Post-Apunkalyptic Armor

""It seems the first thing everyone does after the bomb hits is strap every random animal, skull and piece of kitchenware to their leather singlets.""

- Zero Punctuation, Rage review

So, your whole world has gone down the swirly waters of the porcelain throne, eh? That's a bummer!

You'll probably miss the Twinkies clean underwear most of all. Yes, The Apunkalypse has long since come and gone, society has crumbled (or been blasted to smithereens by nuclear war, meteorites, unfriendly aliens and/or the Wrath of God), the tailors were the first to die, there's nary a Wal-Mart or Hostess cupcake factory left standing and tribal punks roam the wasteland.

What's a Disaster Scavenger to do? Improvise! Necessity is the mother of invention in Scavenger World, After the End.

Need to protect your noggin? Raid the wreckage of the local football stadium. There should be helmets lying around every 7 feet or so. If you're not careful you might just trip over one or three.

Whilst food, water, shaving cream and deodorant will be scarce commodities, fetching a king's ransom for those lucky enough to scavenge some up, there will always be a surplus of used sporting equipment, police riot gear (sorry, no weapons) and used car parts lying around from which to fashion the latest low-tech ensemble with which to protect yourself from the elements, wildlife and your fellow man. If you're planning on teaming up with the baddies, since they have all the cool toys, don't forget to cobble a few Spikes onto your outfit as well.

After The Apunkalypse, nobody will judge your garish fashion choices or lack of personal hygiene, because frankly everyone will use and wear the same recycled remnants of a communal bygone era.

Taken to certain extremes, this may result in outfits that are Awesome but Impractical.

Film - Live Action
Exemplary movies include:
 * Doomsday—After a viral outbreak, Scotland is walled off and its inhabitants return to their tribal, modern primitive roots.
 * Mad Max—Road Warrior & Beyond Thunderdome are both example of post-Apunkalyptic tribes of ne'er-do-wells (often seen with fairly typical scavenged Post Apunkalyptic Armor) encountered in the wastelands of the Apocalyptic world they inhabit.
 * The Postman—After a bout of Doomsday, society breaks down, and people revert to either insular villages or large authoritarian, sometimes punkish, communes for survival.

Literature

 * Tachanka from the South, a Soviet novel about the Russian Civil War (not an apocalypse but close enough, believe it), features a Makhnovist bandit character who looted a livery from a traveling circus and customized it to look Badass (but still a bit comical).

Music

 * The Aquabats!—Referenced briefly in the Radiation Song! about a post-nuclear apocalypse world where "...crossbows and hockey pads are in demand."

Video Games

 * Apart from the pre war stuff, every single piece of clothing in the Fallout series. Many of these are Shout Outs to the Mad Max series.
 * Auto Assault - The Mutants obeyed this trope most closely. Humans mixed in Tron Lines and the odd gadget or two while Biomeks added bolts, claws and other cybernetic bits.
 * In the first and last areas of MadWorld, common Mooks are guys decked out in armor made of football pads, tires, and road signs. Some of them also have motorcycle helmets. Miniboss Big Bull Crocker is essentially wearing the deluxe package.
 * This is worn by the Rogue enemy faction in Crimecraft: Gang Wars. Female rogues in particular uniformly wear spiky body armor. Rogue berserkers and aggressors wear football gear (with helmets in the latter case). This stuff is also available for the player to wear—and sported by several of the game's preset classes.
 * The Resistance in Brink is largely clothed in this fashion, with the Fortress and Warrior archetypes in particular wearing armor clearly cobbled together from scrap metal.
 * The Super Monday Night Combat fleshed out the game's setting by giving "Outlander" uniform choices for a few of the classes. Outlanders live in the lawless wastelands between sanctioned towns and cities, and their gear is pretty slapdash, but much more intimidating than the standard issue stuff.