What is The Best Open Patella Knee Sleeve?

Open patella knee sleeves are designed to keep the pressure off your knee cap while continuing to supply compression to the muscles, ligaments, and tendons that make up and support your knee.

When it comes to naming the one best open patella knee sleeve, that’s almost impossible. What I’m going to do is show you what I consider the 4 top options. The ones I like the best.

Like any knee sleeve, open patella models provide support as they stimulate blood circulation to and around the joint, only these sleeves leave your patella exposed. The two primary reasons people wear open patella knee sleeves are:

  • The main benefit of open patella sleeves is preventing abnormal tracking of the knee cap. This type of sleeve keeps the knee cap in alignment without the pressure on the patella from closed patella knee supports.
  • Some people want the compression and support from a knee sleeve but not feel the pressure on their knee cap.
  • Others have injured the front of their knee and need the open patella type sleeves.

4 Best Open Patella Knee Sleeves

What you can expect from each of these knee sleeve reviews:

  • The main features and benefits of each one
  • What we see, and learn about each sleeve that we consider a drawback
  • Finally, what we like about about the particular brand and knee sleeve

So, let’s review some of the best knee sleeves with an open patella

Sleeve Stars Open Patella Knee Support

Features and Benefits of Sleeve Stars Open Patella Knee Sleeve

  • Great support that minimizes pain and stabilizes knee while you’re engaged in sports, exercise, or walking
  • Amazon Best Seller. This is the first thing you’ll notice, and this brand comes with only a few reviews — but a high rating or 4 1/2 stars.
  • Good for any sports, athletic activity, working out at the gym, and for people with arthritis in their knees
  • Swedish brand designed by people who are active themselves and know about knee support and sports related injuries
  • Very easy to adjust to get the perfect fit and compression level
  • One size fits knees between 12 1/2 and 18 inches

As you can see, the Neoprene Sleeve Star Knee Sleeve is easy to get on with just the right fit. It will stabilize your knee while leaving your kneecap somewhat exposed, which will give you a comfortable wear all day long.

Pros

  • Easy to adjust velcro straps
  • Latex free
  • Breathable and wicks away any moisture
  • Great for sports, exercise, or walking the track with arthritis
  • Comfortable for extended use on the basketball court or all day shopping
  • For kids, men and women with knee injuries, or those who want support and injury prevention

Cons

  • This Knee Sleeve is designed to only partially expose your patella. This is to take the pressure off the center of your knee cap while still providing protection.
  • If your knee measures more than 18 inches — it’s too small?

About The Sleeve Star Company

A brother and sister in Sweden own and operate this company and are highly committed to providing a quality open knee cap sleeve. Their goal is to engineer top products they can proud of that breathe well, fit well, provide lasting support and injury prevention at a price we can all afford.

What Amazon Customers Say About Sleeve Star

I am quite impressed that there are almost no negative reviews for Sleeve Star Open Patella knee support.

Bottom Line for Sleeve Star

Sleeve Star hasn’t been around as long as some of the more established companies, however, they are committed to bringing you a quality knee sleeve product that serves your knees well.

They combine excellent knee support and compression with an open patella, adjustable straps that make the sleeve comfortable to wear. You will find them great purchase  for knee pain, stiffness, arthritis, acl, pcl, injured ligaments, and just about any knee issues.


Bracoo Open Patella Knee Support

Features and Benefits of Bracoo Open Patella Knee Stabilizer

  • Open patella design to relieve pressure on the knee cap 
  • Reinforced with a stabilization ring around open patella to make sure knee cap stays in the right place and guides knee cap into proper motion
  • Ideal for Joint pain, sprains, MCL, LCL, sports injuries, and Arthritis
  • Velcro strips make it easy for anyone to adjust to the perfect size
  • Extra thick neoprene for better protection

The Dual Spring Stabilizers make the Bracoo open patella knee sleeve an excellent choice for strains, sprains, and arthritis in the knees. They ensure you’ll have flex and laterall support and not lose any rotation.

Pros

  • 3 adjustable knee brace straps to ensure a perfect fit and prevent slippage
  • Lightweight and comfortable knee brace makes it easy to wear for long periods of time
  • Not restrictive, allowing for plenty of movement and flexibility
  • Great for biking, jogging, walking, or any exercise or sports related activity
  • High Quality breathable fabric
  • Skin friendly
  • Designed to fit almost every size and shape knees

Cons

  • If you’re knee measures more than 17 inches Bracoo could be too small

About The Bracoo company

Bracoo seems to be a company bent on staying up with customer usage and constantly looking for ways to improve their products. Part of their general mission statement is to bring top-quality products to the market at prices that we can afford. They seem to design and update their products based on customer feedback to build new and update their products.

