CE in Historical Fencing? The Development of the St. George Fencing Uniform

Why CE? The Development of the St. George Fencing Uniform

how it started
When I received the fortunate news a few weeks ago that the St. George fencing uniform had received the Declaration of Conformity, a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders. I had finally achieved it! But what had I actually achieved, and why had I even started this journey?

I've been practicing sword fighting and historical fencing since I was 13, almost 21 years old. When I started teaching in 2007, I didn't yet know that after more than 13 years as an officer, I would pursue a career as a fencing instructor. Preparations to transform the IN MOTU club into a fencing school began as early as 2014. Of course, all the legal requirements had to be clarified and planned. But at the time, I wasn't aware of all the additional legal requirements regarding protective equipment that would arise after the school was founded.

I also adapted my curriculum to include equipment planning. This means that as a fencing skill develops, so does the equipment. Of course, this also required determining which equipment I would recommend to my students. After the new, multi-year curriculum reached a point where the first few had to gradually acquire protective gear for bouts, I intensified this planning and fortunately had a lot of professional support. As a trainer, it is naturally my obligation to recommend materials and equipment that will not cause my students any health or legal disadvantages. It eventually became increasingly clear that the area of ​​protective equipment was and remains very sensitive in many respects. Firstly, because accidents can, of course, happen in fencing, and one adapts one's guidelines and rules of conduct accordingly. But accidents can always happen, even with good internal rules of conduct. And if accidents do happen, one has insurance.

What I only realized during this time was that the insurance company can, of course, ask what equipment was being worn during the accident. If it doesn't comply with applicable regulations, it can lead to the insurance not paying out. But as a coach, school principal, tournament organizer, and someone who wanted to offer their students the opportunity to purchase equipment on-site at their own school, this meant that I had to delve deeper into the topic. I started doing this in 2018, as the transition to becoming a full-time fencing instructor drew ever closer. That's when the topic of "personal protective equipment" and "CE" came up. Fortunately, in the European Union, the end consumer of goods is very well protected. CE isn't just a symbol of tested safety for electrical appliances or glass panes. Personal protective equipment must also comply with applicable regulations (I will write a separate blog post about these regulations). Protective equipment in sports also falls under this regulation, as you can see from the equipment on the market for other sports such as rugby, football, ice hockey, karate, etc.

So, starting in 2018, I increasingly searched for equipment that complied with these regulations and would protect my students as consumers in every way. I was disappointed to discover that such equipment simply didn't exist. I couldn't recommend HEMA equipment to my students because it had never been tested, certified, or labeled according to the applicable regulations. Only the equipment already used in Olympic fencing met the requirements. However, with the exception of the fencing mask and the corresponding protective hood, these were only suitable for a few areas of historical fencing.

Unfortunately, even after contacting several HEMA manufacturers, nothing was done. Students who inquired about the safety and certification of their previously purchased jackets were repeatedly fobbed off and still haven't received a response. So, I had to find a way to provide my students with equipment that complied with the applicable regulations, thus enabling them to fence safely and avoiding any legal problems or remorse for me as a trainer.

The decision
So, in 2018, I finally decided to approach Olympic fencing manufacturers, initially for fencing uniforms. The first jacket prototypes were produced for me by the English company Leon Paul in 2019. Some fencers were able to test these prototypes at the Central German Historical Fencer Meeting in Borchen in 2019. However, with Brexit, I abandoned this path and was all the more pleased to have secured the services of Uhlmann, a German manufacturer that is one of the largest in the world and has many years of experience in producing the highest quality fencing equipment.

I had already long been aware of the problems with conventional jackets and trousers, which I was familiar with from my own many years of experience, and incorporated the ideas of other fencing colleagues. During this time, I worked with many materials to combine high mobility, low weight, and adequate protection at an optimal level.

With a clear idea in mind, I had a seamstress from Nordhausen create my first prototype using the desired materials, and I was excited to see the result. At the time, I was thrilled! 
When the prototype was finished, I immediately took my equipment to my fencing hall and tried it on. It was lightweight, highly maneuverable, and able to absorb blows and stabs to my specifications. It had nothing in common with the previous prototypes that had been tested in Borchen. You can find a video of said prototype here.

This laid out the concept for the upcoming fencing jacket and trousers. I presented this prototype to my new cooperation partner, Uhlmann, who was equally convinced by my idea. So we looked into how we could implement my jacket idea with the matching trousers. We produced three more prototypes and improved them throughout 2020. Here you can see a video of the first black prototype with the matching fencing trousers.

We were not discouraged by the coronavirus. Following the current regulations, I had the prototypes tested and evaluated by various fencing friends from all over Germany. One of them was my fellow fencing friend Michael Sprenger from Dresden, whose review was you can read hereWe continued to improve everything possible. Ultimately, we created a fencing uniform that we were completely satisfied with. This was also evident when I was able to present and test the jacket prototypes and the accompanying new leather vest at the Tremonia Fencing School in the fall of 2020.

