Some thoughts about armor

[ApolloDiaspora]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Having some form of armour in the form of shin/arm guards, stiff clothing, and so on would be ideal, no matter how you go about acquiring/making/battering for it. Getting into a situation where the armour is supposed to allow you to bulldoze your way through things is just plain silly.

 

Why? Because in the context of Project Zomboid, the armour exists to buy you a few precious seconds to react to a surprise zombie. To turn what should be a surprise insta-bite and inevtiable death into pain and damage, but no bite, The idea of suiting up in full armour, riot shield and all, then running through the horde blocking the door should be as about as effective as if you did it without the armour. Sure, you can do it in the game already, but it's a real crap shot. You get snagged, bogged down, bitten and torn to shreds. The armour could serve to make passage through a horde a bit easier, by lowering the chance of a zombie grabbing or biting you. Yes, you'd still take the damage from the bite, but no infection.

 

Or, to put it another way, it's be suicide to run through 20 zombies tightly bunched up blocking your escape. Wearing your armour (a few strategically placed plates of hard material, padded clothes, leather jacket and homemade shield, not forgetting to tape anything down that could potentially be snagged/grabbed), you should be able to run through perhaps 25-30 zombies before it's just not going to happen.

 

In short, lowering the snag/bite chance based on your armour would probably be the best way to go about this. You'd still take damage, and hordes would still overpower you, but the chances of being infected would go down a bit. Your overall playstyle probably wouldn't change too much, but the armour would give you a slightly better margin of error, and a few more precious options, when things well and truly drop in the crapper.

[Gaffa Tape Warrior]

Oh no. And again...

If the devs do add armor, i hope they balance it out so you aren't force to use it if you don't want to. The below is a good system I think that could be used to balance armor appropriately.
 
Light Armor (Football Gear, Paper armor, ect)
- Decreases sprinting speed
- Cannot Sneak
 
Heavy Armor (Riot Gear)
- Causes loud noise
- Cannot Sprint
- Automatically encumbered if character doesn't have the strong/stout trait
 
Also every time your hit your armor durability would drop, eventually resulting in it breaking and being torn off by the angry Zeds.

Cannot sneak in light armour? All heavy armour being loud? Impossible to sprint in heavy armour? Encumbering for all but the strong or stout?
 
Depends on what it's made of and how it's made and your clothes and your skill, not just the weight. Decreases sprinting speed? When wearing the armour as opposed to having it in your hiking rucksack? You can quite easily make armour that doesn't restrict your movement.Thence the verses:
With armour, think about what it's made of and how it's made.
If there be an almost problem with an easy solution, it's not a problem.
 
 
I have quite a lot gone walking with a backpack weighing about 40lb including what's in it (assuming the scales told me the truth), and the weight was all on my shoulders because it wasn't a very good backpack.
For comparison, "interceptor" body armour weighs about 33lb by wikipedia. The internet says that soldiers are recommended not to carry more than 50lb, but often carry about 80lb, and some even a hundred pounds.
One certain harness of 15th century medieval armour was about 55lb, and the cuirass rests on the hips, which is good. This is about the range of weight of armour considered "heavy" I think.
 
And you say that people cannot sprint in heavy armour? Are you talking about bomb disposal suits and jousting armour, or actual combat armour? You're talking about things like riot armour. No. Just no.
Also saying that the weight of the armour is directly proportional to the noise made is senseless. If, for example, you have overlapping metal plates, then you are going to clatter. If on the other hand you know that you are surrounded by zombies and make armour without overlapping plates, or put some leather or cardboard between them, then it'll be much better.
You can even have heavy armour that doesn't clatter at all. And if you worry about making nosie bumping into things, then you can have soft material on the outside. Maybe even paint it with that paint for motorbikes that is brilliant at stopping sound. Thence the verses:
With armour, think about what it's made of and how it's made.
If there be an almost problem with an easy solution, it's not a problem.
 
 
Armour losing durability every time it's hit? Depends what it is and what hits it. Some materials would take absolutely no practical damage past scratches. Thence the verse:
With armour, think about what it's made of and how it's made.
 

in the context of Project Zomboid, the armour exists to buy you a few precious seconds to react to a surprise zombie.
 
The armour could serve to make passage through a horde a bit easier, by lowering the chance of a zombie grabbing or biting you. Yes, you'd still take the damage from the bite, but no infection.
 
