I’ve always enjoyed making costumes - especially post-apocalyptic themed ones - but always with a twist. This set of armor was built for a “technopagan” costume where I played a character in a distant future where forgotten technologies are not well understood - but are worshipped nonetheless.
Based upon second-hand football pads (or were they hockey pads?) and adorned with various ancient symbols, this costume employs mostly reclaimed electronic materials to serve as embellishments, such as the shoulder pad spiked with brass banana-style connectors. Not all is mere decoration, however. The solar panels which adorn the chestpiece and leg rigs are all functional (solar panels donated by Voltaic Systems) and charge the 5000mAh battery bank attached to the chest. This power bank then drives both the “status” display on the chest (an audio frequency tracking app on an old smartphone) as well as the RGB LED lighting which emanates from under both shoulder pads. The chest electronics are hidden beneath hand-molded thermoplastic and all power hookups travel through wire salvaged from CAT network cables (as is a common theme in my reclaimed projects). Accessories included a cloud-locked iPhone 4 wrist piece and a floppy disk belt. The costume was worn for Halloween and to Bike Kill 2019, and remains in my possession for possible future appearances.
