How to choose the right knee protection

The knees are the joints most involved in the majority of sporting activities. Knee braces are ideal for lessening the risk of injury and providing optimum comfort around the joint.

Knee braces/protections exert pressure around the joint with their integrated support elements and help to maintain the joint in place. On return after injury or as a simple preventive measure, knee protections offer genuine assistance in practising your favourite sport. We are there to help you choose the model which best meets your needs.

What are the essential components of a good knee protection?

The fabric

For most such products, our design teams use a compressive fabric such that the joint is subjected to a uniform compression.The weave of the product follows the knee's movements, providing maximum comfort at the same time as stabilising the joint.With both thin and stretchable zones the product is designed to fit your morphology giving you maximum comfort when exercising. Also, for certain uses, our engineers have incorporated thin seam-less edges to avoid unnecessary thickness and guarantee optimum comfort.Finally, for knee protections used in moderate to intensive activity, the fabric has been thinned out to encourage better ventilation and more easily evacuate any perspiration.

WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS OF A GOOD KNEE PROTECTION?

The silicone grip strips

For models designed for intensive activity, a silicone strip is integrated into the fabric to maintain the protection in place on your leg and prevent any slippage. The silicone used is designed to be long-lasting and to resist the extensive rubbing when in use and to withstand the effects of frequent washing.

The kneecap ring

The kneecap, or patella, is a flat bone situated at the front of the knee. The kneecap ring is incorporated into all the knee protections in the Strong range (100, 500 and 900). It helps to maintain the kneecap on its axis and reducing the effects of the rubbing of the cartilage in the joint.This type of knee protection is recommended for people who have suffered a dislocated kneecap, for example.
The kneecap ring absorbs vibrations and helps to limit pain and the development of arthritis.

The guide ribs

The guide ribs around the product serve to stabilise the joint by helping to maintain the knee on its axis.This is especially interesting for people who have had cruciate ligament problems or who have suffered from chronic pains in the knee.

The straps

The tightening straps have a dual role to play: adjusting the tightness to suit the knee's shape and size, but also to maintain the knee within the guide ribs for safety reasons.The straps are recommended for people having ligament problems and also help to keep the knee working on its proper axis.

What is the knee protection that is best for you?

The preventive knee protection

the preventive knee protection exerts a uniform pressure in order to maintain the joint correctly in position.Such pressure helps with treating chronic pain and to stimulate the knee so that the brain is more alert.It corrects chronic functional instability and reduces normal joint instability.It is ideal for reducing pain and lessening the risk of injury.

All such preventive models have the same level of joint positional maintenance, but the specific choice of model will depend on the intensity of your sporting activity:
- The Knee Prevent 100 is designed for practising gentle sporting activities.
- The Knee Prevent 500 is designed for intense sporting activities, providing more comfort and not slipping on the leg when carrying out powerful or sudden movements.

Take a look at all the preventive knee protections

Knee protections after injury

For the knee protection range Strong 100, 500 and 900, going up the range depends on how serious is the condition affecting your knees. The more your knees are fragile, the more support they need. Guide ribs, compressing and blocking techniques are used to create a fabric which best suits the need for optimum joint support.

There are two types of knee protection designed to be used when returning to sport after an injury:

The supple knee pad (Strong 100 and 500) with a genuine stabilisation role. It supports the joint and helps the correct joint movement thanks to its various accessories - tightening straps, supple lateral reinforcement bars and a silicone knee-cap ring. It's ideal when your knee joint is somewhat fragile.

The reinforced knee protection range (Strong 900) has been designed to provide guidance for the joint to limit excessive movement. The polymerised structural stiffeners are fixed to two pivots to ensure the natural movement of the joint. They are true lateral reinforcements which help and guide the joint in performing the single mechanical movement for which it is designed. It is an ideal way of helping your return to activity after injury to the joint.

The choice of knee protections designed specifically for a return to sporting activity will depend on the level of support you require and the severity of the injury which the joint suffered. The greater the damage to the knee, the greater the need for support will be.

The Knee Soft 100 has been designed to minimise the pain around the kneecap thanks to the silicone ring.
The Knee Mid 500 is designed to correct chronic ligament instability.
The Knee Strong 900 is for restarting your sporting activity after a moderate spraining of the knee joint ligaments.

What is a knee protection certified as a medical device?

The supporting capability of our products is tested and verified mechanically. Testing protocols using integrated sensors measure the pressure exerted by the knee protections. The compression must reach certain minimum thresholds to be considered effective or optimum and to justify the claims made to customers.

For the Knee Strong 500 and 900 ranges designed for a return to sporting activity, our teams work in close cooperation with the French 'Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers' which specialises in mechanical engineering. Engineers at this renowned higher-education establishment possess mechanical legs on which they simulate injuries, such as those affecting the cruciate ligaments, to establish the effectiveness of our products. This enables us to be confident in the functional capabilities of our knee protections.

At the same time, several research institutions, such as exist in the teaching hospitals in Lille and Boulogne-sur-Mer, carry out clinical trials to enable our products to be classified as medical devices.

Finally, our design teams work with three physiotherapy centres conducting similar clinical trials. Patients suffering from minor pains in the knee test the effectiveness of the knee protections, and benefit from a medical follow-up.

How to choose the right size of knee protection

NB: choosing the size is very important as this is an integral part of the product's function. A knee protection that is too big, for example, will not provide the expected compression. Thus it is essential to choose the model that best fits your morphology.

To choose the right size you just need to measure the circumference around the knee at 8 cm above the kneecap. If you are in any doubt, be sure to ask advice from one of our in-store specialists. And you can always take medical advice before making your choice.

Size guide:
36 - 39 cm: size 1
39 - 43 cm: size 2
43 - 47 cm: size 3
47 - 51 cm: Size 4

Physical activity is in no way incompatible with wearing a knee protection. The key thing is, first, to choose the model which meets your requirements and then to take the time to find the right size for you.