How Impact-Resistant Soccer Gear Protects You Against Soreness and Injuries

What if the next day after an intense match of footy, you felt zero aches and soreness? Just imagine getting out of bed the next morning feeling loose and limber despite all those dives you took to make those top corner saves. Or even during a game, imagine getting tackled by a defender and getting up as if nothing happened. Sounds like a fantasy? It’s possible, but only if you’re wearing the right gear (and recovering properly).

That’s where impact-protection gear comes in—it takes injury protection and pain management a level higher. It cushions the blows of soccer’s hardest impacts, so they’re not nearly as noticeable in the moments and days after.

Impact-reducing gear is not meant to coddle, but to prevent burnout that can happen if you’re perpetually in pain.

But how does it all work?

What’s the Secret Sauce Behind Impact Protection Gear

Let’s define what impact-protection gear is. As the name implies, it refers to protective soccer apparel that protects you against hard impacts, so that you don’t get injured if you fall or dive or otherwise get hit. That’s all there is to it really.

Of course, it gets deeper than that.

At Storelli, the technology that gives our gear this ability is known as XRD® padding. It’s made of polyurethane foam, which absorbs the energy of an impact, and dampens vibrations so they don’t transfer directly through body tissue. The foam is also molded into a form that flexes and hardens when hit, so you hardly feel it. The material also contours to the shape of your body, meaning it’s form-fitting, moving with you so it doesn’t feel heavy or cumbersome. Think of it as a flexible shell.

What Impact Protection Gives Players

• It absorbs as much as 90% of impact forces sustained from falls, blows and other impacts on the field.
• Its form-fitting, flexible structure keeps it lightweight despite it being a protective armor, meaning no restriction of movement during play.
• Its lightweight construction ensures that it’s breathable and comfortable for the player so it doesn’t feel distracting or overheated.

You can find this kind of technology in other industries, including the automotive world where manufacturers use XRD® as shock absorbers in car bumpers. So when you wear our impact protection gear, you’re actually getting the same kind of protection that keeps car passengers safe during an impact.

What Injuries Can Impact Protection Reduce

Let's get back to the pitch for a moment.

Think about some of the impacts mentioned at the beginning of this article. Goalkeeper dives that have you landing on shoulders and elbows, or falling on the hip after a tackle. Now multiply the amount of hits per game by the weeks you play in a season. Even if your conditioning or recovery game is solid, those impacts can take a toll on you.

Impact protection gear acts as a shield, so you’re not constantly sore due to a high volume of sustained hits.

What Impact Protection Shields You Against

• Bruising and contusions—Bruises are often just cosmetic, but they sometimes accompany muscle pain. With impact protection gear, you’ll get fewer bruises and muscle injuries due to the protective shielding of its padding.
• Cuts—You don’t get a whole lot of cuts in soccer, but on occasion they do happen. The padding of impact protection gear covers your skin so impacts don’t cut your skin.

Keep in mind that this gear can’t shield you against all injuries. Soccer is a physically demanding sport, after all, so you can still get injuries from twisting motions and other maneuvers. But at least, you can reduce the amount of next-day aches you have to deal with.

Shopping Impact Protection Products

So what kind of products can you find impact protection technology in? Well, we’ll use our line of protective gear as an example—the answer is: “a lot”. At Storelli, we build the XRD® impact protection technology into a wide range of our gear, including soccer jerseys and undershirts, leggings and shorts, headgear and more. We know that virtually any part of the body is vulnerable to impacts, hence why we insert this padding in so much of our apparel.

So if you’re looking to give your body less of a beating, level-up your apparel game and get some impact protection gear. You’ll thank yourself when the moments and days after training or games feel like less of a pain.