ABSTRACT The design of a good ship fender is important for protecting vessels or offshore structures during ship collisions or berthing, which could result in severe and costly damages. Sandwich fenders are widely used in the design of vessel fenders; however, little is known of how the order of arrangement of the sandwich material layers can affect sandwich fender performance. In addition, this paper investigates whether naturally occurring sand (soil) material along the riverbank in canals can be regarded as a good fender. Finite element analysis using an ANSYS Autodyn numerical solver showed that sand is a good fender, and generally, a fender sandwich having a hard material layer in the middle and soft materials placed at both sides is better at protecting fended structure and vessels made of different materials than any other arrangements. The overall result was validated using a simplified analytical method and LS-DYNA, and there is considerable result consistency.