What Users Say About Bracoo

Only 30 reviews for this model of open patella Bracoo knee support, but with a 4 star rating the vast majority of reviews are 5 star.

Bottom Line for Bracoo Open Patella 

I like the both the Spring Stabilizers and Stabilizer ring around the patella opening. The Stabilizers add more and firm up the support for the knee joint and muscles around it.

The 3 velcro straps make this type of sleeve more adaptable for your own personal comfort and fit than the typical slide on knee sleeves.

Even though there’s not thousands of reviews, there are very few negative reviews which means purchasers are satisfied with the bracoo product. And too tell you the truth: most negative reviews for this brand are common to every negative knee sleeve review.

Some people simply don’t take the time to try different adjustments until they find the proper fit for themselves. Do that, and you will love this Bracoo Knee Stabilizer Brace.


Winzone Open Patella Knee Brace by ComfyMed

Features and Benefits of Winzone

  • Adjustable straps that can attach almost anywhere on the brace makes it seriously adjustable to get a comfortable fit.
  • Sleek and slim design makes it easy to wear Winzone knee brace under clothing.
  • Use on either knee, whether you are a man or woman.
  • Provides great support for walking with weak knees, arthritis, knee injuries, and sports activities.
  • This fully adjustable, open patella knee sleeve fits knees from 12.4″ – 21.7″
  • 12 month warranty

Open Patella knee sleeves are really great for getting just the perfect fit and compression level around your knee joint and leg. Winzone has several great features that include being able to latch and attach the strap almost anywhere on the sleeve. Making minute adjustments to get it just right at a moment’s notice is easy with Winzone Knee Brace Support.

Pros

  • I always like a 12 month warranty with courteous and professional support.
  • 4.5 star reviews with almost 2500 reviews — lets me know I’m not the only one who likes Winzone open patella knee sleeves.
  • Great for acute and chronic knee pain relief from strains, sprains, knee joint fatigue, post surgery, sports injuries, walking and exercising with arthritis, and knee support for sports injury prevention.
  • Good for any sports or situation where you could use a little extra knee support.
  • Good to wear under pants, trousers, and warmups. 
  • Very easy to put on, take off, and adjust for size, fit and comfort.

Cons

  • This is a stretch breathable neoprene knee sleeve with an open patella — and all neoprene will have an odor until it disappears after several times of use or washing a couple of times.
  • Of the very few negative reviews, are some people complaining about the velcro not working properly after a while??

What People Say About Winzone Knee Braces

If you are shopping for the best knee sleeves with an open patella, you definitely want to check out the Winzone Amazon Reviews. You will be surprised at how many people are in love with this knee brace and what they think makes it the best they’ve worn for everything from meniscus tears to finally getting results from a knee replacement with Winzone.

Now that knee sleeves and knee braces are becoming so popular for active people, people with knee injuries, arthritis, and people who want to guard against common knee injuries — there’s more brands than ever before. And many are made strictly as an object to sell with no regards to use or quality.

  These open patella knee sleeves aren’t the least expensive alternatives (nor the most expensive). However,  the Winzone support brace is a quality product designed for you to get the most use and life possible from your purchase.


UFlex Knee Brace & Support-Open Patella

When it comes to any knee brace or knee sleeve product I have long considered Uflex to be one of the least well known yet best products on the market! However, I think you are about to see why Uflex stands with the the best when comes to open patella support neoprene compression sleeves for sports, knee injuries, joint pain, arthritis, more.

Features and Benefits of Uflex Open Patella Knee Sleeve

  • Like all other sleeves in this post, this Uflex is open patella to reduce pressure on your knee while keeping compression to the muscles around the knee joint.
  • Ulex is Sports Compression, Joint Pain, Arthritis, ACL Tear, Meniscus Tear, Tendonitis, flexible and used in all sports activities, walking, running, and in the gym.
  • 80% Neoprene compresses better than cloth knee braces and sleeves and keeps it waterproof
  • Designed to be used as recovery braces if you’ve undergone surgeries and ACL tears, Tendonitis, Meniscus, or arthritis.
  • 3 straps of Silicon to attach to your knee stop slippage
  • Uflex is always up to date with the latest technology and design and works to produce the ultimate when it comes to knee braces

Looking at the image, you can see that the Uflex brace has an open patella, two Velcro straps going one direction and another opposing direction strap. Uflex is well known for its comfortable and breathable fabric, which makes this knee brace wearable for long periods of time. The fabric is stretchable so that movement is easy, and it’s all waterproof.

