DonJoy Performance Bionic Drytex Hinged Knee sleeve

I’ve been diagnosed with a torn meniscus, but am trying to hold off on having surgery. I am an avid pickleball player (3-4 sessions a week for a total of 9-11 hours of playing time) and at the onset of the problem I was lucky if I could play one session for a couple of hours a week. While I am not pain-free, this brace has enabled me to mostly get back to the level of activity I was at before the pain began. I had tried a number of drug store braces with minimal success and found the lifespan of those braces tended to be fairly limited before they started coming apart. This brace is built much sturdier and sure seems likely to last much longer than those less expensive braces. I like the Drytex as it is lighter and cooler than the neoprene of other braces I had used. The sizing does run on the small size. According to the sizing guide I was a clear Medium. The braces (I’m wearing one on each knee) are very, very snug. They do seem to stretch out a bit with use, but remain snug. Not uncomfortably snug, but enough so that it takes some work putting them on and especially taking them off when I’ve been sweating. Personally, I feel like the tightness of fit gives me an extra feeling of stability for the knee, but I’m sure some people would find the fit bothersome. If you think you would be so inclined then you may want to order a size larger than the sizing chart indicates.

Overall this seems very well made and durable but the sizes just don’t line up. We got the small for my kid for football based on the measurements in the size chart. It was a little too small and rubbed on his calf. We returned it and went with the medium and that was too big and slid down on his leg. They need to overlap the sizes some more or put a size between the small and medium.

Years later this is still working well used multiple times a week for sport. Other than the top portion that covers the metal hinging wearing away, this provided decent support preventing my knee from popping out during lateral forces from an old injury

Hard to pull up if knee is injured.

If I could give it ZERO STARS I would. Absolute waste of money and time and basically ruined a day of skiing. Got it because I have an old version of this for my right knee but after an injury last year I now need one for might left as well. At home before we headed out I put it on over the long johns and the brace felt fine. On the mountain we skied a few runs and it warmed up a lot so I took off the long johns and put the braces on my knees. The old one was fine but the new one was SO incredibly irritating to my skin. It felt like there was a bunch of fishing line ends poking into my knee, it seemed like all the stitching was like this, and it was also extra annoying because some of the irritating parts were right where incisions had been. WORST design… did no one ever try a prototype?? I tried putting a layer of cloth between my skin and the brace but it didn’t help much and then the cloth became annoying as well. I wanted to use this brace for exercise in addition to skiing like running and cycling but there is no way I could ever use something that uncomfortable on my bare skin. BUYER BEWARE!!!