In short, lowering the snag/bite chance based on your armour would probably be the best way to go about this. You'd still take damage, and hordes would still overpower you, but the chances of being infected would go down a bit. Your overall playstyle probably wouldn't change too much, but the armour would give you a slightly better margin of error, and a few more precious options, when things well and truly drop in the crapper.

You may have some armour that stops bites from infecting you but still allows you to get hurt, but also you can make some that makes you take do damage whatsoever. There's armour that makes you completely immune to sword blows for pete's sake! Thence the verses:
With armour, think about what it's made of and how it's made.
If there be an almost problem with an easy solution, it's not a problem.
 
 

Chain-mail (while not difficult to make with a single pair of tin snips, a large screw driver and a ton of heavy gauge wire) is still going to be heard from twenty feet away unless the person was barely moving at all.

Although lacking personal experience with the proper stuff, I've read that well made mail worn over clothes hugs the body and does not make noise.
 

Here is what I will say about the medieval armor; They would be damn effective in combat situations. A Sweeper squad utilizing gear like this, but perhaps more modernized (I picture the motorcycle suit plated up), would walk through a horde with little problem. The goal being to wipe out the zombies, all the noise would be justified.
 
My point is that I think there can be different uses to the different types of armor. You aren't going to bring a lawn mower to a logging competition. Each tool has its purpose and there will need to be many to fit the different play styles.

I agree.

[GoldenBullet]

Umm yea there is no way your going to be able to make armor that doesn't restrict your movement even if you were already an armor smith before the apocalypse. First off all armor restricts your movement regardless of how well it's made, because of it's weight. Secondly especially armor made by shitty novices would restrict your movement because you wouldn't have the joints connected properly and it's durability would make proper armor smiths roll over in their graves.

 

And armor is only as durable as the material that holds it together, so yes even if you were stupid enough to wear solid steel or wood, if you taped it together then it's only going to be as durable as the duct tape thats holding it.

 

And i said before medieval armor would be amazingly horrible in combat against Zombies. First off it would reduce your vision and accuracy. Secondly you would be reducing your own strength and speed by wearing that armor so that zombies would just swarm over you and you would be screwed. Sure they couldn't bite through plate but they would just tear it off you and then proceed to eat you.

[Rikashey]

Umm yea there is no way your going to be able to make armor that doesn't restrict your movement even if you were already an armor smith before the apocalypse. First off all armor restricts your movement regardless of how well it's made, because of it's weight. Secondly especially armor made by shitty novices would restrict your movement because you wouldn't have the joints connected properly and it's durability would make proper armor smiths roll over in their graves.

 

And armor is only as durable as the material that holds it together, so yes even if you were stupid enough to wear solid steel or wood, if you taped it together then it's only going to be as durable as the duct tape thats holding it.

 

And i said before medieval armor would be amazingly horrible in combat against Zombies. First off it would reduce your vision and accuracy. Secondly you would be reducing your own strength and speed by wearing that armor so that zombies would just swarm over you and you would be screwed. Sure they couldn't bite through plate but they would just tear it off you and then proceed to eat you.

 

Who cares about restricted movement when you are invulnerable to hoards of zombies.

 

Charge into a massive hoard shouting "Have at me naives!" while swinging your Zweihander.

 

 

[ApolloDiaspora]

 

Umm yea there is no way your going to be able to make armor that doesn't restrict your movement even if you were already an armor smith before the apocalypse. First off all armor restricts your movement regardless of how well it's made, because of it's weight. Secondly especially armor made by shitty novices would restrict your movement because you wouldn't have the joints connected properly and it's durability would make proper armor smiths roll over in their graves.

 

And armor is only as durable as the material that holds it together, so yes even if you were stupid enough to wear solid steel or wood, if you taped it together then it's only going to be as durable as the duct tape thats holding it.

 

And i said before medieval armor would be amazingly horrible in combat against Zombies. First off it would reduce your vision and accuracy. Secondly you would be reducing your own strength and speed by wearing that armor so that zombies would just swarm over you and you would be screwed. Sure they couldn't bite through plate but they would just tear it off you and then proceed to eat you.

 

Who cares about restricted movement when you are invulnerable to hoards of zombies.

 

Charge into a massive hoard shouting "Have at me naives!" while swinging your Zweihander.

