Another upgraded feature in the Football/Swiss Bar wars...

[Deep-Voiced-One]

We have many offerings in the Football/Swiss Bar market these days and I stumbled upon yet another one...certainly not the end all be all when it comes to the nearly endless list of bars of this caliber, but as of a post from 6 months ago, Reps Direct now offers stainless steel sleeves on their FBBs...

https://www.reddit.com/r/homegym/com..._football_bar/

Which FBB/Swiss Bar are you in the market for, or currently own and favor in the midst of this category of bar wars?

I own the Reps Direct FBB with zinc sleeves and the Kabuki Kadillac Bar, been contemplating selling the former, but might want the variety of both a cambered and non-cambered version so still thinking on it.

[radrd]

Looks nice but the Reps Direct bar spins, right?

As long as my shoulders keep feeling good, I'm sticking with straight bar indefinitely, but I see myself getting another swiss/football/t-grip bar at some point.

Whatever I get won't have spinning sleeves because it just seems to add instability, will be on the slimmer side, and will have knurling or at least rough power coat. Top contenders are Edge Slim, AB T-Grip, and Kabuki.

[MaineBarnLift]

I have a custom bar from Black Widow Training. Dean checked with edge fitness before making a version of their combo bar. Instead of 4 grip positions on each side, it's got 3 but the inner most handles are thick grips. Without knurling, it's pretty slick. I'll put a pair of gloves on if going heavy.

It's the green bar. It weighs about 63lbs

[Duplicitous]

Which FBB/Swiss Bar are you in the market for, or currently own and favor in the midst of this category of bar wars?

I own the Reps Direct FBB with zinc sleeves and the Kabuki Kadillac Bar, been contemplating selling the former, but might want the variety of both a cambered and non-cambered version so still thinking on it.

I have the Reps Direct bar also - due in large part to your posts and the video you sent me re spin. (Thanks again!)

Looks nice but the Reps Direct bar spins, right?

As long as my shoulders keep feeling good, I'm sticking with straight bar indefinitely, but I see myself getting another swiss/football/t-grip bar at some point.

Whatever I get won't have spinning sleeves because it just seems to add instability, will be on the slimmer side, and will have knurling or at least rough power coat. Top contenders are Edge Slim, AB T-Grip, and Kabuki.

The Reps Direct bar does spin, but it's very minimal. It's a slim bar also. The Edge was on my short list as was the Watson Ultimate bar. The Watson bar was going to be about $450 shipped to me, so that's the main reason I didn't get it. I can afford to spend it, but just couldn't bring myself to spend that on a football/Swiss bar. The Reps Direct bar cost me just under $300 shipped last year during a sale at EliteFTS. The American Barbell is nice, but not a slim bar.

[Deep-Voiced-One]

Looks nice but the Reps Direct bar spins, right?

As long as my shoulders keep feeling good, I'm sticking with straight bar indefinitely, but I see myself getting another swiss/football/t-grip bar at some point.

Whatever I get won't have spinning sleeves because it just seems to add instability, will be on the slimmer side, and will have knurling or at least rough power coat. Top contenders are Edge Slim, AB T-Grip, and Kabuki.

Like Duplicitous mentioned, the Reps Direct/EliteFTS FBB's sleeves have minimal spin and in my opinion (due to the slim design, diagonal grip variety and actual 45 lb weight) feel it's in the top 3 FBB/Swiss Bars on the market (while not necessary, the new SS sleeves as an option are icing on the cake), the other two would be the Kabuki Kadillac Bar due to the camber and balance on it and the Edge Fitness Systems Slim Combo Bar because of the diagonal and neutral grip options which leads to a ton of variety.

I feel the above all have their unique advantages and disadvantages, but those would be my top 3 picks having to choose 1 out of those 3, or better yet buy all 3 since this is the equipment forum lol.

[cwcmac]

[QUOTE=MaineBarnLift;1654024923]I have a custom bar from Black Widow Training. Dean checked with edge fitness before making a version of their combo bar. Instead of 4 grip positions on each side, it's got 3 but the inner most handles are thick grips. Without knurling, it's pretty slick. I'll put a pair of gloves on if going heavy.

It's the green bar. It weighs about 63lbs[/QUOTE

Nice bars but the color scheme makes me want a bag of skittles
Cool of Dean to check with Rick at Edge before making it. Just curious, why did you go with Black Widow as opposed to edge? Certainly the weight difference is huge. I think my slim FB bar from edge is about 30 lbs.

[MaineBarnLift]

Nice bars but the color scheme makes me want a bag of skittles
Cool of Dean to check with Rick at Edge before making it. Just curious, why did you go with Black Widow as opposed to edge? Certainly the weight difference is huge. I think my slim FB bar from edge is about 30 lbs.

I went the Black Widow route because I was looking for something unique and personalized in the gym. At the time, all my equipment was pretty boring or low quality. At first I reached out only to get a quote on the custom open hex bar (think it might have been the first one Dean made with built in jacks) that would fit the 100s. The other hex bars with the floor jacks built that I saw weren't tall enough. Once I saw the $ I'd be dropping for the bar, decided the custom paint was a drop in the bucket and I had wanted to add a swiss bar anyway. I saw the edge design and thought it was uniquely functional. Loved the fact Black Widow could customize the center grips to make it more challenging (and yeah, I have fat gripz I could have added anyway).

Overall really happy with the bar even if I could have gotten the same function for less from somewhere else.