The Armour Archive

Where is the cheapest and or best place to get sports armor, also is there any sites that show you the best way to do hidden kness arms shoulders kidneys etc ??

Greetings,

Not that I am by any means an expert in...well anything come to think of it...but I do use hidden armour. There are a couple of paths you could go.

1, you could visit your local used sports equipment store, thriftstore or wait for spring and pick up some left over hockey gear, the simplest way to cover it up is with T-Tunics and leggings (big baggy pajama bottoms from Walmart will do). You would use sports knee/elbow pads under the knee/elbow cops if you didn't want to use the material provided with the sport.

2. there are several vendors on the archive that provide plastic armour; Alchemy, Dark Victory, Valkyrie forge all produce and supply plastic armour for reasonable costs which again can be hidden under clothing.

3. you could go with metal and then again..hide it under clothe.

In my limited experience, dark-age and norse-ish persona's do very well with hidden armour.

I hope this helps.

yours in service
James Edgarson

To add a few options bokalo armoury and rough from the hammer have pieces that fit well under properly sized cloths.
Pitbull armoury and torvaldr also sell good C or kidney belts that work well.
A lot of dark victorys stuff is a little blocky and over sized to cover without looking lumpy.

Rough from the hammer sells basic cops and is best reached through Facebook the webpage is currently being rebuilt.
A few of the other vendors mentioned may busy packing for gulf wars.

I wear Raceface Rally mountain bike legs and arms. I removed the existing soft plastic cops, got some hard kydex cops from Stonekeep (though any hard plastic cop manufacturer will do, provided they are low-profile) and sewed them to where the old cops were. I used a seam ripper to remove the old cops and drilled holes into the new ones before sewing them in with strong upholstery thread. The sewing I did rather than riveting as there is less chance the rivets will pull through the foam underneath. Zoombang shirt and shorts protect the upper thighs and arms. Loose drawstring pants with leg wraps, and t-tunic, plastic or leather lamellar on top makes for a period-looking and light kit that is nearly impervious to rot and mildew.

Do any of the Rawliongs Zoombang shirts meet protection if worn under maille? Or do you still need a kidney belt for SCA Heavy?

Remember - Sports equipment is designed for THAT SPORT.

It doesn't mean it will look right, or work right for SCA combat, without a lot of modification.

It might be easier, and less expensive, to buy or make your own "hidden gear" specifically for SCA combat.

AdamG wrote:Do any of the Rawliongs Zoombang shirts meet protection if worn under maille? Or do you still need a kidney belt for SCA Heavy?

Adam, I believe it is dependent upon your kingdoms standards, you might want to check with your Kingdom Marshal. Here in Caid, Zoombang+Mail is fine..

Alterwisher wrote:Where is the cheapest and or best place to get sports armor, also is there any sites that show you the best way to do hidden kness arms shoulders kidneys etc ??

For body armour, I like EvoShield under chainmail. A lot of folks like Zoombang, but I found I overheated in it very easily.
http://www.evoshield.com/shop/sports/fo ... hirt-adult

Without chainmail, I like a pattern like what MarkH did:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=136866&p=2035364&#p2035364

I tried a few solutions for arms, but I found all sports gear solutions to be lacking. I designed these that I really like. They key is to point them to a low profile elbow pad.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=167967

I plan to do a similar design to my arms as leg armour.

Diglach Mac Cein wrote:Remember - Sports equipment is designed for THAT SPORT.

It doesn't mean it will look right, or work right for SCA combat, without a lot of modification.

It might be easier, and less expensive, to buy or make your own "hidden gear" specifically for SCA combat.

Diglach is right. I've tried a lot of sports gear solutions and none were as good as gear made specifically for our sport.