 

 

 

 

Right before you're pushed over and smothered to death by the thousand plus zombies who decided to give the dashing knight a hug

 

All comments about this and that aside, bumping into a band of NPCs in replica medieval armour, no matter how horrible and loud it is, would be hilarious. Particularly if they tried to hold you up and spoke in ye olde english

[Rikashey]

 

 

Umm yea there is no way your going to be able to make armor that doesn't restrict your movement even if you were already an armor smith before the apocalypse. First off all armor restricts your movement regardless of how well it's made, because of it's weight. Secondly especially armor made by shitty novices would restrict your movement because you wouldn't have the joints connected properly and it's durability would make proper armor smiths roll over in their graves.

 

And armor is only as durable as the material that holds it together, so yes even if you were stupid enough to wear solid steel or wood, if you taped it together then it's only going to be as durable as the duct tape thats holding it.

 

And i said before medieval armor would be amazingly horrible in combat against Zombies. First off it would reduce your vision and accuracy. Secondly you would be reducing your own strength and speed by wearing that armor so that zombies would just swarm over you and you would be screwed. Sure they couldn't bite through plate but they would just tear it off you and then proceed to eat you.

 

Who cares about restricted movement when you are invulnerable to hoards of zombies.

 

Charge into a massive hoard shouting "Have at me naives!" while swinging your Zweihander.

 

 

 

 

Right before you're pushed over and smothered to death by the thousand plus zombies who decided to give the dashing knight a hug

 

All comments about this and that aside, bumping into a band of NPCs in replica medieval armour, no matter how horrible and loud it is, would be hilarious. Particularly if they tried to hold you up and spoke in ye olde english

 

 

I wouldn't even be mad if the devs added these guys to the game as an Easter Egg.

 

[FawkesGaming]

Who cares about restricted movement when you are invulnerable to hoards of zombies.

Charge into a massive hoard shouting "Have at me naives!" while swinging your Zweihander.

Right before you're pushed over and smothered to death by the thousand plus zombies who decided to give the dashing knight a hug

All comments about this and that aside, bumping into a band of NPCs in replica medieval armour, no matter how horrible and loud it is, would be hilarious. Particularly if they tried to hold you up and spoke in ye olde english

So much this. Or watching them get decimated by the horde around the corner.

[Kajin]

So much this. Or watching them get decimated by the horde around the corner.

 

Get six or so of those guys together and they'd probably be able to stonewall a moderately sized horde of zombies (I think about 50 or so. Any more than that and the zeds would be piling on faster than they could be killed and shaken off) if they had a defensible position where they could keep from getting attacked from all sides. Find some way to negate the zed's ability to swarm and fight them a handful at a time and a few guys in full plate mail armor would be pretty awesome. That's a bit situational, though, and relies entirely on having a good position to fight inside like a shop with only a single door and window as entrances.

 

I wouldn't trust super heavy armor to save me if I was out running around salvaging supplies or if I was playing a lone wolf type of survivor, though.

[FawkesGaming]

So much this. Or watching them get decimated by the horde around the corner.

Get six or so of those guys together and they'd probably be able to stonewall a moderately sized horde of zombies (I think about 50 or so. Any more than that and the zeds would be piling on faster than they could be killed and shaken off) if they had a defensible position where they could keep from getting attacked from all sides. Find some way to negate the zed's ability to swarm and fight them a handful at a time and a few guys in full plate mail armor would be pretty awesome. That's a bit situational, though, and relies entirely on having a good position to fight inside like a shop with only a single door and window as entrances.

I wouldn't trust super heavy armor to save me if I was out running around salvaging supplies or if I was playing a lone wolf type of survivor, though.

Way to ruin the fantasy I had. Still, one does question whether such a group would be sane enough to hold up somewhere and fight the reds from a defensible position. I'd imagine they'd much rather fight them all at once, in the battlefield.

[syfy]

any truly experienced fighter would look for a place where they are not able to be surrounded, a location where they can beat a strategic retreat if the shit gets too heavy. the middle of a field, with a big horde coming towards you, is a death trap. way too easy for the zombies to get around to your weak side.

[FawkesGaming]

any truly experienced fighter would look for a place where they are not able to be surrounded, a location where they can beat a strategic retreat if the shit gets too heavy. the middle of a field, with a big horde coming towards you, is a death trap. way too easy for the zombies to get around to your weak side.

Like I said, I wouldn't have thought them sane if they were shouting ye olde English at you whilst robbing you. And insane people don't hold the same thought process as other, more sane people.

