In the past, lots of colored leathers that I have tried just weren’t as high of quality as standard white, black or brown leathers. They either were too slick instead of nicely textured, didn’t have very good colors, faded over time or cracked. Kevin from GopherLax challenged me to try out their new GO4 leathers, which I found to have none of these issues.
The colors of the Go4 leathers are fantastic. Available in lots of color options, the color is very vibrant and well done. It doesn’t seem like the color will fade much over time, although I haven’t really had them long enough to see this. I’ve seen the orange and red (above) in person and both have a very deep, clean color.
For my review, I strung up using a seven diamond pocket using a set of the orange Go4 leathers in an Under Armour Strategy that I box pinched a while ago (tutorial on how to pinch here), with LaxRoom crosslace and Level 6 cotton shooters and Jimalax sidewall and nylons. I used an original TRADiTREE to assist me in stringing it up. Stringing up the pocket was pretty simple and didn’t have any issues with the leathers being too soft or too stiff. Tying up the leathers once the pocket was all strung was a little bit easier to do knots on both sides of the head since the leathers are a few inches longer than most other leathers I’ve used.
The GO4 leathers did seem to take a bit longer to break in than standard Jimalax leathers but once the crosslace cinched the leathers and they broke in and stretched out a bit more, the pocket got a decent amount of hold with the leathers having a nice feel on the ball and a good low whip release. For comparison, these leathers are a little bit stiffer than regular Jimalax leathers but softer than alum tanned leathers.
Although I kind of wish these leathers were treated to weatherproof them, I’d highly recommend the GopherLax Go4 leathers to anyone looking for a good option for colored leathers. These look and perform great, so you don’t have to give up performance to be able to customize the colors of your stick. Also, they come in at a great price of around $10 including shipping.
