safe landing garment uses 3D printing to make sure your knees are safe

safe landing garment (SLG), developed by designer hubert chen, is a compression sleeve that users wear on their knees to ensure a safe landing. by using 3D printing technology, the piece ensures that athletes with different needs perform with good landing mechanisms without injuries.

too many athletes are experiencing injuries upon landing due to improper form or weak ligaments. when landing from a jump, athletes can experience up to 7 times their own body weight. current solutions are knee braces. however, every athlete has different and specific needs that a simple brace cannot address. by relying on existing knee braces, athletes risk further weakening their ligaments due to over protection. safe landing garment achieves true customizability through 3D printing.

by printing different patterns, the safe landing garment is able to achieve entirely customizable compressions. many patterns, wall thicknesses and sizes of the hexagonal tessellation were tested to fully understand the property of the flexible TPU material. currently, the solution similar to this is kinesiology tape. however, this usually requires a trainer or a lot of practice to perfect the tape job. SLG solves this problem by being a sleeve that the user can easily slide on before their activities.

project info:

name: safe landing garment

designer: hubert chen