THE WORST SHIN GUARDS THAT PRO FOOTBALLERS ACTUALLY WEAR!

What's going on guys , Josh from soccer reviews for you dot com .

Bringing you my review of the Nike J guard , the least protected Shin guards on the market that pros actually wear .

If you're interested in a pair of Nike J guards for yourself , they normally retail for $10 .

But if you click the first link down below , there's a place you can get them for nine dollars .

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For those that don't know most pro footballers actually wear custom made and custom fitted shin guards that typically don't come from the big brands like Nike and Adidas .

Usually the equipment manager sorts all that out for the players in terms of getting them what they want .

But typically it's these smaller companies that you don't really hear of all that much that make custom shin guards either out of plastic , sometimes even out of carbon fiber .

The reason why they're custom made is one , they're pro players , obviously , it would be more expensive to get custom ones , but they can definitely afford it , or at least the team can afford it because the team is likely buying this stuff for them and they're pro .

So they might as well have the best of the best as far as equipment is concerned in regards to how it fits , in regards to being low profile , in regards to being as protective as possible and really just having the best shin guards because they can .

It's also worth noting that a lot of footballers sign endorsement deals mainly for their boots .

Neymar as an example is a Nike endorsed athlete , meaning that he's paid by Nike to wear Nike boots , but his shin guards , as you can see by this picture are not made by Nike , they're custom made by somebody else .

No swoosh to be seen .

The reason why he's allowed to do that .

And the reason why pretty much any pro player is allowed to do the same is simply because you can't see the shin guards while you're wearing them , they're covered up by the socks .

So as long as that's the case , these guys aren't breaking any rules , which is typically why you'll see a lot of these big name , endorsed athletes not wearing Nike or Adidas branded Shin Guards like they have on their feet to match their boots with all that said there are exceptions to the rule .

And usually those exceptions are wearing this shin guard right here .

The Nike J Guard , which retails for a mere $10 .

It is the least expensive Shin guard on the market .

At least one that comes from a major name brand .

And as you guys saw in the intro , it basically offers no protection whatsoever .

They also come in black jig guard , of course , features a plastic shell that looks to be a decent thickness , but it's a very rubbery soft , flexible plastic , meaning that this really doesn't offer much impact protection if any at all .

Obviously , there's something there because you have some plastic and a little bit of foam .

But in regards to the rigidity of the shell , it is probably the least protective shin guard currently on the market mainly for this particular reason .

Now , what's great about this pliability is that you can pretty much form it to the shape of any leg .

The problem with that though is that it seems to just bounce , bounce back to its original shape .

You can see it can fold it like this , which typically would not be able to do with a shin guard .

And if you did , you'd crack the plastic .

But these , they kind of just slowly go back to their original shape .

And if I help it along , you can see it's back to normal and it's pretty much like nothing happened .

The J guard also has a bunch of holes that exist for the sake of ventilation through the shell through the liner directly to your leg .

So if air flow is something that you value in a pair of shin guards , these are going to offer some of the most air flow of any shin guard pretty much in existence right now .

And then there's the backing , which is this super soft foam .

I would kind of describe it as an arts and crafts foam that does , of course line the entire back of the shin guard .

The issue with this is one , it does absorb a lot of moisture , which isn't necessarily a big deal because the shin guards are so light to begin with , even if it's fully absorbed in sweat , which sounds disgusting .

It's still not very heavy and it's just not going to dry very quickly either .

Plus it's pretty much impossible to clean and it's going to stain .

You can see this pair is brand new .

This is a pair that I used to wear as a kid that I've cleaned up quite a bit , but you can see they still look pretty gross .

And if you're not careful , you can say I invented this one .

The foam is never going to bounce back again .

It's a very , very cheap foam so you can peel away at it very easily .

Luckily they're only 10 bucks .

So if they break , it's really not that big of a deal and then there's the weight which is practically non in a size large .

The Nike J Guard weighs in at 1.25 ounces , the equivalent of 35 g , which essentially means that these are weightless when they're on your shins .

So just to summarize up until this point , the positive aspects of the shin guard is one , they're inexpensive , two , they're extremely lightweight and three because they're so pliable .

It's almost like having a custom fitted shin guard .

Once you secure them on your shins , the downsides are of course , the fact that the foam backing is kind of gross , especially after you wear them for long enough .

