After experiencing my first esk8 fall at speed and chipping off a small part of my elbow bone, I decided to look into purchasing an armored hoodie of sorts. One of the more popular options in the community has been Lazyrolling, who sell protective gear for the upper body starting from 179$ as of the time of writing. But then I stumbled upon this hoodie for only 60€ on Amazon:
CE pads? Bright red? The price was too good not to try it out!
The few review comments on Amazon said that the hoodie was smaller than expected, but I trusted the measurements in the product description and bought a size L anyway. (I’m skinny, so you big boys probably want XL or higher) And it fits great!
The pads definitely make you look (and feel) BUFF. For comparison, here’s me wearing an ordinary red hoodie:
Here are some pictures of the inside of the jacket. All of the pads are removeable so that you can machine wash the jacket, and there’s even a waterproof pocket inside for your phone.
Finally, the hood part is removable. This is a nice touch, because you don’t need a hood if you have a helmet on 
What I like:
- zippers aren’t complete trash
- quality is great considering the price – no noticeable stitching fuckups
- for me the size is perfect to wear it with either another hoodie underneath, or with just a shirt
- I can open up the front to let air in to cool me down
What I don’t like:
- The shoulder pads could be slightly higher up
- Putting a back-pack on and off is a bit challenging
- Doesn’t fold up as small as a regular hoodie, so it really fills up space in your bag
- There’s a back protector, but no stomach protector
Final verdict:
I think if you live somewhere where most of the year is cold enough to wear a hoodie or jacket, this is a fantastic purchase! Putting it on / wearing a back pack is slightly annoying, so I will be skipping it for chill rides, but whenever I’m going out and choosing my full face instead of a half-shell, I’ll definitely be putting this on as well! I might be purchasing a kevlar shirt for days when I want to wear something more fashionable on the outside, but for commuting to work where you can just hang up the hoodie like you would your regular jacket – it’s a no-brainer Highly recommend.
The amazon listing is gone now, but you can find the same hoodie on Ebay as well. Just search for “Kevlar hoodie” and make sure it has the 2 squares without stripes on both sides of the zipper at the bottom. (Compare photos with the one I have, and it should be easy to tell)
Will it look weird?