Jackson Gordon, studying industrial design at Philadelphia University, is blowing up the internet with his handmade, functioning Batsuit. Well, mostly functioning. While it can handle machetes, baseball bats, and punches from a boxer wearing Kevlar gloves, it’s not bullet-proof. Still, that’s pretty awesome.
Buzzfeed has a really good article about Gordon and his Batsuit, including good images, and a “stress test” video that includes a knife attack. (All taking place in a college dorm room.)
I hope Christopher Nolan hears about this, because it seems like something of a proof-of-concept that would make Lucius Fox proud. The suit weighs about 25 pounds, which Gordon said “you barely notice” since it’s spread around your entire body.
Even though 25 pounds might sound like a lot, when you distribute that weight over your entire body, you barely notice it’s there. It doesn’t inhibit mobility, and it provides full body protection. It’s relatively comfortable, it gets a bit warm but it doesn’t chafe or cause irritation anywhere.
It does slow down my movements ever so slightly, but what is lost in speed is gained in power due to the extra weight from the suit behind my strikes.
I can only imagine what this guy’s resumé will look like. “2014, Intern at Philadelphia Design Studio. 2015 – Built Functioning Batsuit.” Frankly, that’s all you’d need to put down and I think you’d get hired by pretty much any company that likes their employees to be awesome.