But we’ve seen improvements in shoes, fitness attire and of course eyewear. Several companies are leading the way, and this week UK-based T3 offered a story noting Nike’s role.

“I think technology and gadgets are actually helping modern day athletes stay healthy,” Paul Winsper the SPARQ Performance Director at Nike told T3 in an exclusive interview. “We were always trying to look at the next best thing to help recover our athletes.”

Of course, as the old saying goes, “you ain’t seen nothing yet!”

[Via T3: Technology in sport preventing athlete injury says expert]

“Between regular practices and games, a player’s equipment experiences hours of use,” said Dan Arment, president of Riddell. “Inspecting equipment throughout the season helps ensure it’s prepared to perform its job – protecting players on the field.”

Riddell’s five-point, checklist is designed to keep proper fit and protection top of mind for all young football players and includes: Inspecting the helmet shell for cracks and dents; checking hardware and internal helmet padding; ensuring proper helmet fit; accessing the chin strap; and making sure shoulder pads fit properly as well.

While it is a game, safety has to come first! Here is where winning isn’t the most important thing.

Riddell Official Proper Equipment Fitting Guidelines

Introducing the Nike Seitrio Hi-Vis ball, which builds on the legacy of excellence in the T90 football range that has served as the official match ball in the world’s leading leagues including Barclay’s English Premier League, Italy’s Serie A and Spain’s La Liga. Continuing to bring new innovations to football, the Hi-Vis ball features Nike RaDaR technology, which means Rapid Decision and Response.

Nike has tested the ball in the lab and on the field and the result is the Nike RaDaR technology, which makes it easier for players to see the ball better and capitalize on split second scoring and passing opportunities. In the game of football, precision sight is of utmost importance, and the Nike Seitiro is engineered to stand out on pitch even when conditions are not ideal. The yellow and purple color combination flaunts additional fluorescence and brighteners, making it even more visible in low light conditions than previous generations of Hi-Vis balls.

The Nike Seitiro features patented hi-vis casing, performance graphic, and unique five-layer construction, along with aerodynamic stability. The new ball saw its official debut on the pitch this past weekend. Chances are we’ll be seeing a lot more of it.

Nike Seitiro Premier League Hi-Vis at The Nike Store

Nike just released its Nike T90 Laser IV soccer shoe. The “football” shoe is 20 percent lighter than the previous version. It features a streamlined silhouette that provides enhanced fit and lets wearers feel the ball. The forefoot area has a newly configured adaptive shield design that works with the foot’s natural motion to boost performance. Constructed from high performance synthetic leather, the upper provides a soft and close-to-the-foot fit. On the sole, a new stud design enhances speed and movement, without added weight or pressure.

To coincide with the launch, Nike Football created the T90 Strike Counter on Facebook. This app allows users to log their goals, and recreate the action in a 3D image. Report the spot on the pitch from where a goal was scored; where in the goal the ball went, and what part of the boot (shoe) was struck the ball. The data render a 3D image that can be shared with friends. Participants can also check out the 3D image and input from pro football players.

Nike T90 Laswer IV Football Shoe Official Website

(Click Image for Closer Look)

Resistance bands are a great way to build strength or aid on the road to recovery from an injury. These bands are typically made of rubber, similar to Latex, and can sometimes break during use causing additional injury. This is counter productive especially if they are being used for rehabilitation. Since the mid-1990’s, Stroops has been making a safer resistance band under the name Slastix Technology – designed and manufactured in America.

(Video after the jump)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g4Pv8N3TB4

The solution that is used to protect the user from injury due to the band breaking is quite simple. The rubber band used in the Slastix is completely enclosed by a Nylon type of fabric sleeve. It will still be a little startling if the band breaks, but the user will not be slapped and injured by the out of control broken band. Along with protecting the user from a broken band, the fabric sleeve serves to actually increase the life expectancy of the Slastix products. As Stroops states on their website, “The sleeve protects the band from nicks and cuts, harmful UV rays and over-stretching, which are the leading causes of short life of the band, wear & tear and most commonly known injuries.”

Along with producing the Slastix, Stroops has a created a website to help an athlete or someone recovering from injury determine which product is correct for their needs. Football, golf, lacrosse, physical therapy and even mix martial arts are just a few of the activities the Stroops lists as benefiting from the use of Slastix resistance bands. The Slastix line of products start at under $15 and go up in price depending on the complexity of the resistance product. Stroops prides itself on producing all of the Slastix bands in the U.S.A.

Slastix has further pledged to keep making their products in America, which allows them to control and maintain high quality products. It also provides jobs to US citizens, and strengthen the economy while strengthening muscles.

If resistance training is something that you are looking to add to your routine or rehabilitation, it would not be much of a stretch to find a product that would fit your needs from Stastix.

Slastix by Stroops Official Website

Vick reported looked to have his helmet re-fitted by Unequal Technology, which would use Kevlar to “disburse the effects of a blow to the helmet.” It was also reported that while this technology is new to the gridiron it has been used in hockey helmet and of course in the military.