[dra6o0n]

You don't even need to wear medieval armor... Just scrap it and use the pieces to craft a Metal Padded Leather Armor! Left over pieces are useful to craft tools like blades and used to reinforce things.

 

All you need is a light steel or iron frontal plate, a back plate, and shoulder and collar plates.

 

That protects your upperbody for the most part, and having tough padded leather for the arms and steel padded ankles on your boots for the foot, and finishing with padded leather for the legs works.

 

A zombie bite won't get through any of those materials, the thing you need is some mobility so they don't crowd you like canned tuna and start ripping your armor off.

 

Some metal plating would be needed in the case of fighting other survivors, especially firearm wielding ones.

 

Steel/Iron plates are good versus blades, they deflect them very easily... But Blunt force would always hurt, no matter what, so you need mobility to counter that.

 

Since blunt force is usually apply towards your upper body, and not your lower body, you can use plates on certain vital parts of your body.

 

You can also mix a thin layer of wood plate, with a super thin iron or steel plate on top. The Steel helps 'deflect' stabs or slashes, the wood helps mitigate stabs.

2~4mm of steel plate and 10mm of wooden plate sets are great for a mobile, and lightweight armor plating on yourself.

 

But in any case, armor isn't a huge priority in regards to zombies, if you get grabbed, you could prevent yourself from being bitten by grabbing the zombie by the neck to control it's head direction.

 

Its called CQC, and its the best armor anyone could have... So... Martial arts!

[Gaffa Tape Warrior]

Umm yea there is no way your going to be able to make armor that doesn't restrict your movement even if you were already an armor smith before the apocalypse. First off all armor restricts your movement regardless of how well it's made, because of it's weight. Secondly especially armor made by shitty novices would restrict your movement because you wouldn't have the joints connected properly and it's durability would make proper armor smiths roll over in their graves.

 

And armor is only as durable as the material that holds it together, so yes even if you were stupid enough to wear solid steel or wood, if you taped it together then it's only going to be as durable as the duct tape thats holding it.

 

And i said before medieval armor would be amazingly horrible in combat against Zombies. First off it would reduce your vision and accuracy. Secondly you would be reducing your own strength and speed by wearing that armor so that zombies would just swarm over you and you would be screwed. Sure they couldn't bite through plate but they would just tear it off you and then proceed to eat you.

The weight is a factor, and so it would be a trade-off. Weight is a bit slowing, but mostly tiring. If you are fit you should be able to wear armour and still run enough. You certainly can make armour that makes it hard to bend your joints, but that would be silly. You would then just remove the material that's on the insides of the joints if that's the problem. If you're talking plate armour with bad rivet placement, then cardboard templates may be used. It's not too hard to find the right spot without that though. It takes a bit of time perhaps.

 

Because you're up against mouths, not arrows and spears, you can afford not to have such tight articulation on the elbows and knees, so it'll be easy to get it right. But yeah, if it's just duckt tape keeping it on it may be worn through or even ripped off.

 

Padded Leather

Leather with padding behind it? Armour's always good with padding. Pistol and shotgun vs iron and steel plate. Hmmm.

 

And when your team's reached level 5 of armouring:

 

 

[Artinnio]

Just been thinking about armour and sorry if these have been stated but first: Leather jacket and denim such as jeans would give great protection, considering people wear it on motorcycles for bare basic protection.

Speaking of motorcycles, why not wear a set of the protective gear? It's very durable, as it's made out of the toughest fabrics on the planet: Kevlar, Cordura, Ballistic Nylon... the type of stuff that when layered can stop bullets and knives. Also the thick, padded gauntlets with carbon fiber knuckles which can withstand crashes at motorway speed and incredibly strong leather boots with oil-resistant, non-slip soles. Beyond that, there are pads, inserts and plates hidden all throughout to protect major joints and body parts...

 

Find a suit of that and a helmet and you'd be impossible to get bitten or scratched...

[Daec]

Just been thinking about armour and sorry if these have been stated but first: Leather jacket and denim such as jeans would give great protection, considering people wear it on motorcycles for bare basic protection.

Speaking of motorcycles, why not wear a set of the protective gear? It's very durable, as it's made out of the toughest fabrics on the planet: Kevlar, Cordura, Ballistic Nylon... the type of stuff that when layered can stop bullets and knives. Also the thick, padded gauntlets with carbon fiber knuckles which can withstand crashes at motorway speed and incredibly strong leather boots with oil-resistant, non-slip soles. Beyond that, there are pads, inserts and plates hidden all throughout to protect major joints and body parts...

