I know you've been there before, getting all geared up... throw on your knee pads nice and tight, pulling the straps as hard as you can. Only to have the things down around your ankles by the time you jog to your first piece of cover. Better yet is that by the time you crouch down and need them there to protect you they are little more than an annoyance around your ankles. For the past couple of years I have had the same pair of knee pads that did the exact same thing every time. I'd constantly have to spend time messing around with them while on the field, time where I wasn't focused on the objective. So I did some research, both online and on the field. I tend to move pretty fast and so I found other guys that
were the same. I talked with them to find out the kid of gear they had and how it was working for them. Needless to say many had the same complaints, in fact several of them had stopped wearing pads altogether!
The most popular suggestion was to strap on only the bottom and leave the top undone. This failed me in 2 ways:
-The pads would be fwapping against my leg every time I ran anywhere the proceeded to slide down my calf.
-The top constantly get stuck in bushes, on rocks etc... whenever I hit the ground and low crawl.
This lead me to the Internet. One time of googling airsoft pads & the Blackhawk site jumped up. Already familiar with the fact that this company makes quality products I checked them out. At first I was hesitant, somewhat of a "budget airsofter", I wasn't sure if this was going to be one of those great items that was perfect but was so overpriced for use in airsoft that it would be ridiculous. Fortunately this was not the case. I purchased direct form the site and had them shipped to me for $31.50 including shipping. They arrived at my office within 1 week, not bad for $5.00 in shipping.
Right out of the package I was impressed. The quality of manufacturing on this is top notch, especially if you look at the price. There's a lot of extra padding in and around the knee, which I can appreciate. The color pretty much what I expected and all the stitching was good. No loose pieces or broken bits.
Time to try them on for size and see if they really worked. And they most definitely did! The pads fit well & everything stayed in place. Running in them and taking a knee didn't make them slip at all. The real magic, I believe, is in the plates & how the flex. You can bend these things in half and the plate bends with it, like a hard rubber. Add to that the extra tabs to keep the straps in a proper place & it seems you have a pretty good set-up...
After Game update...
After a muddy day at Kualoa Ranch I can say that these are top notch knee pads. I ran all day long and not once did I need to adjust the pads. Diving behind cover, crouching, dropping, rolling, and the pads did not shift. The padding on the knee and surrounding area worked like a charm and kept me bruise free. I can also now speak to the quality of the material used. Mud was caked onto the pads for the entire day, so when I got home into the washer they went. In error I didn't take any pics before hand, suffice it to say the brown material was pretty much black with mud, but right out of the wash they looked almost brand new. No dirt or scratches on the pads, and only a few little areas where the mud had stained. I can assure you that I am not easy on my gear, the only reason I pay attention to my pads is when they are falling out of place or not doing there job. I didn't notice my knee pads all day.
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