While there are many types of armor that are effective against zombies, to be covered here and in the threads attached, the easiest and cheapest effective armor against zombies is to give them nothing to grab. Short hair and tight clothes so they have nothing to drag you down by and bite you, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

More important than armor against zombies, considering they are mindless undead, is not letting them get to a point where biting you is an option. They want your brain, use it! Traps plus fire will cut down on number of zombie entanglements drastically, make them come at you one at a time so that they won't be able to bite you in the first place, fight from an elevated position so they cannot attack you while you still have free reign on their unprotected skulls.

In the event that close range action with zeds is unavoidable, such as clearing out buildings or zombie hunting, what is important to remember is all they can do to you is bite you, that is the only thing you should prevent against, so thick, stiff full body covering is what you need. Leather gear, such as that found for motorcycling, will often fill those shoes quite well, but keep in mind how it will limit your mobility for close range fighting.

While metal and Kevlar are not needed to ward off the teeth of zombies, you'll have to remember that they aren't the only things that might try to kill you. Bandits and other survivors will invariably be rampant and try to take you down. If they see a group of well armed people with supplies and/or food they will probably attack you or follow you back to your base of operations and attack you there. Even if you aren't going to be fighting any gun slinging zombies you may want to keep some bullet proof vests handy to keep the odd murderer off of you.

Some of the best armor against biting groups of people is a leather jacket. Think about it nothing is getting through that leather, no matter how hard you bite