Madre, a Japanese security firm, said internet orders in Japan have been trickling in for knife-resistant sweatshirts and windbreakers it makes for children. Madre's president, Minoru Furuta, said many parents are taking extra precautions after a 2001 fatal stabbing attack at an elementary school in the western city of Osaka.
The clothes are made of fiberglass and Spectra -- a lightweight material made by Honeywell of the US that is 10 times stronger than steel and has been used in bulletproof vests for US soldiers and police as well as in military vehicles and aircraft.
"Completely bulletproof. And machine washable, darling, that's a new feature."
Japan welcomes knife-proof kids' clothes
Tags: security
Current Music: Lolo -- Don't Know ♬
18 Responses:
I *loved* Edna. She's my favorite character from the movie.
Sounds like YT's clothes in Snow Crash
If this is anything like the knife-proof gloves they sell at my local kitchen supply store, they're not effective against serrated knives, just fine edged ones.
They're probably not effective against puncture, either. They're supposed to protect you from slicing off your own finger, not from shoving sharp objects through your hand.
Probably better than nothing...I guess.
So? All the REAL badasses have glass knives with a molecule-thick edge anyway, which wouldn't anything like Spectra stop it.
More to the point, didn't the kid get cut in the throat, which knife-proof clothes wouldn't stop anyway?
Scarves.
hehe. Knifeproof scarves.
best idea ever! I so want one!
Sadly, I think there are technical problems, we'll never get to see this fine product in stores.
For starters, I think those might be more than a little itchy.
How about inordinately heavy? I can see all these top-heavy little kids falling over on the way to school, toppled by their brand-new Safety Scarves.
Also, if they got caught in something, you'd be screwed. It's not like you could just cut yourself free.
From what I can tell from a quick read of Honeywell's page about Spectra, weight really shouldn't be an issue. Depending on the specific variety of Spectra fibers you're talking about, the stuff is light enough to float on water.
The fiberglass core part sure does sound itchy to me, but cut-resistant gloves seem to be available made out of the same basic stuff, so it couldn't be too terribly itchy... Probably around the same as a wool scarf might be at worst.
And even if it is heavy and itchy, I want a bulletproof scarf, damnit!
"You can put your arms down when you get to school."
Hockey players have some kind of neck protection so that they won't get their jugular cut by a rogue skate. Apparently they started with this after a player died that way.
They should just keep the kids locked up in the basem^Wcloset [Japan, houses don't have basements]. That way the Bad People can't get at them.
I guess it shows that despite their supposedly much better education, Japanese people can't do math either.
and in 3 years, the hundreds parents of japanese kids who had their eyes gouged out by angry schoolmates file a class-action against Madre.
I doubt it.
They'd sue the KNIFE MAKERS, silly.
Don't be silly, they don't file frivolous lawsuits, it's not America.
whoa! Forhead-smacking-obvious!
you're right!
and the steel industry for making knives possible