Find a suit of that and a helmet and you'd be impossible to get bitten or scratched...

That's exactly what i try to say the whole time. Wearing this stuff isn't even really encumbering or hot. Im talking out of Personal experience. As long as it's below 30°C it's comfortable to wear and i can walk around in it the whole day. Im talking about modern Motorcycle gear (overall)....and i wouldn't wear a full helmet because of Vision but other than that. I would trust my Motorcycleoverall my life....Because i already do

But i wouldn't wear it to actively fight the armies of the undead. I would wear it to protect me from surprising zombies and the enviroment. Just look few Pages back and you'l find my whole Setup and the reasoning.

[Artinnio]

 

Just been thinking about armour and sorry if these have been stated but first: Leather jacket and denim such as jeans would give great protection, considering people wear it on motorcycles for bare basic protection.

Speaking of motorcycles, why not wear a set of the protective gear? It's very durable, as it's made out of the toughest fabrics on the planet: Kevlar, Cordura, Ballistic Nylon... the type of stuff that when layered can stop bullets and knives. Also the thick, padded gauntlets with carbon fiber knuckles which can withstand crashes at motorway speed and incredibly strong leather boots with oil-resistant, non-slip soles. Beyond that, there are pads, inserts and plates hidden all throughout to protect major joints and body parts...

Find a suit of that and a helmet and you'd be impossible to get bitten or scratched...

That's exactly what i try to say the whole time. Wearing this stuff isn't even really encumbering or hot. Im talking out of Personal experience. As long as it's below 30°C it's comfortable to wear and i can walk around in it the whole day. Im talking about modern Motorcycle gear (overall)....and i wouldn't wear a full helmet because of Vision but other than that. I would trust my Motorcycleoverall my life....Because i already do

But i wouldn't wear it to actively fight the armies of the undead. I would wear it to protect me from surprising zombies and the enviroment. Just look few Pages back and you'l find my whole Setup and the reasoning.

 

Read your post and I agree with it (except shooting for the head, the torso is a larger target, easier to hit so it's more instinctual to shoot for there, more chance of hitting, even with a minor injury which would be debilitating)

 

Just thinking as well, surely the military would have tried a cleanup situation, so there might be supply caches with their equipment, then there would be riot and regular police attire... Add to that leather jackets, motorcycle gear and heck, even American football gear, you wouldn't really need to craft any armour of your own.

[Raccoongamer]

what if you could look SWAT armor and riot shields at police stations?

 

[CatGuitarist]

I dont really think the government would care..

Take, for instance, my country, Argentina. 

 

Most cops are dead.

Gendarmory would somewhat give a shit, like half a shit..

GEO Spec. Ops don't really give a shit.

 

If you want something, you make it..

[Zathura]

(10 pages in...not reading it all, so forgive me if this is redundant)

 

In this kind of setting, "armor" to me means, leather jackets, biker chaps, steel-toed boots, and a football helmet (or football pads, for that matter)

 

I think I remember a game that let you deck yourself out in crazy stuff like that, but can't remember what it was.

 

That would be about the best armor you could hope for unless your town had an army navy store and you could pick up some actual gear...although to be fair, unless you had a complete SWAT loadout, standard military gear wouldn't even be as effective as leather and plastic for zombie attacks, which is kind of sad.

[dra6o0n]

Nylon is a good material for scratches and bites, due to it being very very hard to tear.

Then add some padding under it to soften the bites and 'punches' by the zombies.

 

Basically you need a material that can prevent it from tearing. Then padding to prevent them from crushing or tearing your skin and injuring you.

 

_{I wonder if being armed with a combat knife and some experience is sufficient to get out of a close quarter situation. If you cut the zombie's jaws on both sides, you can tear their ligiment and their jaws will fall down and can't bite. The same with their arms and legs, if you have a sword or a long blade which you 'saw' the underside of their armpit and the outer thighs, you can cut the muscle which supports them, resulting in a "disarmed" zombie. The reason being for these techniques is that it uses more focus, but less physical effort than killing a zombie outright with basic force. Plus it's stealthy and cleaner to dispatch them in that manner... Heck, get a bladed weapon on two hands, approach a zombie from the back, then stick the blades under their armpits and pull up and back, they lose arm strength. There's no point to doing any of this unless you are using zombies as tools, like in the walking dead to deter other players.}

[syfy]

but in the time it took to do your slice and dice on them, why not just decapitate them and be done with it?

the stuff you suggested could be used i guess, but then you still have a "live" zombie who will keep trying to get you.

