There was a brief time in skateboarding when it was considered the height of hipness to have a full, color coordinated safety gear set. These days you can still buy a full set of decorative safety gear, but it’s’ all for little kids. These pics come courtesy of Butch Olivier who picked up this near-mint gear a swap sale. California Free Former – Made in Canada! I guess Canada Free Former doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Impact Reduction Apparel has a kickstarter campaign for their product which is essentially a soft insert for a baseball cap made out of a substance that hardens on impact, much like we profiled back in 2007. Quicksilver had originally licensed the technology for snowboarding beanies, but then not much was heard about it. It remains unclear if this is the same technology or not, but it appears to do the same thing. It’s soft and pliable until microseconds after impact, after which the outside momentarily hardens into a shell. The idea being, maybe you secretly want to wear a helmet but are embarrassed. Or maybe you just want a little bit of protection. It’s a good idea if it works, although the short nature of the back of the ball cap might make it ineffective in real world situations. Does it cover enough skull to help if you wilson? I don’t want to find out. It looks like they did some not too scientific tests with fruit and vegetables before taking a more credible approach. The product has not been certified as a helmet yet, which is part of what they want your money for. They’re going to have to…

“Goodluck” brand safety equipment for French speaking children. Everything, helmet included, seems to be made out of dense, soft foam. Almost like wrestling mats. Check out the trim on that helmet. Weird, but stylish. No idea what year this is from… 70’s? 80’s? [SOURCE: Leboncoin] – Thanks to David ODK for the tip.

In the second half of the 80’s I bought a barely used set of Pro Designed knee pads from local Champaign-Urbana skater Martin Pelequin. “The Mertster” as he liked to call himself, was a colorful character to say the least, almost a miniature version of Steven Tyler in appearance and behavior. Skinny, and around five foot tall and some change, he definitely overbought these double capped kneepads that he had custom made with blue denim and leopard skin lycra. They looked and felt like hockey goalie kneepads on him, so he sold them to me. I rode these kneepads until the early 90’s when I loaned them to a friend in Chicago, ironically to play outdoor hockey. He accidentally left one behind and so I never had a full set again. I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of the remaining one. One of my cats peed on it at some point this millennia, and I’m still having a hard time sending it to a landfill. The cat has long since run away. I’ve got a couple pics of the Mertster after the jump.

This Free Former skateboarding helmet that Grover picked up at Goodwill somewhere in Western Oregon has to go down as the find of the year or maybe even the decade, considering he only paid $2.50 for it and it’s essentially mint. It may look like a hockey helmet that was made in Canada and sold for skateboarding purposes… well, because it is. Aside from the Free Former logo, these helmets appeared with the Cooper hockey logo as well as the Hobie logo. It’s amazing what passed for safety equipment back in the 70’s. These things are basically a bunch of folded over plastic stitched together with some padded envelopes.

Yes, intentionally misspelled. Nova Scotia has draconian skateboard helmet laws affecting riders of all ages. Fines start at $140 and count as traffic violations that auto insurance companies can, and have used to drop coverage for people. Go sign a petition. [Source: Slap] – Thanks to Josh Burt for the tip

Skate and Annoy welcomes Deadbolt Pads to the site. You might have noticed their banner ads for a while now. I couldn’t get any information out them other than a picture of Duane Peters, who recently joined the team. I do know firsthand that these pads have been in the works for many years and have gone through several design revisions. I don’t have a set myself, but I’ve seen some of the prototypes. One thing that I immediately noticed was the beefy cap and the fact that the knee gasket is built into the pads already. There’s three kind of foam and some sort air chamber built into it, and well, check out the web site for more info. Oh yeah, Made in the USA!

I wouldn’t wish these Rector knee pads on my worst enemy, but it’s kind of tempting to have a brand new sweat-free pair on the wall. I remember being so stoked on these the day I replaced my soft padded volleyball-style kneepads for a fresh pair of Rectors. They came in a nice plastic bag with a hard handle that had locking tabs. $15 bucks is about what these are actually worth, with historical/nostalgia value making up the greater part of their worth. Get some at Marcs Board Shop.

I snatched this off Bonlessone.com a long time ago (2003), and big surprise, the site has a completely new structure, and I can’t find it anywhere. In any case, check out Bonelessone.com, …becasue you are old.