The Patriot
The Vogl Patriot is Vogl's first head offering on the market. It is an X spec head, legal for all levels of play that was specifically designed for an offensive midfielder or face off guy. It has a nice face shape, with a nice catching area and a flare around midway through the head, similar to a Nike Lakota U. It also has a very large offense, giving you a great feel on the ball in your stick. The scoop is nicely rounded while still being a bit flat, making ground balls a breeze. The head has a good amount of flex, flexing on shots to give you a more accurate, tighter channel. It also performs quite well on face-offs, wrapping right around the ball and popping back to its original shape without much issue. Although it might not be the go to head for high level FOGOs, this head will perform perfectly at most levels of play at the X.
The string ability of this head is fantastic. I strung mine up with Red Star V2 mesh with the Bennett Braid drop top string and a shifty mid low pocket, which performs awesome. The top few sidewall holes are nice and big enough enough to put a few strings through and there are a ton of sidewall holes to easily string up any pocket you want in this head. The six top string holes are perfectly spaced out and large enough to easily do any type of top string through and big enough to put leathers through. The bottom string holes are also nicely spaced square holes and the perfect size to fit leathers through for a traditional.
The design of the head is very clean with three sidewall struts and nothing too fancy. The Patriot is available in three colors; white, grey and blue. They also offer a few different dyed designs, which look pretty nice.
The throat is kind of thick and very stiff, which is beefed up for the durability of the head and is quite good for holding up to the abuse of face-offs. The durability of the Patriot is fantastic. I haven't had any issues with it at all.
The best part of this head is its phenomenal industry best warranty. The Patriot has a true lifetime warranty. You break it and they'll replace it, which is unbelievable. This is amazing for kids who's parents don't want to shell out too much money on heads every few months and for face-off guys that break their sticks a lot.
On top of the phenomenal warranty, this head's a steal at only $50, making it a fantastic value. I'd recommend it to anyone on a budget who needs a very good performing head. I'm a big fan of this and can't wait to see what heads Vogl comes out with in the future.
Limited Edition Carbon Fiber Shaft
Vogl also has a limited edition carbon fiber shaft available that has some features unlike any other shaft that I have tried. This shaft has a very gritty sandpaper feel to it, way more than any other shafts I've used. This feel gives you an awesome grip on the shaft, with or without gloves on. It definitely doesn't need tape with this texture (although I used some to put a butt end on mine). The shaft is quite light and has a little bit of flex to it, letting you rip shots. It has a traditional shape with slightly rounded edges, that feels very nice in the hand.
The durability of this shaft is pretty good. I'm usually pretty wary about using carbon fiber shafts in full contact box games, but I used this one in two and it held up quite good. I took some good slashes to it and laid a few hard cross checks with it and theres no signs of any cracking or breaking of the carbon fiber layers. There's a few small chips and scratches on the graphics but that's expected and no big deal at all. The gritty feel is also still very much intact.
The design of this shaft is pretty cool but not for people who like simple one color shafts. The shaft goes from grey to black to red with logos on one side of the grey and one side of the red.
Overall, this is a pretty good carbon fiber shaft. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a ton of grip while still having the benefits to a carbon shaft, which isn't offered anywhere else in the industry.