What's everyone's favorite chest protection/arm pads?

[Impactfour]

Past couple of weeks I've received some serious welts that have made my lightly padded jersey seem pointless. What does everyone use for padding, my fiancee has a hk army chest protector but complains it's tight around her neck, and doesn't do much for her sides.

[MrBarraclough]

I wear an old Proto "performance top" sleeveless chest protector. Got it as a NOS item from someone on a DYE Facebook group who was selling off the last bit of inventory from a long-defunct paintball store. Same type of padding used in the current DYE slide shorts and padded top, but with more gaps between sections of padding. The underlayer is a breatheable mesh. Works reasonably well, as I come home with considerably fewer welts on the chest or ribs. I'll still get the one or two welts each day that find the gaps, but that is a significant improvement over not having it. The collar is slightly snug, but it's thin and stretchy enough to not be a problem. I'm happy enough with the thing that whenever it eventually wears out I'm likely to shell out for the current gen DYE chest protector that is descended from it.

[Impactfour]

I wear an old Proto "performance top" sleeveless chest protector. Got it as a NOS item from someone on a DYE Facebook group who was selling off the last bit of inventory from a long-defunct paintball store. Same type of padding used in the current DYE slide shorts and padded top, but with more gaps between sections of padding. The underlayer is a breatheable mesh. Works reasonably well, as I come home with considerably fewer welts on the chest or ribs. I'll still get the one or two welts each day that find the gaps, but that is a significant improvement over not having it. The collar is slightly snug, but it's thin and stretchy enough to not be a problem. I'm happy enough with the thing that whenever it eventually wears out I'm likely to shell out for the current gen DYE chest protector that is descended from it.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll be sure to check it out.

[MrBarraclough]

I do occasionally see the older Proto ones like mine pop up on eBay.

I neglected to address your arm pad question. For the summer, I've been wearing some old HK Army Crash arm pads I dug out of a used gear clearance bin at a pro shop. They work pretty well, and let me get away with playing in a short sleeve tech shirt. I like that they have the thumb holes to keep them in place but no padding on the backs of the hands, so they don't interfere with the gloves I like to wear. When it's not ridiculously hot, my normal solution is to simply wear a surplus British UBACS (under body armor combat shirt). The torso is a breatheable, wicking polyester weave while the sleeves are a tough ripstop cotton/poly blend canvas. Inside the sleeves are these pockets that hold neoprene pads that protect the elbows and forearms, plus pads on top of the shoulders. The pads are just panels of neoprene around 5mm thick. No need for separate arm pads with those and I can just pull the whole thing off in one piece between games. The sleeves are pretty generously cut, though, and depending on how stiff the neoprene is they can make your arms look oddly big. I've got a couple of UBACS. On one I ended up sewing additional buttons on the sleeve cuffs to adjust the openings and sewing darts into the lower sleeves to make them a little slimmer. These are what I often wear instead of a normal paintball jersey. Got them from www.keepshooting.com.

[Impactfour]

MrBarraclough I ended up splurging on the newer dye precision shirt you mentioned. At the end of the day I wanted something with rib protection and it looked like the solution. Those hk arm pads look pretty nice too. I may hold off on those for now, and see how my first addition of padding does for me.

[Chuck E Ducky]

I just use a Bull Denim jersey, (Renagade, Evil Gerbil) loose fit works great. I like the mock neck ones that protect your neck they just get hot. If it’s 90*+

Planet Eclipse pads.

[glaman5266]

I use an Empire Grind Pro chest protector/padded shirt. Not the best on the sides, but it covers most of the ribs. I like this one because it doesn't seem to fit so tight/not as clingy as some of the others would seem to be. I think it covers the shoulders pretty well too. I wear it under one of our team's tech shirts & I don't get overheated unless it's like 90* out & I'm playing an all-day scenario (but that could be expected anyway). I do machine wash it, but I put it in a delicates bag. Holding up so far.
https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Paintb.../dp/B00BPD2BOO

I use Exalt Freeflex arm pads. I really like them, but I don't take them off if I'm super sweaty. They're a pain to get back on.
https://www.amazon.com/Exalt-Paintba.../dp/B07FBNDJDV

[Impactfour]

I'll have to get to the local paintball store to check out both the exalt and the hk army arm pads.

My current padding is the empire contact tt jersey, which has just a bit of arm, shoulder and chest padding. I ordered the dye padded shirt, I'll test that out with the jersey and see how it fairs, then report back to you all.

Thanks for the info and recommendations.

[Matt Drown]

Ten years ago or so, playing pickup games with mixed rentals on airball fields, I got friendly fire too much in the back (rentals, and too far forward too often), so I bought the Dye and the PE padded shirts (The PE one was recommended by someone who liked the sleeveless version). Both made me hotter/swampy, even in dry Northern California, both didn't appear to do anything for pain or bounces. I sold the DYE one, and packed up the PE one until recently, and am selling it...

So for chest/body protection, nothing. If you need something, none of the "padded" things are really going to do much in my experience, you'll want the stiffer protectors, and most don't cover the sides.

For arm/elbows, I've had Redz (when they first brought out the forearm pads), and planet eclipse. I've had no issues with these, you don't worry about what's on the ground if you need to crawl. I've heard good things about the Exalts also. If you wear gloves, you may want to make sure the "glove" portion of any of these armpads isn't padded so you can deal with it.