Set-and-Forget Kneepads
Carhartt's washable kneepads fit right inside the company's popular double-front carpenter's pants, offering a decent level of daily protection with very low maintenance.
I’ve never managed to make kneepads a regular part of my work routine, mostly due to my hatred for the itchy, sweaty, irritated feeling caused by the elastic straps around my legs. But recently I bought a pair of Carhartt kneepads, which are a relatively new product designed to slide into the pocket of the double-front work pants that the company has been making for years.
The pads are made from a grid of hexagonal polyurethane foam that’s thin, lightweight, and flexible, and can even be left in the pants when washed. When I first slid the $40 pair of pads into the pockets on the front of my pants, I dropped onto my knees on the subfloor expecting to be wowed. Instead it felt sort of like kneeling on a yoga mat, which isn’t much in the way of padding. Then I went about my day of work and something amazing happened—I completely forgot I was wearing knee pads. The beauty of these knee pads is that they offer a decent level of daily protection—more than enough to take the edge off when kneeling during tilework, on top of demolition debris, on joists, and more—but otherwise don’t become a bother.
– Justin Fink, builder-at-large
Photo: Courtesy of Carhartt
From Fine Homebuilding #298
