Mountain Lab Knee Guard Pro Review

To help prevent that unfortunate circumstance from happening to you, I offer you my Mountain Lab Knee Guard Pro review.

The Mountain Lab Knee Guard Pro are as easy to use as it gets; you simply slide them on, then forget about them for the rest of the day.

Mountain Lab put some good thought into the design of these knee guards, starting with a flexible, intelligent foam technology that hardens on impact. Don’t ask me how it works but they’ve sourced some futuristic material that is soft if you slowly push on it but firm ups instantly with a quick hard hit. Must be magic. They tell us that it offers CE Level 1 protection.

There is also some thinner protection directly above and to each side of the knee.

I’ve tried wearing the Knee Guard Pro both over and under my first layer, finding them to be very comfortable either way.

The backside of the Knee Guard Pro is made up of a stretchy, breathable mesh material with silicone grip strips on the top and bottom openings to keep them from moving around on you throughout the day. The strips actually work—just be aware that they can pull on your leg hair if you decide to wear them under your long johns, but you can flip them out easily enough if that bothers you. Or just wear them over top of your base layer.

The material that covers the knee pad part is reinforced with Kevlar for good abrasion resistance.

The pads have a nice, slim design which fully protects the knee cap but doesn’t hinder movement of the knee or overall rider mobility. This means they would also work great for mountain biking, skateboarding or even working around the house. We don’t judge here at Mountain Sledder magazine—if you or someone you know is a rollerblader, these would work pretty well for that application too.

Aside from offering protection, I find another bonus to wearing knee guards is the added support and the warmth they provide on the trail ride—I find my mid-thirty-year-old knees feel less fatigued at the end of the day whether or not I actually hit them on anything.

A word of caution, if you’re built like Andre the Giant, these might be too tight for you. They do have great stretch to fit most riders, but are fairly snug to begin with. Another good option if you want more adjustability or a larger size is the standard Mountain Lab Knee Guard.

*Editor’s note: For Winter 2021/22, Mountain Lab will have a larger size L-2XL Knee Guard Pro available. The tested size is S-L.

Coming in at $75 CAD ($65 USD), the Mountain Lab Knee Guard Pro is a pretty affordable option to save your knees from taking a beatdown. Speaking from experience, one direct hit from a running board edge straight to the knee cap is enough for a lifetime.

TLDR (Too Long; Didn’t Read): If you need some knee guards for snowmobiling or whatever, do yourself a favour and buy these.

– Sean

For more details on the Mountain Lab Knee Guard Pro, visit www.mountainlabgear.com