Re-inventing the Shin Guard: Groundbreaking Design with Smart Materials

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The traditional football shin pad has remained unchanged for over a decade. Essentially a stiff, one-size-fits-all, solid moulded item backed by commodity foam, existing products are stiff and uncomfortable. However, they must be used for every match as stipulated by FIFA and the FA. Even leading brands who pride themselves on 'innovation' use the same approach with a traditional stiff load spreader for these protectors, which subsequently ends in a poor product offering - something we believe can be tackled with real innovation. Armourgel will disrupt the stagnant soccer shin pad market by introducing the next generation flexible, breathable, fully integrated shin pad, using novel smart materials directly moulded to textile designed for the user from the ground up with unmatched impact performance. Directly moulding protective material onto 3D knitted socks or tubes in an automated process will give soft and flexible protection which moves with the musculature of the body. For the first time manufacturing and assembly are completed in the same single process, removing stiching. The project output is a feasibility study of this methodology in a shin guard - proving the user needs can be met with the material and that all the product value can be added in a single process.