My mom did tailoring for the SCA and we went to the estrella wars in arizona, which is the 2nd largest SCA event in the US or so I recall. It's not quite Larping, but the war does involve hundreds of dudes and dudettes duking it out in metal armor and leather, and yeah. Those guys raise a stank if they don't take care of their stuff. SCA armor has to be 14 gauge or so, which is a bit thicker than 16 , so about the same levels of stinkiness.