The fencers were very enthusiastic, as you can see from some of the posts here in the blog. (Review by Christian Lee-Becker, Review by Lukas Maestle-Goer)

ladies model
In spring 2020, female fencers asked me if I would also design a women's model. Of course, Uhlmann and I had also thought about women, as this was also on my list of improvements. In conversations over the past few years, I've been told several times that current fencing jackets often cause problems for women. Therefore, we leveraged Uhlmann's experience with Olympic designs for women's jackets and tested a women's model with a student at my school. We were very pleased with the results.

(Discount in the picture is no longer valid)

The name St. George
Throughout the development process, I traveled to Uhlmann in Laupheim several times to ensure smooth operations and good communication. I like to talk to friends on the phone on my long journeys. On this trip, I spoke to my student and friend Patrick again, and we discussed what names the fencing equipment could have – what would have a strong connection to fencing? One thing has been typical of fencing since the Middle Ages: the reference to "patron saints." The typical saint for fencers and knights was Saint George. So we chose Saint George as the patron saint of fencers and knights, as often mentioned in old fencing manuscripts. I was finally able to convince my fencing colleague Dierk Hagedorn to provide us with his Saint George motif. So it became his motif, which we used for the fencing jacket and its name for recognition. 

Certification
The lengthy certification process began in the summer of 2020. After we had finalized the form, we immediately initiated it at a German institute. Uhlmann's experience had shown that such a process takes a lot of time.

But what does certification actually mean? Personal protective equipment must be tested in the EU according to current regulations [1]. There are three categories of protective equipment described below. Category I designates areas associated with a low risk of injury. This equipment can be tested and labeled by the manufacturer themselves. Category III designates areas with a very high risk for the wearer. This requires a great deal of effort and many lengthy processes, as you can see in the graphic below.

All uses of protective equipment not explicitly mentioned in the document are automatically classified in Category II. This includes fencing and historical fencing. In this Category II, the protective equipment must be tested by an institute in accordance with EU regulations and the protection requirements targeted by the manufacturer. This involves not simply testing the material for its stab resistance, but rather a long list of requirements that must be verified and met. Here are just a few examples:

• Certification and supervised product testing of protective clothing: EU type examination of PPE (CE marking) and supervised product testing according to Regulation (EU) 2016/425, Annex
• Product and usability tests
• Acceptance analyses and quality monitoring
• Durability of the products (e.g. how many washes the jackets can withstand)
• Checking clothing sizes
• Testing of precursors for personal protective equipment
• Testing the construction and functional parameters of textile fabrics
• Review and assessment of the design to ensure that it fulfils the protective function (i.e. whether the product actually achieves the stated protective effect)

It was therefore clear that we couldn't have our tests based solely on the existing Olympic fencing standards, but that these would be used as a benchmark for the testing procedures. Therefore, it was also clear that our fencing suit, on the one hand, belongs to Category II of the PPE, meaning it has to undergo the lengthy testing process described above at an institute, and on the other hand, it should reach Level II in the fencing standards.

The testing center, which is itself certified according to EU specifications and thus has the specialist staff to evaluate products in every respect, tested and certified our fencing suits according to these and many other specifications. For this purpose, we had to submit a large number of suits as prototypes (around 30 jackets and trousers) in various colors, men's sizes, women's sizes, and children's sizes for so-called type testing, which, of course, cannot be used afterward. This entire process is correctly called conformity assessment. The effort and cost of such certification are immense. Without my cooperation partner Uhlmann, it would have been impossible to manage.

By the way: any company or retailer that sells, distributes, or imports personal protective equipment in the EU that is not tested, certified, and labeled according to the EU standards for personal protective equipment is committing a criminal offense. Simply using tested material is not enough. The final product must be declared compliant according to the regulations described above! For Level 2 fencing jackets, this always means a type test and conformity assessment with a certificate from another institute.
As an end customer, you're not committing any offense. But you might have the problem of not knowing what your equipment is actually capable of. And if it doesn't do what it's supposed to and doesn't protect you properly in an accident, you might have the problem described above, where your insurance won't pay. Of course, I didn't want that for my students and my events. I also didn't want to embark on such a legally questionable path myself.

Done!
After more than seven months of testing, we finally did it! At the end of January 2021, the institute sent us the corresponding certificate. Our fencing jacket is therefore probably the first to comply with EU legal requirements. With this, I have achieved a goal and brought a project I started more than two years ago to fruition.

I think the video shows that the final product is also impressive! ;-) 

You can see how long it takes to develop high-quality, legally compliant protective equipment. But in the end, you should remember one thing: all these regulations and complicated, lengthy procedures have only one goal:

To protect the consumer – that is, you as a fencer.

It's worth it to me!

More about the St. George fencing suit you can find here.

[1] Regulation (EU) 2016/425 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2016 on personal protective equipment and repealing Directive 89/686/EEC