Process
HOW TO GET YOUR PERFECT SHIN PADS
Style, protection, comfort – Batoco’s process is build around these three pillars to provide you with your own, ideal shin pads.
LEG ANALYSIS
DESIGN
PRODUCTION
& DELIVERY
1. 3D SCAN LEG ANALYSIS
One size does not fit all! You are certainly familiar with shin pads that do not hold into place or might have used meters of tape to avoid displacement in the past…
Everything starts with your legs shape. We obtain your leg shape with our own professional scan (accurate up to half a millimeter), with our free app or through manual measurements with model templates you can find here.
Next, our CAD engineers take into account your 3D scan, size, shape and positioning preferences to recommend the best-fitting model. Choosing out of more than 30 model shapes (an ever-increasing number), a good fit with your legs is highly probable
You could however choose to develop your own model for optimal fit and comfort. The option is the shin pad’s Rolls Royce. Qualified technician will get your shape and positioning preferences. You can also indicate sensible areas or extrusions (balls) that need to be taken into account. Through reverse engineering of your leg, our 3D engineers obtain your leg details and apply our in house 3D process to model your desired shin pad shape. The pro’s often prefer this option.
2. UNIQUE DESIGN
Players often choose to reflect their personality or highlight a specific event for their shin pad design. Batoco offers three basic options: gloss carbon, sticker or custom painted shin pads. For the first two options, you can also add special effects to your shin pad design.
For instance, you can get a matte finish instead of gloss or or ask for a candy on top of the carbon to get a special look.
Once we receive your HD pictures and specific guidelines, our graphics team designs your shin guards in our model specific paint forms until you are satisfied.
The sticker option, like cars that are getting wrapped, allows to print your design before applying it to the shin pads. However, Formula 1 helmets and luxury cars are painted and not without reason. Custom painting brings out the flare and depth of your design, enlarges the colour palette with neon, candy, chrome and metallic, and gives astonishing details through airbrushing while building a minimum paint thickness.
3. PRODUCTION & DELIVERY
Now that your shape and design are finalised, it is finally time to produce your carbon shin pads!
First, we cut and assemble various composites, depending on your shell type. The unique combination of fabrics gives the final properties to your shin pad shell. Your shell is then placed in its metal mould and cured at high temperature and pressure. Following a cool-down, your carbon parts are de-moulded and carefully cut to the exact shape you choose. Sharp edges are trimmed down to avoid possible cuts and the whole surface is carefully sanded to avoid structural damaging of the carbon pattern. Our technicians then apply a special automotive putty to avoid pinholes that could affect the final look of your shin pads and re-sand that putty down. Increasing the sandpaper grid removes the visible scratches on the surface.
Next, depending on your design options, your outer shell is customised to your liking. By default, a gloss protective clear coat is carefully applied, sanded down and re-applied. A low film thickness avoids building up weight on your shin pads. The final touch comes in the form of polishing, which extracts the clarity of paint and the depth of shine.
Simultaneously, PorFox foam is cautiously cut out. Technicians then assemble the shell and PorFox, using ultra-thin double-sided adhesives that do not compromise safety and build tack over time.
After all those steps, your custom shin pads finally go through a quality control. If internal tests are successful, the quality controller packs your shin pads and signs the box. Your pair is now ready to be sent to your address of choice.
PERSONAL FIT
The personal fit option goes further than the classic shin pad selection from our existing range. For ultimate comfort and freedom of choice, this is the option that we recommend and pro’s prefer.
The special high heat, high pressure (200 degrees and 8 bars) machines that yield optimal composites (carbon, fiberglass) properties, require metal tooling. Without the high pressure and temperature, air voids and imperfect fusing of the various layers can occur. The whole personal fit process centres around the creation of a metal tool specifically tailored to your legs.
First you receive a gif of the 3D designed shin pads on your legs (see video below). If happy, we ship you 3D printed shin pads to trial them out. These 3D prints replicate the shape of your final carbon shin pad while being mechanically inferior and less comfortable. Again, if you are satisfied by the fitting, we draw your metal moulds that are milled for hours at a 0.01mm precision create a smooth, mirror like mould. This allows to produce the best strength-to-weight football shin pads out there.
