Strapping and attaching armour

This page has safety advice that hasn't yet been checked by our safety reviewer. Treat it as general guidance, and follow your game's, venue's or product's own safety rules first.

A beginner's guide to the straps, buckles, and harnesses that hold foam or thermoplastic armour securely on your body while letting you move.

Getting armour to stay put is often trickier than making it in the first place. The goal is a system that holds each piece firmly during active wear, comes off quickly at the end of the day, and can be adjusted if you put on a layer underneath or share the costume with someone else. Most makers build that system from a combination of elastic, nylon webbing, buckles, D-rings, hook-and-loop tape, snaps, and occasionally magnets, chosen depending on how much the piece needs to flex and how visible the attachment will be. The simplest approach for smaller pieces like bracers or shin guards is a loop of wide elastic sewn or riveted into a tube that slides over the limb. Wider pieces such as chest plates and pauldrons usually need a proper harness — a base layer of fabric straps or even a plain compression shirt onto which the armour attaches with contact cement, pop rivets, or stitched loops. Webbing with side-release buckles is popular for chest rigs because you can dial in the fit and step out of the whole assembly in seconds. D-rings let you route a strap through and fold it back on itself, which keeps tension without adding bulk at the join point. For decorative details that need to come on and off repeatedly, rare-earth magnets sandwiched between the armour shell and a backing piece can be surprisingly strong, though you will want to test the hold under the stress of movement before relying on them at an event. Strong magnets can pinch skin hard when they snap together, are dangerous if swallowed, and should be kept away from pacemakers and other medical implants, so store them out of reach of young children. How a piece hangs matters as much as how it attaches. A pauldron connected only at the shoulder will swing forward every time you raise your arm; adding a second anchor point — a short strap running under the arm or clipping to a chest strap — keeps it centred. Think in terms of triangles: three connection points are usually more stable than two. Before you commit adhesive or rivets to anything, put on the base layer, position the piece by hand, and go through the movements you know you will make — sitting down, reaching across your body, climbing a step. If the piece digs in or slides, reposition before you fix it permanently. Safety is a genuine consideration here, especially with tools and some materials. Riveting and punching holes in webbing require a firm surface and careful hand placement to avoid injury, and safety glasses are worth wearing when setting pop rivets, since the snapped-off pins can fly. Contact cement and some fabric adhesives produce fumes that build up quickly in a small room, so work near an open window or outside, keep the area ventilated, and store containers closed when not in use. If you use a heat gun to shape thermoplastic parts of the harness, keep it moving and away from skin, and never leave it unattended. Younger makers should work alongside an adult for any step involving sharp tools, heat, or solvent-based adhesives. If your armour is for LARP rather than convention wear, remember that each game has its own rules about what attachment hardware is acceptable and how pieces may be worn during combat — always check the game's safety brief and event marshals before you play, as standards differ between games.