I bought both the McDavid 463 and the Shock Doctor shoulder support. Even though the McDavid costs less, I must say that it fits and feels more comfortable than the Shock Doctor. I really wanted both to work to support my shoulder and alleviate the pain I feel from performing simple chores. My thought was that I would use both for different tasks. It appeared that the Shock Doctor was more heavy duty, so I would wear it when lifting, working with power tools, or anything more strenuous than light work around the house. The McDavid, I thought, would be perfect for continuous wear while doing normal things during everyday activity - it would give me support and compression to assist my shoulder from taking the full stress of normal motion. And it does just that. In fact, it feels so comfortable and is so easy to put on, that I returned the Shock Doctor. For the money, the McDavid is an excellent product that works and suits me perfectly. At the end of the day, my shoulder feels much better for having worn their shoulder support. I'm not knocking the Shock Doctor. It is well built. Once you get past the confusion of all the straps and where they go and how you reach them, it's quite a good product. The problem is their sizing chart is not accurate and so the L/XL was much too loose to accomplish the desired effect (see my full review under the Shock Doctor Shoulder Support). Read more
I ordered this brace to help my shoulder heal from from some irritation and inflammation of the rotator cuff. I am a small-medium sized female and I was a little worried whether this support would fit. I am happy to say it does. The strap that goes around the chest hits me above my bust, which is good since I am busty for my size and it would not fit if it hit any lower. The strap that goes around the chest was maybe a tad short, but it worked. The rest of it fit me almost perfectly. The support took the weight of my arm and shoulder off of my shoulder and allowed it to heal more quickly. I was able to wear it to my office job without people really noticing really and without sweating, which is surprising for neoprene. There was enough room for me to slip a ice pack under it when needed as well. My only minor complaint is that the stitching around the arm was a little tight. However, after a few days of wearing I think it has stretched out a bit and is much more comfortable. Per the description this brace only offers light support, and allows pretty much free range of motion for the shoulder. That was fine for me, but others may want more support. Seems well made and I would recommend it to those needing some shoulder support. Read more
I bought this with my fingers crossed hoping it would relieve my left shoulder pain that had me down, when I was on my feet my shoulder was in such pain I could only set down and recline to feel any relief. This support works for me, I can now do my woodworking hobby and other chores around the house without intense pain, although it does get a bit uncomfortable because I wear it long hours each day but well worth what little discomfort I feel for the relief it gives. This shoulder support has reduced my shoulder pain more than my new orthopedic dr. and therapy combined, I really need to find another doctor, he is the first dr. that I ever had that cortisone injections were useless and did nothing. My regular orthopedic dr.retired and damn I miss his skillful shot placement. Read more
This works great as a shoulder support with the key word being "support." It's not a shoulder brace and if you have any significant instability in your shoulder, you're more likely than not to be disappointed. Think of this being like a sling that allows you to retain your arm mobility. If you're having luck with kinesio tape, you may have good luck with this too. The support won't correct your mechanics or stop you from doing anything that may be painful for a bad shoulder, but it will provide just enough passive resistance to remind you that you have an injured shoulder or give you just enough support to make movements more comfortable. I'm actually wearing this for computer work. My injured shoulder gets tired at the end of the day and the support reduces the strain on my neck and shoulder muscles. The one criticism that I have about this support is the sizing. It's not sized for athletic builds so if you're fairly muscular and your chest measurements put you close to the cutoff between sizes, go with the larger size. I had to return mine and go with a larger size. I was a small according to the sizing chart, but my arm barely fit through the support and the underside dug sharply into my armpit when the support was pulled all the way up. Go a size up if it's a close call. You can always wear a T-shirt underneath and quite frankly you'll probably want to do that anyway if you will be wearing this throughout the day. The anchoring strap is not uncomfortable, but you wouldn't want it rubbing directly against your skin all the time. UPDATE: I've downgraded this after I found out I had an AC Joint separation and needed this to be more than just a nice stretchy fashon accessory. It was uncomfortable to wear it continuously. I could never get this to fit comfortably if I needed any compression at all out of it. I also found that some of the hand pain I was having may have been made worse by the shoulder support. The anchor strap the arm sits in a spot where it can really annoy your ulnar nerve. The anchor point should be higher to reduce the risk of ulnar nerve irritation. Also, I started to have really serious chafing problems (even with a shirt underneath) from the anchor strap the longer I used this. Read more
