104 to allow for adjacent scales to fit amongst and slide past other scales 104 in the scale system 102 the impact material underlying at least a portion of the scales 104 or scale system 102 can include any material to absorb further impact such as foam plastic rubber cloth fiber or the like the impact material can be formed of one or more layers of impact absorbing or impact resistant material the wrap 106 includes any of a number of components and materials to keep the other components such as scales 104 and impact material in place in some implementations as will be discussed further below the protective assembly 100 includes a fastener system not shown the fastener system includes one or more components associated with or connected to the wrap 106 and used to secure the protective assembly 100 to a part of the wearer 39 s anatomy such as the wearer 39 s leg knee elbow head or other parts of the wearer 39 s body the fastener system is ergonomically designed to be low profile and yet retain the protective assembly 100 in place over the desired part of the wearer 39 s anatomy fig1 a 1h illustrate various aspects of the scales 104 of the scale system 100 of the protective assembly 100 fig1 a 1d show a preferred implementation of a scale 10 in accordance with preferred implementations each scale 10 has a back surface that includes an attachment mechanism to attach to a protective assembly such as knee pad elbow pad or the like each scale 10 may be attached or removed from the protective assembly by a diamond shaped interface b 1 the diamond shaped interface provides a surface for optimal packing density of scales.