If you’re looking to buy youth goalie pants for Soccer there are a couple of things that you should know. I’ve written quite a few articles regarding youth gear, and most of them revolve around the same things. First off, if you’re going to buy soccer goalie gear in general, with protections or padded areas on the clothes, it has to be just right. A lot of times the first mistake that parents make is that they want to buy something for their kids that they’re going to grow into. I can understand it’s frustrating to buy something for your kid only to see them grow out of the attire in a couple of months. With youth goalie pants then, you may want to look into options without extra padding if you’re going to do that.
Another thing that you’re going to notice when you’re out shopping for youth goalie pants is that there are different brands that sell them, at completely different prices. Sometimes the price difference is just based on the brand recognition. That’s actually a good thing because it means that you can find decent options at a lower price tag just because they are not Adidas, or Nike made gear. In many cases it’s actually a better idea to buy youth goalie pants or gear in general for that matter from brands that specialize in manufacturing goalkeeper equipment. They tend to put out products that really cater to the needs of goalkeepers. While some of the more well known brands may have cooler designs, but they aren’t truly functional. Speaking of functionality, let’s get to that first!
Youth Goalie Pants With Pads or No Pads – What’s Better?
This one is pretty simple. If you play on seemingly perfect fields then you could do ok with pants or leggings that don’t feature pads. Another one of the main benefits of pants without padding for youngsters is that you can in fact allow your child to grow into these pants. It’s easier to adjust pants without padding to make sure that they fit tight enough around the waist to the point where they’re not falling off. From there you can always pull or fold the pants upward if they are too long for your kid at the start. Obviously the downside of this is that you won’t be getting the benefits of the extra padding.
A lot of people are going to make the argument that the extra padding on pants doesn’t really help all that much. In my experience it really depends on the type of field that you’re in. On some of those harder fields particularly in turf you may appreciate the padding. Of course, the problem is buying pants with padding for youngsters that don’t fit them properly is counterproductive. They can be more uncomfortable because the knee pads for example are going to be all the way down to your shin. They can be heavier when wet sometimes as well. Like I said if you consistently play on soft fields you may be ok without the extra padding. You could also use padded underwear for goalkeepers to get some of the padding, and still wear regular youth goalie pants without padding.
¾ Pants, Full Pants, or Leggings
What type of pants are going to be better suited for young goalkeepers? Right off the bat I want to say that full traditional pants are going to be best. That’s for one reason only, if you get the right size youth goalie pants they’re going to be the most comfortable option that provides the best level of protection. ¾ pants can be a good option as well because they are going to arguably be more comfortable than the full pants. You can compliment that bottom half of the leg with your regular soccer socks. Be careful though with ¾ pants with short socks on turf fields. That little bit of leg that you’re leaving exposed can get rug burned. It’s such an awkward thing to deal with because a lot of times you don’t even realize that you have a burn there until it starts itching.
If your kid is used to tight clothes then getting them into leggings early can be a good idea. You’re usually going to be better protected with leggings. Particularly ones with padding. Because it’s likely that those leggings are going to lift up and expose your legs to those rug burns that I was talking about. The reason why I put leggings as the third-best option is because I wouldn’t have felt comfortable with tight clothes playing at a young age. Maybe that’s just me, fashion has changed quite a bit since I started playing the game at 6 years old!
How Should Each Of These Pants Fit
The fit with pants is a bit different to try and encapsulate if you will. Ultimately it comes down to what type of fit allows you to feel more comfortable when playing. Usually though if you’re going to be using pants with protections on them, you’re going to want to make sure that the protections are actually covering the parts of the body that they are meant to protect. The best way to make sure that’s the case is going to be to your goalie pants kind of tight. How tight is too tight? This was more of an issue in some of the early days of goalkeeping. Pants were naturally looser, what ended up happening is that the pads never really protected the part of the body that they were supposed to protect.
Now you can get leggings that are really tight. You can also buy pants that are tight around specific areas, but also allow you to move more freely. For example some ¾ pants are a great option because of this. They feature kind of a tight strap at the end of the pants to make sure that the knee pads that they feature stay in place. That’s a great idea because with the Rinat ¾ pants that I started to wear like 15 years ago the pants would move up your legs since they were so loose. So what ended up happening is that your knees would be bare when you went to dive for a play. Needless to say, that’s not ideal. It kind of killed the purpose of wearing long pants in the first place.
Elite Pro Goalkeeper 3/4 Pants
There are different ¾ goalkeeper pants on the market today. Since these are an Elite Goalkeeping product (Elite is a brand I’m not overly hyping them), you may not be able to find them everywhere. The reason why I like these particular pants though is because they are literally tight in all the right places, and the padding on them is in place in spots where you could need it. There’s a Reusch option out there that is more widely available. The difference between the two options is that the Reusch option is a little more on the traditional side of looser pants. That comes with more mobility at times, which is good, but you have to deal with some of the issues that I previously referenced.
The Elite version comes with just enough pads to where you’re covered in most of the key spots. That’s an important thing about using any type of padded clothes as a goalkeeper. There are going to be outfits where you’re going to be left wondering exactly what it is that those particular jerseys, pants, or whatever are trying to cover. For me these elite pro pants have all of the padding that you need in the right places. They don’t tend to be overly expensive. Obviously the main issue is that they aren’t a product that’s going to be as easy to find. Would it be worth it in my opinion to search for this product online instead of buying another option? I would give it a look for sure!
Rinat Moya Goalkeeper Pants
This option we could say are the more traditional goalkeeper pants. They have some decent padding. Rintat used to kind of limit their padding with the design that they offered. So what happened with some of their older models is that they did have pads, but you’d essentially only be covered in part of your thighs for example. For me that was never ideal, but since that’s what I was able to buy locally you couldn’t do anything but buy Rinat gear. Now the padding is a bit more square like. What this means is that the padding covers a larger part of your body. That’s certainly a positive from many perspectives.
Another thing that I liked about these pants is that Rinat has learned from years of experience to make sure that they put pants out there that are too loose. Unfortunately it’s a little too late for me, I’ve got a lot of scars on my knees thanks to those loose pants. In any case, these goalkeeper pants stick to your leg a lot better. You just need to make sure that you’re buying the right size. That should have you covered for at least the full year. There are full pant options in the Moya model and there are also ¾ pants that feature virtually the same elements. They’re just missing the bottom part of the pants!
Storelli BodyShield 3/4 Goalkeeper Leggings
These pants can be a little bit more expensive when compared to others on the list. However, they may very well be the best ¾ pants on the market today. Storelli is really doing great things as a brand overall. One of my biggest criticisms against Adidas, and Nike when it comes to goalkeeper gear is that it feels and looks like they put out gear without ever having tested it with real goalkeepers. Storelli on the other hand offer particularly jerseys, pants, and gear that just covers the basic needs that all of us goalkeepers have. The padding for example is in the right places in my opinion with these pants. They are also tight on your leg. That can be a little bit uncomfortable at first. It helps though avoid the issue of the pants sliding up and you scraping your knees.
Since they are leggings it can make more sense that they are tight in the first place. What’s cool about these ¾ leggings as well is that you can still wear your regular shorts from your uniform while getting the added protection. Also, if you want to wear long socks and shin guards you can. In the process of writing this article I was involved in a play where I was cleated in the shin by a striker while I was not wearing shin guards, but only long leggings. I’m here to tell you, long leggings on their own don’t protect well against cleats to the shins! These leggings give you a chance to deck yourself out in full gear.
