News - "Futura" HEMA pants – a new generation of HEMA gear

"Futura" HEMA pants

A new generation of performance HEMA gear by ArmStreet

With all the challenges and changes ArmStreet experienced over the years of war in Ukraine, research and development were the toughest activities to set back to the original level. Nevertheless, we decided that we are not compromising: our one and only goal is to keep moving forward, in this particular case, designing things that will be the next step in terms of performance and practicality.

The problems we wanted to solve and solved so far:

• Design. We wanted to make pants that look really good, not just two square boxes connected with a belt.
• We wanted to solve the issues with recent designs. Most currently existing designs are based on Olympic fencing breeches, which doesn't really work well with the necessity to have a much heavier layered fabric sandwich, padding, and, in most cases, hard knees connected to the pants.
• We wanted to make a one-for-all design, making our pants protective enough for a longsword or a hussar saber but comfortable for a small sword or light rapier.
• We wanted them to be a part of our "Futura" collection (of course, a jacket will follow) to match the idea of HEMA as a modern sport with historical roots and a popular culture super-hero flavor.

A long story short, we did it. With over a year of prototype testing, our pants have already made it to the podiums of prestigious European events like HLO or Mortslag, participated in hundreds of tournament fights and thousands of sparrings, and gathered feedback from several A-tiers fencers. We also paid attention to the specifics of different HEMA scenes, focusing on making a universal product and now collecting feedback from our US partners.

Everything has a price. So, foreseeing the questions about the cost: yes, it has a price. When you want to make an anatomically correct thing that will also work well with active movements, keep protecting the owner in different positions, and have a lot of size flexibility, you need some engineering.

So, a little bit of engineering resulted in a masterpiece made of 126 pieces. Therefore, if you imagine the amount of work required to cut and assemble one pair of pants, the price would be lower than expected. At the first event in the US, where we presented these pants, we had three fencers for one pair of those.

My suggestion was to organize a series of duels, but they decided in favor of drawing lots.Does it make sense to invest in this piece of gear?

These are my own pants, which I've been testing for about a year. The prototype didn't have supporters, so I used regular supporters. But everything else is the same as the recently presented design.I had quite a challenging sword-fighting year, with more than 100 sparring days or smaller events, where I used them on a regular basis, and 8 tournaments that usually included several disciplines and the fights up to late eliminations or finals stage.

As a fencer, my major weapon is the saber. I also practice a heavier hussar saber regularly, and a longsword and rapier & dagger occasionally as well as a single-stick, so I tried them with most of the existing HEMA weapons. The only reason I decided to replace them with a new pair is that I actually wanted a pair with supporters, so the original pair is in perfect working condition and would probably go as a loaner gear to a club or someone who needs it. The only major sign of being heavily used is that the fabric bleached slightly in some sweaty corners, which is a great result.

So, as a competitive HEMA fencer to my fellows at arms, I think it is a gear that would make a little bit of a difference in terms of comfort and performance, and it is an important big step forward for ArmStreet in the direction of a high-performance HEMA gear. Stay tuned, keep in touch, and win your fights.