Everything new is old again: Vic Firth Heavy Hitter series pads

Vic Firth has made a new version of their Heavy Hitter pad series, in all models. It’s scheduled to officially drop sometime in early July, but some of the pads have already been sent to select retailers who have sold them individually, allowing a few drummers to try them out before the official release.

I have not seen one in person. I have seen a couple of illicit video demos, all pulled down after I saw them “out of respect for the official release” or something.

Based on what I’ve seen and heard, I won’t be buying one. Here’s why:

It appears that the only meaningful difference between the old model and the new model is a larger platform and the addition of a rim. Curiously, the rim looks just like the rim found on any number of pads from Prologix, and made me wonder if there was any input from them on the new design. I suspect not, but it did raise the question for me.

Here’s the old style pad, which came in Stockpad (1/4” thickness) and Slimpad (1/8” thickness).

It was a perfectly good, and pretty popular, model for over a decade. Students and teachers alike kept them on hand for daily practice, and the Slimpad model showed up regularly at drum corps auditions and camps.

I have a Slimpad from this era. As a marching-specific pad, it does the job pretty well, and is lighter and more portable than a similarly sized tunable pad would be.

It retailed new for between $40 and $50.

Look below at its successor.

(This is a Stockpad, but the only difference between it and the new Slimpad is the thickness of the rubber playing surface.)

As you can see, the materials are pretty similar in both models, with the only differences being that the diameter is larger now, and has an addition of a black rim, which may be either hard plastic or very hard rubber (not sure which). The nonskid foam on the bottom remains the same.

But take a look at the difference in price, as evidenced by one of the few retailers to release a listing this month.

That’s right. The new pad costs  almost twice as much as the old version.

Inflation has something to do with that, I’m sure. But that cannot be the entire reason for the jump in price. My guess is that Vic Firth felt the hype was worth the significant increase, and if they hyped it properly they’d sell a bunch.

Another thing that Vic Firth did was to change the logo color and placement, back to something close to how it was with the first generation of these pads some twenty years ago. 

Here’s a first generation VF Slimpad for comparison.

I suppose I’m being a little crass, but honestly so is Vic Firth for taking this route. It plays on the emotions  of kids who were too young to have experience on the first generation pad, and dangles the possibility of returning to that model in front of them. I believe this visual choice was no marketing accident.

(To further ensure good sales on the newest version, the previous version was discontinued. Of course, if you want one of the older second generation pads, they can be found online from any number of sellers, new or used. The photo at top is of a used Slimpad currently being offered for $30 on eBay. Feel free to grab it if you want.)

Before they were yanked, I had a chance to see a couple of demo videos from guys who’d had the good fortune to snag one of the new pads, courtesy of a retailer or two who’d released them for sale prior to the official date. Those videos were yanked only a day or two after being posted. Each owner explained they pulled the videos “out of respect” for Vic Firth’s official release, scheduled for July. Is this true? I have no way to know, but based on the protestations of one of the two designers of this pad — who also designed the original Heavy Hitter pads before selling the rights to Vic Firth some twenty years ago — the early release by select retailers was nothing more than an attempt to prime the pump by priming the hype, and the pulling of those videos may have been encouraged with enticements of goodies or threats of legal action. I’ve seen this thing before in other industries and would not be entirely shocked if either were to be the case here.

Of course, I will never know. 

And perhaps that’s not the real point.

Based on my viewing of those videos, I cannot determine a significant difference in the sound of these new pads from their predecessors. So I asked one of the early adopters about it. (I have removed all last names but mine to respect their privacy.)

And there it is. Consumers are being asked to spend twice as much on a new version of a pad that doesn’t stray very far from the older version.

I have some suspicions about the marketing of this product.

(I also have questions about the sustainability of making yet another rubber-on-MDF practice pad when so, SO many already exist in the world, but I know that’s a battle I cannot win.)

In any case, before running out and buying Yet Another New, Mass-produced Pad, it wouldn’t hurt to ask yourself if such a consumer choice is actually necessary. There are literally a million used pads on the market already, and giving one of those a home would cost a lot less both financially and environmentally. If you MUST have a new pad, consider one that’s more sustainably made, or make one yourself out of recycled/repurposed materials.

Happy drumming.