Bluegrass Skinny 2021
Reviews / Body Armour
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At a glance
Bluegrass has been on the market for quite some time now, and with their Skinny pads line ventured into the ‘hard to do right’ side of protectors. The skinny is available in both regular and D30 versions. We tried out the budget friendly regular pads. They are available in XS, S, M, L and XL sizes, with an accurate size guide on their website telling you what will fit.
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About the brand
Bluegrass is a little brother from the Italian MET brand, from origin a helmet maker founded in 1987 near lake Como in Italy. The Bluegrass brand is aimed at the BMX, Enduro and Downhill market where MET is more aimed at the general cyclist and roadie, and Bluegrass offers a wide range of protection.
Although they have a helmet factory still in Italy, the pads are designed in their HQ, but produced in China. There is no mention of sustainability goals, but they do mention extensively on their quality standards and procedures, aiming for a high quality and long product life which in the end reduces waste.
The product
We tried both knee and elbow pads. Pricing is very budget friendly as the knee pads retail at 50EUR / 50GBP / 70USD and the elbow pads retail at 45EUR / 40GBP / 60USD. They have very little competition out there in this price range with many competitors going for twice that price. The elbow pads weigh in at 90grams, while the knee pads bring the scale to 125 grams.
On the tech side, they have two layers of protection, silicon grippers and an elastic band to make sure they don’t budge when you hit the deck. The backside of the pads come with a super thin mesh layer, while the front has a double layer of the material. They are tested and certified to the CE Level 1 standards. For a more indepth look on that standard have a read here.
Out on the trail
The first thing we noticed on these pads is how comfortable they are. The size guide matches the products and they breathe well. We had no issue at all wearing the knee pads on a big pedally day out. The extra elastic band does a great job of holding the pads in place. On the padding side of things, for a ‘skinny sleeve’ style pad they are quite thick, but they don’t have a hard shell. On the up side that means they are not just arm or leg warmers and actually offer a good amount of protection for when things go south. The bigger size does make them harder to stuff in your hip pack for example. All in all we were quite happy wearing them and they will definitely stay in our wardrobe for the upcoming summer.
Verdict
Even when leaving the price out of the equation, these pads are very comfortable and protect well. They are not the thinnest, lightest pads out there, but do the job really well, especially if you take in consideration they cost half of what the competition is offering.
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This review was in Issue 65 of IMB.
For more information visit BluegrassRelated
By Jarno Hoogland
Jarno's life has revolved around two wheels ever since he swung a leg over his first BMX at age 4. After a BMX and DH racing career, he moved on to work for bike shops, distributors and brands before ending up in the editors seat at IMB. Based in the ultimate testing ground in the Swiss mountains, he runs his guiding operation and makes sure every IMB issue is filled with top notch content.
