SBD Knee Sleeve Sizing Guide: How to Get the Perfect Fit

Looking to get yourself your first pair of SBD Knee Sleeves but worried about what size to get? You wear a small pant does that mean you need a small knee sleeve? Who owns a measuring tape?? 

Well hopefully the answer to that last question is you (or maybe your mom and she'll help you?). We do definitely want to measure to make sure we select the correct size since knees and calves can be very different person to person and we can't rely on pant size, or shoe size or anything else as a reference for what size you will need. 

**If you really don't have a measuring tape you can jerry rig a solution using a piece of string and a ruler (if you don't have one of those either I'm running out of solutions...). 

Start by measuring your knee with your leg straight but relaxed. Measure right around the centre of your knee and record that measurement in centimetres. Then we want to measure the largest part of your calf. This is important since if you have larger calves than your knees you might struggle to get the knee sleeve past your calf. Record the calf measurement in centimetres as well (side note you may want to measure both calves because you might have one calf that is much larger than the other if you've done any jumping sports you probably jumped off one foot primarily).

If the calf measurement is 4cm bigger than your knee measurement, use that one. Then compare it to the chart below:

Now there are some nuances around which style of knee sleeve you are looking to get. If you are looking to get either the 5mm Weightlifting knee sleeves, or the standard 7mm knee sleeves, we recommend following the chart exactly. If your measurement is 36cm, then go with a Large. If this is your first pair of knee sleeves and you are the cut off between two sizes, say 38cm, then we would recommend going with the larger size, so in that case an XLarge. 

Finally if you are looking at the 7mm Powerlifting knee sleeves, and this is your first pair of sleeves then we recommend going up one size from the recommended unless you are at the very bottom of the size range. So again for size large if you are 36cm you could go with large, if you are 37 or 38cm you should go with the XLarge. The 7mm Powerlifting knee sleeves are much tighter and harder to get on and if they are your first pair then you'll appreciate going a bit bigger. 

With that said, if this is your first pair of serious knee sleeves we highly recommend starting with either the 5mm Weightlifting Knee Sleeves, or the Standard 7mm Knee Sleeves as they are both easier to get on and off and still provide ample support for all your training. 

Feel free to watch the video below which might help guide you further as well as demonstrate the measuring and techniques to put the knee sleeves on more easily.