons:
Helmet COULD have better padding in this day and age of concusion fears. The padding is a hard foam with a thinner softer foam layer that is on the skull. Nat terrible but could be better for not much more IMO. Rubber grommets for the mask attachment points and better designed padding in the helmet would be my first go to’s to make it even better. The Schutte and the Wilson shock FX have that part down but the Schutte is a 10# brick due to the mask and the Wilson was made really junky but it was thought it well otherwise. I feel like Easton made the helmet like this as a cost issue. Like I said above the whole set was $210 shipped. I was paying $150+ for some of the helmets we tried.

Last con is cosmetic. DD really wanted a white catchers set and they only have 4 colors right now. Not a deal breaker.

Over all my out of the box review is B+ due to the hardness of the helmet padding. It could be an A+ pretty easy and it was hard not to give it an A- because the weight of the gear is amazingly light.
 
Last edited:
Oct 14, 2015
61
0
Barboursville WV
Thank you for the review, we’re going to try it and see how it goes. We have to pay a little more since she’s 15 and needs the adult size but still not a bad price point. I will def come back and give my review so everyone can have something else to compare each other
 
Apr 5, 2013
2,130
83
Back on the dirt...
https://imgur.com/gallery/Jv1o2

Hopefully these pics show up.

These are really large on her legs. Not only long, but they are big around and leave some gaps. She said they are too big! Mad at me cause I didnt bring her others. But I knew she wouldn’t wear them if I took The others. (12 year olds are so hard headed)

Still making some adjustments on the helmet but she was okay with it.


Edited to add: I’m right at 6’ and these legs are almost big enough for me.
 
Last edited:
Jul 14, 2010
716
18
NJ/PA
Just FYI, the gear shown above is the Prowess P2 (all in one box) gear, designed for younger players. Still a very nice set of gear, but not at the same level of the Prowess gear that is sold as separate pieces. There are some major differences in the chest protector design as well as the QwikFit straps on the legs. I'm not sure of the specifics but you can see the difference when you look at them side by side.

My daughter tried on several different brands of gear yesterday and ended up with the Prowess. It's really beautifully made, lightweight, and it just fits better than any gear she's ever had, or ever tried on. I haven't bought Easton *anything* in a long time, but in conjunction with Jen Schro, they've done a great job designing this new gear.
 
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
Cons:
Helmet COULD have better padding in this day and age of concusion fears. The padding is a hard foam with a thinner softer foam layer that is on the skull. Nat terrible but could be better for not much more IMO. Rubber grommets for the mask attachment points and better designed padding in the helmet would be my first go to’s to make it even better. The Schutte and the Wilson shock FX have that part down but the Schutte is a 10# brick due to the mask and the Wilson was made really junky but it was thought it well otherwise. I feel like Easton made the helmet like this as a cost issue.

My DD is currently using an Easton M10 helmet (same as the Prowess, I'm pretty sure). Here's something I posted recently regarding helmets, and some modifications I made to the padding of the Easton...

https://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-catching/33068-head-injury-reduction-prevention.html
 

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