SmartParts Renegade Knee/Shin pads... custom run of a clone?

[Siress]

Talking about these deceptively elegant pads: https://baccipaintball.com/gea1329.html

It annoys me that I loved these pads considering the legacy of SmartParts. There's no patent on padding, though, and no one seems to make a similar knee/shin pad for any sport. What I loved was that even on my 300lb frame they would both protect my legs during a full sprint slide, did so without sliding out of position, and didn't require an uncomfortable (and useless on me) thigh strap. The trick to keeping them from sliding and avoiding the thigh strap was that the shin protection was equal length to my shin... so my shoes actually kept the pad from sliding down and my pants kept the loose flap over my knee in position so that if I knelt or slid that part was where it needed to be. This worked so well that I - and many others - had cut the thigh strap off the pad entirely. They were great, and I've regretted selling them.

The design seems easy to replicate, and may even be possible to create a 'cut to length' option. Does anyone know of a soft goods MFR that might take on a custom project like this? Is anyone else interested in such a product?

[Myguns2fast4u]

Actually something I can speak to!

You’re going to run into a few issues:
1. MOQ issues - minimums for ordering. Expect 500-1000 unit mins from overseas manufacturers.
2. Mold fees - this is compression foam molded + sewn.
3. This is almost impossible to do stateside due to the manufacturing techniques required with the molding, and extraordinarily cost prohibitive if you want to. We’re talking $200+ MSRP.

Cut to length can be done, but only if it is not molded - it will also not “finish” nicely on the ends when the fabric folds over.

You could find a small workshop (sub 50 workers) on Alibaba who specializes in compression foam molding, have them make a wooden mold that can be used a few times, sew a few “salesmen samples (sms), and them ship them to you. China is your best bet, higher quality ops can be found in Vietnam. But a full blown manufacturing op will not touch this projects.

Goodluck!!

[Siress]

Thanks, Myguns2fast4u ! Why does this need to be compression foam molded rather than using foam sheet/strips and sewing them between layers of ripstop fabric with a comfort layer for the skin-side? I'm not really targeting commercial quantities here as I don't think there's that big of a market or they'd be available already.

[Grendel]

I loved mine, especially when I was playing in MOUT sites for scenarios. I had a tiger stripe set that I used until they were no longer usable and by then they were no longer available new and the used market was minimal and in questionable condition.

I would have been very interested if I had not gotten into using CRBN SC pants that have integrated padding. Now that I have a couple sets of these pants and I use heavy Fire Hose pants I no longer need knee/shin pads. So I am thinking this would be a fairly small market and definitely would be a hard one to recoup your investment.

[Siress]

I would actually prefer a pant with integrated padding, but I've yet to find anything that seemed like it would perform as well.