Need some sluething help on GU pad card.

[ChuckNorrisFearsSid]

I recently picked this up:



While surfing eBay I came across some Belfour game-used Cooper Reactor pads and one of the pics showed the full Cooper Reactor logo that my Fuhr card includes a chunk of. I thought it would be neat if I could find a picture of Fuhr wearing those pads but upon Googling my brains out I can find no picture of Fuhr ever wearing Cooper pads.

Can anyone possibly help me find one?

 

[Hama]

Bauer Reactor came about around 1995 - so that would be around the last few years of his career. Don't know how comprehensive the archives of Getty Images might be during that time but that would narrow the timeframe

 

[BillInDallas]

Man, I did some searching as well and can find Fuhr wearing almost every brand out there outside of AeroFlex and Cooper. He even rocked Franklin for multiple seasons. Next is to check Classic Auctions to try to trace it back...

 

[IrbeFan4Life]

Keep in mind it was also extremely common practice (and still is) for goalies to wear different "test" sets of equipment like pads, gloves, blockers, and sticks for pre-season usage before they switch to a new set they are comfortable with and use regularly. Pre-season photos that are from the era of Fuhr (really any era up until the last ten years or so) are not particularly common so that would be a strong possibility there.

 

[BillInDallas]

Yeah, I was thinking practice equipment myself and thought maybe I'd find something at Classic, but no luck there. He did use Cooper sticks for a stretch between LA and Buffalo.

 

[Kahnadah]

As far as I know, Fuhr only used equipment from Koho (old, brown leather pads), Cooper (old brown leather, early 80's), Brown (from his time in Toronto, Buffalo & L.A.), D&R (Quantum, Laser), Franklin (THT series) and a very rare set of CCM (I remember them being an All-Star only set, but I could be wrong). Never seen him wear Cooper Reactors, but he did use Cooper Reactor sticks so it's possible that the Cooper rep tried to get him into a set. I collect game used items for the Flames, so I've been looking for a set of Franklin THT's and that got me looking into Furh's goalie pad history.

 

[Triple B]

I love those cards. I opened about 10 cases of BTP that year and your cards bring back such excellent memories of the cards I owned. Thanks for an amazing S&T!

 

[ChuckNorrisFearsSid]

Bauer Reactor came about around 1995 - so that would be around the last few years of his career. Don't know how comprehensive the archives of Getty Images might be during that time but that would narrow the timeframe

Interesting point there. Did Bauer use the Cooper name as well for a bit or no? The pad chunk includes part of the word Cooper so not sure if this is a possibility.

Hope Dr. Price sees this thread, that would clear things up I'm sure.

 

[Hama]

Interesting point there. Did Bauer use the Cooper name as well for a bit or no? The pad chunk includes part of the word Cooper so not sure if this is a possibility.

Hope Dr. Price sees this thread, that would clear things up I'm sure.

The Bauer and Cooper names were both owned and used by Canstar sports. Canstar bought Cooper Hockey in 1990. The Cooper name was used for equipment and Bauer was skates until about the 1995-96 season when they went through a rebrand after Nike bought Canstar.

I still have a pair of Cooper Techniflex gloves which could still be used today for rec hockey - except I love my new True gloves.

But getting back to it - there could be a window before 1995 where it was being used before the rebrand. I worked at Sport Chek from about 1994 to 1996 and I remember the rebrand, but I don't remember Cooper Reactor pads, but the stores didn't start carrying the goalie gear until the rebrand occurred. Up until then, it was really the smaller, comprehensive hockey and goalie specific stores that carried goalie equipment because it was so expensive - and Sport Chek hadn't begun it's large scale expansion yet.

 

[ChuckNorrisFearsSid]

I love those cards. I opened about 10 cases of BTP that year and your cards bring back such excellent memories of the cards I owned. Thanks for an amazing S&T!

If you happen to have a stack of the Super Sized Golds you forgot about let me know! LOL.

Still have had zero luck finding a pic though.