Nihon Uni's Knife-Resistant T-Shirt
A Japanese uniform manufacturer has created a mesh t-shirt from polyethylene fiber that they claim will protect wearers from knife attacks. And while that may certainly be true for slashing cuts, the rather large holes and flexible nature of the material means it won't do much for the quick jabs that form the bulk of my "Ice Pick Mongoose/Mandrake" fighting style, in which I induce a psychomotor seizure with a whiff of video head cleaner and then pull my own hair from its roots while emitting a paralyzing keen, filling both myself and my assailant with dozens of tiny punctures.* Unlike the full body armor (and ear muffs) that might protect a victim from such an attack, the t-shirt from Nihon Uni is machine-washable.
Prices will start at 19,000 yen for a short sleeved version up to 59,000 for a large, long-sleeved version.
New T-shirts offer protection against knives [Yomiuri.co.jp via Slashgear (Oh ho!) via Engadget]
* Keep in mind I am not a doctor.
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Mithral!
I totally need one of these.
Given that they're only supposedly effective against knife slashes, and not punctures, the short sleeve version seems pretty pointless.
Maybe parents of goth teens could buy these in black and with locks at the neck and wrists so their upper middle class, suburbanite children can engage in faux-self harm while maintaining in their faux-bondage look?
This design needs a lot of improvement. It seems like if someone would start slashing at you, you would need a lot of protection around the arms (which this shirt has none) since those would be the primary places to get hit. On the other hand, if someone were to try and shank you unawares, you'd probably need a lot of stab-protection around the kidneys, which would probably mean a less flexible material.
Wow it's a good thing that shirt's a turtleneck!
And it's also great that the sale of this garment has nothing at all to do with overblown fears following a mass mall stabbing in Japan recently!
WAAAAIT a sec...!!
From Engadget:
Wow! Three times stronger than a T-Shirt! I'd be completely immune to Spork attacks. Oh, think of the power... Well, Spork attacks to the torso anyway...
Real knife protection needs to be against punctures as well as slashes, as the OP alludes to, and woven or knitted material is generally a poor choice. Even bullet resistant vests have poor puncture resistance, especially to narrow pointy things (regular lead bullets deform on impact, armor piercing bullets, less so--hence why they are especially dangerous to vests that don't use ceramic inserts). One vest that has additional puncture resistance (for prison guards) apparently uses titanium foil--not exactly cool and breathable.
Just for you to know: The pic attached to your article is related to Brynje™ (from Norway) super-thermo underwear (wich I personally use and find great), and has probably nothing to do with japanese "knife-resistant" t-shirts.
;)
@ #7
Damn! I wondered why the Yomiuri article didn't have the photo (no really, I was looking for more info, not more photos of bra-less models in knife-resistant mesh shirts, now what site did you say that came from?...)
I actually did follow the link to see more pics of the model and to look for an explanation of why these supposedly knife proof shirts could barely hold back the model's nipple...
That was certainly my favorite paragraph of the morning.