Knees Up Knee Protector

OBO and myself (along with other keepers) have been working together to produce a knee protector that would protect the exposed top part of the knee joint. The goal for this project was to make a light weight, protective piece of equipment that didn’t hinder a keepers mobility or effect performance by being bulky and cumbersome. The knee protector had to fit in and work with a keepers leg and thigh protection and help to prevent injury to the delicate ligaments and bones found in the top of the knee joint.

I’ve been testing a prototype since Mid-March with very encouraging results. We’re at the stage where we feel we’re almost ready to take the product to market, save for a few minor tweaks here and there. I’m now at the point where I’m allowed to release images of the prototype and I would appreciate it if you could take the time to give some feedback and impressions on the design and if you would consider using it (or why you wouldn’t).

The 2016 balklänningar This is one of our best collections yet and we are very proud of this years formal dress collection!

The basic design of the knee protector is a soft foam part that wraps around the knee cap itself with a HD foam part which wraps around the thigh, snuggly covering and protecting upper part of the knee and knee ligaments. Velcro straps are used to hold the unit in place.

A view of the knee protector on the knee. As you can see, the unit sits close to the body so not to interfere with the leg guard or shorts.

Image of the knee protector with the HD Foam on the “inside” of the leg.

A view from above.

The knee protector whilst wearing SPs and Hot Pants. As you can see, the knee protector fits in the leg channel easily and under the bottom of my hot pants. Note: I like to wear my gear TIGHT and I had no problems with the knee protector making the leg guards or hot pants feel uncomfortable.

If anyone has any questions at all, please feel free to ask and I will answer them as quickly and as thoroughly as I can.

Thanks,

Zip

Check out GB Goalkeeper Ali McGregor’s review

Threading Your Robo/Cloud/Yahoo/OGO Legguards

The first thing you should do is nothing! Don’t even remove the old straps, because you can use them as a threader instead of having to make one yourself.

If you’ve already removed the old straps then you’ll need to follow the steps outlined below.

The first thing you should do is nothing! Don’t even remove the old straps, because you can use them as a threader instead of having to make one yourself.

If you’ve already removed the old straps then you’ll need to follow the steps outlined below.

Otherwise, remove the male component of the clip from one end of the strap and cut the buckle off the other, without removing the straps from the legguards. Then all you need to do is staple your new straps onto the old ones and pull them through. Have a look at steps 6-8 below. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

legguard01

Here’s what you need: a legguard of course, your new set of straps and a device to help you get those straps through those channels. Note that both male and female components of the clip are at one end of the strap.

legguard02

This is what we use at the OBO factory…. a threader! It’s a piece of flexible plastic, flexible enough to easily pass through the curved shape of the channel, but not so flexible that it snaps on you when you are half way through the process. We’ve sewn a piece of black nylon webbing onto the plastic. We’ve then sewn a piece of terracotta fabric to the black webbing. The legguard strap is then placed between the two ends of the terracotta fabric as shown by the red arrow. This helps the strap travel relatively easily through the channel.

The reason we use a plastic threader is because we need to thread hundreds of legguards. To thread a single legguard Jon O’Haire reckons a piece of 1″ cardboard with a pointy end will do the trick.

legguard03

Thread the plastic into the channel on the ‘wing’ side of the legguard. (This is a left legguard. The top of the legguard is to the left of the picture)

legguard04

Thread the plastic all the way through the channel until the tip of the threader appears at the channel exit as shown by the red arrow. You may need to assist the threader through the exit with a finger.

legguard05

Pull the threader almost all the way through the channel. Leave enough of the black webbing and terracotta fabric showing outside the channel so that you can attach the legguard strap to the threader.

legguard06

Staple the legguard strap between the two ends of the terracotta fabric of the threader (check out image 2 above to refresh your memory of what we mean if you need to). Use two staples if you’re not convinced it will hold but you should only need one. The insert in the image above shows how the legguard strap is folded over on itself and sewn at one end. We staple the legguard strap into the threader with the folded end down so that the OBO logo on the clip faces outwards. (Okay…. a fairly
minor point I know, but it’s a little detail we always remember.)

legguard07

Pull the rest of the threader, with legguard strap attached, gently through the channel. If you go too fast the strap will probably come off the threader part way through the channel. You can just see the end of the strap exiting the channel in the image above.

legguard08

All that remains is to attach the male component of the clip to the other end of the strap. That’s it, real easy, especially after you’ve done several hundred like we have at the OBO factory!