This reporter, who has experience as the author of books and articles on actual military helmets, can attest that there is a difference in what Kevlar is designed to do. Kevlar is typically used in ballistic helmets, namely those meant to stop a bullet on a battlefield to save a wearer’s life (where a concussion would be preferable to death), and not for the brunt force trauma that one might experience on the playing field.

Yahoo! Sports also weighed in on this issue and noted, “Despite new technology in helmets developed over the past two years, concussions are still at the forefront of the NFL. A lawsuit was filed in July when 75 former players claimed the NFL hid the dangers of concussions from players intentionally. Statistics may back up the lawsuit. Concussions were up 21 percent in 2010 over the season previously. Over eight weeks, 154 such injuries were reported versus just 127 in 2009. Based upon a survey of former NFL players in 1996, as many as 61 percent of NFL players suffered from some kind of concussion.”

Leather football helmet, 1917. Syracuse University's first football team appeared in 1890. Gift from A.C. Atterbury.

Helmets have long been a part of football, but they weren’t always used, but there has long been the military connection. The Atlantic noted:

“The first football helmet belonged to Admiral Joseph Mason Reeves who wore it in an Army-Navy game in 1893 in Annapolis, Maryland. A local shoemaker made the moleskin contraption after a Navy doctor warned Reeves that one more kick to the head might result in death or ‘instant insanity.’ Early aviation caps were based on the shoemaker’s design.”

 Helmets of course evolved, but there was yet another military connection. The Atlantic story on the development of helmets adds:

“In 1939, the Riddell sporting goods company (still one of the top football-helmet manufacturers) made the first plastic football helmet, but because of wartime plastic shortages, such helmets were not widely adopted for several years. That same year, colleges began requiring their players to don helmets. The NFL followed suit four years later.”

What that article doesn’t note is that the U.S. Military at the same time was looking to develop the helmet that would become the M-1 steel helmet, which would eventually remain in use from 1940 until it was replaced in the early 1980s by the PASGT (Personnel Armor System Group Troops), and Riddel’s suspension system was used in the M-1 helmet liners. Thus the military and football helmets have had a long and interesting history together.

Body Armor and Beyond
And it seems that concerns over personal safety go beyond just the helmet. This week Unequal Technologies noted that Dallas Cowboys Quarterback Tony Romo had suited up with two new products in the EXO Skeleton Body Armor line of supplemental full-body, protective performance padding. These include the two customizable products, The Wall and Egis, which are designed to ensure athletes take tackles and hits head on.

“In the end, all that stands between an athlete and his enemy on any given day is paper-thin polyester and ineffective foam,” said Rob Vito, founder and President of UNEQUAL Technologies, in a statement. “Romo knows first-hand the dangers that are associated with sports, as does Michael Vick, who also wears our padding to protect his chest and thighs. They know that additional protection is needed to survive the game. This is why they chose our EXO Skeleton padding to protect them on the field. Now, we’re expanding that line to further protect athletes.”

The question is what it says when athletes have to turn to military style gear to suit up. The Exo Skeleton products feature DuPont Kevlar at its core, which according to the press release from Unequal Technologies is “the world’s only patented suite of impact-absorbing protective sports padding to dramatically reduce the possibility of injury to the head or body brought on by a tackle, hit or flying object.”

Even the warning in the Unequal Technologies press release sums up that helmets are not the final word:

WARNING: NO HELMET OR PAD CAN PREVENT SERIOUS HEAD, BRAIN, BODY, AND/OR NECK INJURIES INCLUDING PARALYSIS OR DEATH A PERSON MIGHT RECEIVE WHILE PARTICIPATING IN ACTIVITIES, GAMES, OR SPORTS. CONTACT WITH A PERSON, OBJECT, SURFACE, OR PROJECTILE CAN RESULT IN SEVERE HEAD, BODY OR NECK INJURIES, PARALYSIS OR DEATH TO YOU AND POSSIBLE INJURY TO YOUR OPPONENT. THIS CONTACT MAY RESULT IN CONCUSSION-BRAIN INJURY OR SEVERE BODILY INJURY WHICH NO HELMET OR PAD CAN PREVENT. SYMPTOMS INCLUDE: LOSS OF CONSCIOUSNESS OR MEMORY, CONFUSION, DIZZINESS, HEADACHE, NAUSEA, PAIN, SORENESS, DISCOLORATION, NUMBNESS OR TINGLING. IF YOU HAVE SYMPTOMS, IMMEDIATELY STOP PLAYING AND REPORT THEM TO YOUR COACH, TRAINER AND PARENTS. DO NOT PLAY OR RETURN TO THE ACTIVITY, SPORT, GAME OR PRACTICE UNTIL ALL SYMPTOMS ARE GONE AND YOU HAVE RECEIVED MEDICAL CLEARANCE. IGNORING THIS WARNING MAY LEAD TO ANOTHER AND MORE SERIOUS OR FATAL INJURY. UNEQUAL PRODUCTS ARE NOT BULLETPROOF OR BULLET RESISTANT. REMEMBER TO ALWAYS “PRACTICE SAFE SPORTS(TM).”