Pros

  • UFlex is great for all day comfort
  • Use UFlex Open Patella for recovery from knee surgeries, meniscus tear, ACL tear, arthritis, or tendonitis with powerful support and heating that motivates and excites fast recovery
  • High quality and ultra lightweight material makes it comfortable and easy to wear under garments
  • Designed with an anti odor wave
  • Stretchable and anti bacterial fabric for great range of motion and comfort

Cons

  • Even though this is a one size fits all open patella knee sleeve, be sure to properly measure your knee before ordering and compare with Amazon size image. The strap is made for 16.5″ around your patella, so if yours is 17″ it won’t work.
  • Like all Neoprene knee sleeves, when you take it out of the package it will have a heavy odor. UFlex clearly advises that you wash the product before use to avoid the chemical odor.

About the Uflex Company

Uflex was founded in Delaware in 2015 by two sports enthusiast who happened to be best friends since childhood. One of the partners incurred a knee injury himself playing basketball, and that opened his eyes to just how many people are benched from similar injuries, often needlessly. 

Their commitment to quality and performance is what makes their open patella sleeves one of the best products for injuries and prevention in any sports or exercise where you need that extra support with the kneecap freedom of open patella design.

What Amazon Customers Say About Uflex

This open patella uflex knee sleeve has almost 400 reviews, with the overwhelming majority of them being 5 star reviews.

Bottom Line for Uflex Open Patella

Uflex is a premium brand knee sleeve that I have had great success with. Even though I haven’t personally used the open patella brace, the full length slip on sleeves from UFlex is one of favorite knee sleeves. Their braces are designed for some of the best knee inflammation, swelling, soreness, stiffness, and support in the industry.

They come with a 30 day exchange or refund guarantee so you will have no trouble dealing with them if you do find Uflex less than what you expected. Actually I am sure you find it to be a very good knee brace that does what it’s supposed to do. It’s constructed with high quality material with 3 straps to prevent bunching and slipping up and down your knees. 


Why Open Patella Knee Sleeves

Like all knee sleeves, Open patella knee sleeves provide additional support as you ask your knees to make constant and frequent movements, twist, lunges, and changes of directions — with only a moments notice.  Open sleeves do this while leaving your knee cap exposed. The best ones are reinforced around the opening to provide a firm limitation when it comes to kneecap movement.

Any knee supports are made to cover the entire joint, and the difference is that most open patella supports are going to use straps instead of an entire sock like device slipped on from the ankle up. Another key difference is that the open knee cap supports will often come with more support on the sides and support around the opening.

Open Sleeves Still Provide Support

They still provide support and assistance as added support for your knee joint as your knee encounters both normal and more extreme and frequent movements that impacts your knee joints. Not only will these open patella sleeves help with natural healing, add support to any knees, but also help prevent common knee injuries such as ACL, tears to meniscus, tendonitis, and make waking on arthritic knees much more enjoyable.

Knee Braces Help Heal, Provide Support, and Prevent Injuries

It’s hard to get around the fact that the most common injury risk in most sports are knee injuries, but even if you’re not athletic, knees take a real pounding. These joints are made up of several different bones, muscles and ligaments and endure tremendous strain and stress as they support the weight of your body.

Knee sleeves have always been an effective method to deter knee injuries for active people, and in the last few years they’ve become wildly popular. The added support and protection for healthy knees along with the natural healing effects of compression and assistance to injured knees make them a good choice for anyone. 

Pros and Cons of Open Patella Sleeves

Pros

  • Sometimes knee sleeves with a closed patella will aggravate or even set off a knee injury. Closed patella devices apply compression all the around the knee, including the knee cap and can cause it to move around, get out of place, or just provide a rubbing and aggravating sensation on the patella itself.
  • With an open-patella device, the brace itself will support your knee and surrounding area without lying on top of your knee cap, ultimately getting rid of the conditions in the last sentence. However, the best ones will have built in support around the opening to provide for continuous and proper alignment of your knee cap.
  • Many athletes do prefer the freedom of movement from the more open design, more flexibility, and the lightness of the open sleeve.

Cons

  • Open patella knee brace sleeves can not provide the amount of total compression and support as closed models. Even though they make a great replacement for athletes, or exercisers who need or prefer the patella opening, they can’t provide the support for things like heavy lifting and squats in the gym.

Conclusion

I’ve listed what I consider to be the top four choices when it comes to finding the best open patella knee sleeve, even though they’re are many other brands to choose from. You have to be careful when you really want the best because so many are knock offs made as cheap as possible and rarely have any recourse if you have a problem.

Whether you ultimately choose an open patella knee sleeve or closed model, both can really make a difference with a bad, injured, or sore knee. Knee Sleeves with open patella or otherwise add support to the muscles surrounding and holding your knee joint in place, and give you more confidence in all situations to twist, turn, and merely put weight on your knees.

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