And then two , the big thing for me is that they literally offer no protection .

You might as well not wear shin guards if you're choosing to wear the Nike J guard .

This exists almost as a loophole in the rules if you're required to wear shin guards .

Technically , these fill the void of actual shin guards , but are they actually providing protection ?

The simple answer to that question is no .

So if that's the case , and if pro footballers have access to custom made shin guards free of charge , obviously , they can afford them if they really want to pay for them as well .

Why are pros like Kino as an example still wearing Nike J guards ?

Well , the simple answer to that question is that these are the Shin Guards that a lot of pro players grew up wearing for 10 bucks .

If you just needed shin guards that are as inexpensive , as lightweight and as out of the way as possible , regardless of whether or not they provide any real protection .

This is probably what you wore growing up .

And a lot of guys like to wear the same equipment as they did when they were growing up .

So that's why so many pros end up wearing these $10 Nike J guards .

Is that a smart move for a pro footballer ?

I would argue no .

But at the same time , I don't necessarily see any kind of significant harm in it .

If I were pro , I would definitely have custom made shin guards that were as protective as possible .

But at the same time out of the way , because I myself don't like particularly large shin guards either .

This is about as big a shin guard as I personally like to wear and I would wear them a little bit higher up .

So they are as out of the way as possible .

But I will say that when it comes to injuries via shin impacts aside from kind of horrific ones where guys break their legs where honestly , I'm not sure how much of a role the shin guard plays in that if you have really solid carbon fiber shin guards , it's definitely possible that could prevent a very serious injury .

So maybe that reason alone , for some people is reason enough to wear a custom shin guard over AJ guard .

But more often than that .

Shin guards are really just preventing small bumps and bruises .

These aren't necessarily going to prevent those .

But that's really the main difference for me between really low end shin guards that offer no protection and really high end shin guards that offer a really solid shell with tons of extra protection .

Maybe a custom made one , like a lot of pros wear .

It might save you that one time .

But I would say more often than not the effectiveness of shin guards in general is pretty minimal .

So , is there more risk to wearing AJ guard versus something more protective ?

Absolutely .

100% .

Yes .

But is it going to be detrimental to your career as a pro football or , or even if you're just playing recreationally , I would say for 99.9% of people , it's just not going to be that big of a deal .

So , in conclusion , should you buy Nike J Guards ?

I think the answer to that question is yes .

If one , you don't want to spend a lot of money , two , you're looking for something that is lightweight and very minimal and out of the way , style shin guard and three , you don't necessarily want something or need something that's overly protective .

You're just wearing shin guards because you have to wear shin guards .

Also , if you're somebody that tends to lose your shin guards a lot , buying the cheapest possible ones probably isn't a bad idea .

Because if you do end up losing them , it's not necessarily the end of the world .

If you value protection at all , then quite simply Nike J guards are not for you .

I would personally recommend if you're looking for something that's going to offer more protection but still be low profile , small and light weight .

Kind of like Nike J guards .

Nike and Adidas at the 20 to $30 price point offer generic Shin guards for Nike .

It's the Mercurial light for Adidas .

The name is always changing at the moment .

I believe it's ghost guard .

Those are two very solid shin guards that will offer pretty much the same overall feel as AJ guard , but significantly more protection in the area that they're covering .

Yes , this is a shin guard .

Yes , it covers your shin .

But trust me , when I say that if you get kicked directly in a Nike J guard sitting against your shin , it might as well not even be there , you might as well not even be wearing shin guards because there's pretty much no protection .

So that really sums up the J guard .

It's a shin guard that acts as a shin guard , but really doesn't provide the safety of a shin guard , which is the whole point of shin guards in the first place .

Anyways guys , that is it for my review .

Hopefully you enjoyed if you did be sure to support it with a like again , if you're interested in some Nike J Guards for yourself .

You can click the first link down below .

They're available there for about nine bucks rather than 10 , which is not a huge discount .

But when they're only 10 bucks to begin with , you can't really expect anything too crazy just because they are so cheap in the first place .

Anyways .

Do you have any questions at all ?

Leave them down below in the comments and I'll do my best to get an answer out to you as soon as I possibly can subscribe .

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Other than that guys hope you enjoyed the video as always .

Thanks for watching .