Fantastic comfort, great value, great gloves ! ! !
Disadvantages:
Not many, they may wear down after a while
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
INTRODUCTION I decided to get a new pair of goalkeeper gloves when my previous pair were really starting to get worn down after years of saves and parries. The latex had been worn down right to the last layer, to the extent where a lot of the shots being put at me were slipping through my hands because the latex was so loose, so I decided that it was probably about time to get a new pair, and I couldn't have made a better choice of which gloves to get!
I searched around the Internet for quite a while, checking a huge variety of gloves, ranging from £20.00 to £69.99!! If I had my way, I would have gone for the £69.99 pair, because honestly they were just so cool, but then I received words of warning of my parents about spending money on a pair of gloves that 'would only get ruined the first time I used them,' and also I really didn't have £70.00 going at the time!!
Eventually, I looked at the back of a football catalogue I had at the time, where there were advertisements from a website called www.prodirectsoccer.com. There were a lot of pictures of different gloves, and to be honest, none of them really caught my eye, so I decided to just look at the names of them, mainly because a lot of them have very strange and funny names.
There were also a lot of brand names, ranging from the Italian 'Lotto', to the American 'HO', (don't ask)!
But one of the names really did catch my attention. The name of the gloves was 'Lotto Neo Concept.' I thought that this name was pretty interesting, but it was another two words that came after the title the interested me the most, 'Petr Cech.'
THE 'LOTTO NEO CONCEPT PETR CECH' GLOVES I think that the reason that these gloves didn't catch my eyes at first was because, unlike a lot of many other gloves, they don't rely on pretty colours and patterns to show their class. They are a good looking pair of gloves, there's no denying that, but these gloves really rely on their superb technical stats of the gloves, and these stats are really put into practice when the gloves are being used.
The reason why these gloves have the name Petr Cech in the title is because the Chelsea and number one Czech Republic goalkeeper designed and wore these gloves from the time he joined Chelsea to part way through the 2006-07 football season. And in my opinion, Cech really hasn't been as good when he started to wear the next version up from the Lotto Neo Concept, (Cech also designed the next version up from the Concepts, the name of these gloves is the Lotto G-Force Gloves, if you were interested).
LOOKS OF THE GLOVES Like I said before, these gloves are not the most amazing looking gloves that you will ever see in your life, but they are also not the worst you will ever see, in fact they are actually a fairly decent looking pair of goalkeeping gloves in my opinion.
The main colour theme of the gloves is white, (which in my opinion, yet again, is the best main theme colour you can get for goalkeeper gloves). The index finger is red, and it also has 'Lotto' wrote down the index finger in white, so it stands out on the red background on the finger.
On the backhand of the gloves, there are lined contours. On the 3rd, 4th, and 5th fingers, these lines are curved, then near the bottom of the middle backhand, the lines are straight, and inside these straight contours are tiny vents that are only opened when you clench your hand into a fist, a good idea. In the centre of the backhand, and also in-between the thumb and the main part of the hand, there is the Neoprene! (More on this later)!!
The back of the thumb is all latex, (except for the neoprene sections), and the palm of the glove is made of 2mm response feel latex, and in a conventional flat palm style. Near the bottom of the palm is the Lotto website address, (a pretty good why of advertising). And the wristband is white, with red lines, and the Lotto symbol on it.
THE PALM The palm is made of 2mm response feel latex, and it is made in a conventional flat palm style. This means that when shots are put at you, when you save them the gloves will cushion the shot for you, therefore reducing the chance of injury and making the shot easier to save!!
Because the latex also has the response technology, if you save the shot with your fingertips or the edge of some part of the glove, there is a very good chance that it will be enough to get the ball away from the goal, unlike gloves without the response technology, where some shots deflect off the edges of the glove or fingertips and end up going into the net anyway.
VENTS The Lotto Neo Concepts are very good gloves to wear if the weather is very hot, because a lot of the gloves are vented. There are three straight lines of vents on the backhand of the gloves that only open when you clench your hands into fists. And there are also large vents on the sides of the fingers and the side of the backhand. These vents allow a lot of air to flow in and out of the glove and they keep your hands cool, therefore increasing the comfort of the gloves, (which is really amazing, see COMFORT for more information on how comfortable the gloves are)!!
NEOPRENE The neoprene is the most technical part of the glove, and it is also the part of the glove that you will notice the least!
At first glance, the neoprene on the gloves just looks like a bit of material stuck on, just to make the gloves design complete, but there is a lot more that this piece of technology adds to the gloves rather than just good looks!
Neoprene is based on polychloroprene. It is made from a jelly like substance that firms into an elastic compound similar to rubber. It is also used in wetsuits and electrical insulation. It is designed to keep the object that it is covering warm, and in this case, the objects are your hands!
The neoprene inserts are placed in the middle of your backhand, in between the thumb and rest of the hand, and small parts near the lower of the thumb. The inserts are black in colour, (take a look at the pictures, you will be able to see the black parts on the gloves, this is neoprene). They are placed there to keep the main parts of your hands warm, because as many sports doctors will tell you, all joints and bones are more prone to breaks and injuries if they are cold, so by keeping your hands warm, you are protecting your hands, (and if you wondering if you hands got too hot by wearing these gloves, they don't, because of the many vents on the gloves)!!
WRIST CLOSURE The wrist band is made of latex, mainly because it makes the gloves more comfortable, and if any shots were to hit you in your wrist area, you have a good chance of a (lucky) save! The band is tightened by Velcro, and there are two sections of Velcro, a small one that is always covered up by the opposite type of Velcro, and there is also another larger piece of Velcro, this is where you can adjust how tight you want your gloves, by covering more Velcro with the strap, the tighter it is, (not difficult really, just basic Velcro, but I just thought I'd tell you anyway)!!
COMFORT In my opinion, this is the best feature of the gloves! I have had a number of gloves over the years, and none of them come close when comparing comfort with the Lotto Neo concepts. They are honestly the most comfortable pair of gloves I have ever bought! They fit perfectly on your hands, (if you get the right size), and although nothing says that they do, they seem to mould themselves round the shape of your hands! I cannot stress how comfortable these gloves are!!! I can only suggest that you should maybe look in shops, and if you see them, ask to try them on for size, just so you can try them on to see how comfortable. Or of course, you could just buy your own pair and experience the fantastic comfort each time you play football!!
SIZES I have only managed to find a few sizes for the gloves. When I bought mine, I was a size ten, but I knew that my hands were still going to grow, so I decided to get a size 11, and now I have grown into these. By looking all over the Internet, I have managed to find that the lowest size available is 8, and the largest size is an 11.
PRICE The price that I bought the gloves for and the price that the gloves are on all sites is £29.99. I think that this is an absolutely fantastic price for the gloves, because they are very high quality, and most other gloves of this quality would cost a lot more!!!
OTHER COLOURS Lotto recently released another colour scheme for the Lotto Neo Concept gloves. The bits that were red on the original Lotto Neo Concepts are light blue, the neoprene sections are silver instead of black, and on the wristband, there is Petr Cech and Czech Republic flag. In my opinion, the original red version was better, but it is up to you which is your favourite!
OVERALL To round things up, I will say that these gloves really are probably one of the best pairs of gloves that you could buy at the moment. They give you superb grip and even better comfort!! And on top of being an amazing pair of gloves, they are also an amazing price for the quality that they offer!!
If you are thinking of buying a new pair of goalkeeper gloves, definitely take these ones into account, because if you decide to buy them, they will not let you down!!!!!!
