This thick quilted gambeson, crafted from thick cotton can be adjusted with leather straps and brass buckles on the front. Its sleeves are laced to the torso and they can be removed and replaced with half sleeves instead. These half-sleeves are included. Alternatively, the sleeves could be left off altogether to create a gambeson vest.
The interior of the gambeson is lined with cotton felt. As this gambeson is crafted from organic material, it will breathe better than other poly-fill gambesons on the market.
This gambeson is handcrafted, sizes will vary slightly – so these measurements should be taken as approximations.
A thick, padded jacket common to Medieval and Renaissance warriors, the Gambeson was a protective layer beneath chain or plate armor – it served both as a shock absorbing layer and chafe protection for its wearer. Poorer combatants and lightly-armored archers and skirmishers might wear only the gambeson as their major piece of body armor.
Gambesons first began to be common in the 10th century and were largely intended to be a layer beneath chainmail. By the later years of the Medieval era, it became common for soldiers to wear a substantially thicker gambeson, sometimes called a padded jack, as their main armor. Quilted with many layers of fabric, typically linen, a padded jack could act like a sort of kevlar and give its wearer excellent protection from cuts and slashes. It could even stop arrows in some circumstances. Additional protection could be added to such gambesons with jack-chains, a sort of partial-plate protection which could stop a strong slash from cutting into the shoulders and arms.
SIZING
SMALL
Chest Size: 37 1/4 (94.6 cm)
Length from Neck to Bottom of Coat: 33 3/8 (84.7 cm)
Weight:
MEDIUM
Chest Size: 40.5 (102.8 cm)
Length from Neck to Bottom of Coat: 35 3/8 (89.8 cm)
Weight: 6 lb 8.2 oz
LARGE
Chest Size: 43 1/2 ( 110 cm)
Length from Neck to Bottom of Coat: 35 3/8 (89.8 cm)
Weight:
X-LARGE
Chest Size: 46 3/4 ( 118.7 cm)
Length from Neck to Bottom of Coat: 35 3/8 (89.8 cm)
Weight: 6 lb 11 oz
XX-LARGE
Chest Size: 49 7/8 (126.6 cm)
Length from Neck to Bottom of Coat: 35 3/8 (89.8 cm)
Weight: 7 lb 10 oz
Vlad P. –
Wouldn’t recommend – barely usable out of the box. I’ve already ordered the Late 14th Century Gambeson by Lord of Battles, and got a medium because the sizing guide made it sound like that was the right size. Well the medium turned out to be too small. So I got a large of this one, and despite being the same maker, it’s WAAAY too large as well. Meaning both gambesons have their sizing incorrectly reported on their store pages.
Sizing aside, the cord that holds the sleeves on seems very delicate and I highly doubt it would stand up to any serious sparring or even movement. The collar is massive and actually goes up past my neck and into my cheeks, which looks really dumb, and also makes it impossible to wear a gorget over it because of how thick and stiff it is. You COULD make this gambeson usable but it’ll take some work. Don’t buy if you want something nice out of the box. And if you’re 5’10, slim, and usually wear large shirts, get a medium of this.
rmvejmola (verified owner) –
Great gambeson but has it’s “drawbacks”, none of which I will reduce stars for, as they aren’t a big deal, or they aren’t actually problems with the gambeson.
I ordered a large without checking the size specifications since I typically wear a large shirt, and luckily enough the size came perfect, but there were some tiny things that could be better. The collar is a bit on the larger size and touches my jawline if I’m not standing with perfect posture, which slightly irritates my facial hair, which is really my fault for slouching, (but the collar suits me so I do look good in it haha); the sleeves are a little too tight and whenever I put it on with a long sleeve underneath the sleeves will roll up and feel uncomfortable, and it’s just too tight for me to fit my hands in the sleeves to pull them down, or hold the sleeves of the shirt as I put on the gambeson, but it wasn’t too tight for someone with smaller hands to help me get the shirt sleeves down; the sleeves could also use some tapering near the wrist so I can put on gauntlets easily, but that’s not much of an issue because I just need to push the gauntlets on harder; the gambeson will get dirty fast if you don’t clean off all the grease off the armor pieces before you put them on; and finally the gambeson is a little too long for the look I imagined in my head with a cuirass on, but that’s probably because I should’ve bought an arming doublet, otherwise it looks pretty cool without a cuirass on and a belt to make it look put together. All these issues I can fix easily so there’s no point in taking stars off for them, and all the armor I have fits over the gambeson with ease, so it achieves everything I bought it for, just need to work on my posture.
Despite the minor issues stated above, this is a wonderful gambeson and I highly recommend it, but if you’re planning on wearing it under armor, an arming doublet is obviously much more suited to the task.