[Zathura]

but in the time it took to do your slice and dice on them, why not just decapitate them and be done with it?

the stuff you suggested could be used i guess, but then you still have a "live" zombie who will keep trying to get you.

What he suggested was pretty...um...complex and unnecessary....

 

but...

 

Aside from an axe, it's (purportedly) pretty difficult to completely sever the spinal column with anything less. Unless you have a real damascus-style katana, and a lot of strength.

 

Personally, I'm for the Walking Dead method. Grab their shoulder with one hand, and plunge a knife into the eye-socket. Simple, quick, effective.

 

In fact...what do you know, the game already does that with a kitchen knife. It seems to be an underrated weapon, as I was easily dispatching zombies in one hit with it....of course, they do have to be extremely close.

[syfy]

there is one mod in here, the Yet Another Weapon mod, has a combat knife with good durability. give me some type of armor on my forearms and shoulders and i'll take on a horde just using that knife with the up and under move.

 

mod has not been updated recently, unfortunately.

[Salvag3]

Actually it's incredibly difficult to make chain mail. While medieval games have lots of it, in reality only royalty and the richest nobility could afford to go to battle in chain mail armor.

 

Yeah, that was in my original post (  ), chain mail is crazy hard to make. And that's for a trained blacksmith with exact knowledge, large amounts of time and proper tools. For a survivor with no to basic equipment, limited time, no knowledge of exactly how to make it and no past experience/training of black smithing, it would be all but impossible. Even if they somehow made it the chain mail would be low quality, heavy and VERY load.

 

Plate armor is all the bad things about chain mail multiplied by three. It wouldn't even protect you! Zombies would just tear the plates off.

You can make effective chain mail from metal coat hangers and a pair of needle noise, it takes about a week to do to make a chest piece it will stop finger nails and bites, I know because I did it in high school. You can also greatly reduce the time by wrapping the wire around something round then cutting it and bending the links.

[Salvag3]

I think one thing a lot if people are missing about the idea of armoring your self is important to note, in most cases we are talking about equipment to stop bites, and fingernails, not blades and bullets. I mean if I gave you my soccer shin guards or my fieldshear riding jacket I would enjoy seeing how long it takes you to claw/chew your way though it, or bite your way through foot ball pads. I don't care if you even have the idea the zombies are super strong ( and Proper Zeds are not any stronger than you or I, they in fact would start getting weaker as they decay, the just don't tire like us warm bloods do ) the human teeth just don't have the right shape to cut through a lot of human made stuff, at least the stuff you would protect your self with. Give this a try on your own or a buddies arm, wrap a magazine around it then tape it in place with duct tape, then they to bite through it, in the end I think you will find that you end up with a bruise not a bite.

point two, with about a days time I could take a street sign down, bend and shape it with pliers and metal shears file down the sides, then drill a few holes around the edges so you can attach padding and have some holes to tie the back and front togetherr on your body and in the matter of 8-10 hours of work you have a Breast plate. You follow a pretty similar plan to make arm and leg guards. Now would this be loud when you move around ? Yeah prolly. Would it take time to put on and take off ? Yeah prolly, would fighting take more out of you and reduce you skills until you got used to it, yeah prolly, but ... Would you be more protected from bites and scratches gonna go with with yes

.

Another really important thing to note, like in my example you would not be trying to make things starting from scratch. It ate a lot of work and skill to turn a iron bar into metal links, it takes no skills to bend heavy gauge wire into links, nor would it take a lot of skill to cut apart soda cans layer them, sinch them down and then insert them into the arms or sew onto a heavy jacket, besides places like miltary surplus stores carry stuff like balastic helmets, flak jackets, ect ect. You really think the gun store in WP has not a single piece of protective equipment in it ? Or that the cops had no riot gear ? Bullet proof vests ? Where is the dirt bike gear and motorcycle gear you really think that here In he south in a rural spot like this you won't find a fair share of riders ? I ride and Own 4 jackets and my wife owns 2 I don't see us taking more than 1 each of we were packing to get out of town before zombies.

In short protection from bites is a need, people would very quickly address the need people would not just settle for a sweater and call it good.