In many sports the experience of nature plays a central role alongside the sporting activity and the associated sense of health, while at the same time the corresponding equipment paradoxically harms the environment and thus also health. My research showed that the majority of sports equipment available on the market is made of synthetic or composite materials and that the different material components are usually connected inseparably to each other. This circumstance prevents the implementation of an adequate recycling process. Therefore, latest after use, a large part of sports equipment fulfills rather low standards from an ecological point of view.
PROTECO is a concept for circular shin guards. Due to the way they are designed, the materials can be separated by type and are thereby 100% recyclable. This concept is intended to avoid adhesives or similar connections that can be either detached from each other only at great expense or cause contamination in the recycled material. The goal is that all materials can be used for the production of new shin guards, ensuring the necessary conservation of resources and the avoidance of waste.
Innovation Compared to every other shin guard on the market, PROTECO can be 100% recycled by material-type, which means there will be no waste. It follows a circular economy approach and includes the rules of "design for disassembling". It is made out of two different parts, the foam part which touches the leg, and the shell part giving the shin guard its hard cover on the front. I figured out a way to connect these two parts smoothly through a slip-in mechanism. They nevertheless have the strengh/weight/form/feeling of common slip-in shin guards. In the best case the recyclate resulting from recycling an old pair of PROTECO shin guards can be used as raw material for new shin guards.
Detail As i made a prototype via 3D printer, i could only rely on the existing filaments which, in my case, has been TPU and PLA filaments. In the end the product should be made out of recycling-friendly PE-foam and polyamide.
Specification Sizes should vary between small, medium and large
unisex
slip-in shin guard with either a sleeve or tapes (external)