However, anything that can make it safer to play the game, without having the actually change (or worse ban the game, as been discussed more than 100 years during the 1905-06 season) is a good step forward. Hopefully the use of these new technologies will help make it safer for those on the playing field as has been seen on the battlefield.

Read More:  10 Steps in the High-Tech Evolution of Pro Football Helmets – Popular Mechanics

Football season officially kicks off in a few weeks, and players in the United States and Canada will be taking to the field with the Impact Indicator as part of this season’s newest additions to the protective equipment. Fittingly it was developed by Battle Sports Science USA, as a way to measure the G-force and duration of hits (impact) sustained by an athlete’s head during play or activity in sports. It uses highly sophisticated technology and proprietary software, embedded in a helmet chinstrap, to signal the possibility of a head injury. This revolutionary new product will alert parents, referees, players and coaches to get a player off the ice or field for a medical assessment – maximizing treatment, recovery and possibly preventing subsequent brain injury.

In addition to making its way to the gridiron the Impact Indicator is being introduced as a safety device for use in the sports of hockey as well. Now players can keep their head in the game and protect it too!

Battle Sports Science USA Official Website

In truth, this could actually solve an increasingly worrisome problem. Dehydration remains an issue for many players, especially in southern states and on those sunny and warm fall days. The Hydromax system could just be the key to keeping athletes hydrated for those times when water remains on the sidelines – so close and yet so very far away.

The armor-protected water supply can be worn on the back much like a CamelBak or other hydration systems, where wearers can get a drink thanks to a flexible feeder tube. Unlike most hydration systems the bladder can expand up to eight times its normal size without bursting, thus it can survive fairly intense impacts while fitting under the player’s jersey.

About the only issue for players might be refilling it, so maybe the water boy’s job is safe after all.

Hydromax Official Website
[Via Gizmag: Hydromax wearable water supply for football players]

This is no doubt a concern for the 2022 World Cup games that will be played in Qatar, where extreme summer heat is something that can’t be easily beat(en). The solution, according to The Daily Mail is a cloud. We’ve heard of the digital cloud – as in online hosting of digital data – but this is actually an artificial cloud. And least you fear that this is some of gaseous creation, it is actually lightweight carbon structures carrying a giant envelope of material containing helium gas. In other words, large balloon like objects. So maybe a retractable roof would be the better idea?

However, because of the region has so much sun, organizers are looking to power the artificial clouds via solar power, as well as the air conditioning in the stadium. Hopefully as this will let spectators beat the heat.

[Via The Daily Mail: Pie in the sky! Qatar invents artificial clouds to beat the heat at 2022 World Cup]

For years batters have walked up to the plate whilst wearing protective headgear. Now soon pitchers may be required to take the mount with helmets on as well. This wee Easton-Bell Sports announced the development of new headgear at the Helmet Technology Center, internally known as “The Dome.”

Easton-Bell Sports CEO Paul Harrington, along with Little League International President Stephen Keener, California Interscholastic Federation Executive Director Marie Ishida and Marin County high school baseball player Gunnar Sandberg in Scotts Valley, introduced a new helmet prototype. The Easton-Bell Sports pitching helmet prototype uses lightweight energy managing materials to provide protection to the most vulnerable areas of the head, without compromising comfort or performance. The helmet is made of expanded polystyrene polycarbonate, which is attached to a comfortable liner and elastic strap.

“We have long been a leader in football, hockey, cycling and snow head protection, and now we can lead the way in head protection for baseball, too,” said Easton-Bell Sports CEO Paul Harrington.”With our pitching helmet prototype, we have redefined what is possible and launched a new era of protection for baseball pitchers.”

The new helmet was developed at the newly completed Easton Helmet Technology Center “The Dome,” which formally opened in Scotts Valley, California in fall of 2010. Inspiring the culture of innovation across Easton-Bell Sports products, “The Dome” is a 55-thousand square-foot facility centralizing helmet research and development for all Easton-Bell Sports brands, including Easton, Bell, Giro, Riddell and Blackburn brands. “Dome” designers develop products for eight different categories including football, cycling, snow, hockey, lacrosse and baseball/softball.

“The Dome is the heart of research, design and development for our helmets across sports,” said Harrington. “We have the most experienced and talented experts in helmet technology who work together across all of our brands to share best practices, challenge industry standards and ultimately develop products that improve the safety of sport.”

Easton Baseball Official Website

And it is just part of what Nike has in store. Beginning in April 2012, all 32 NFL teams will be outfitted with Nike uniform, and this will likely include the 2011 Pro Combat system – yes, we said “Combat” system. The uniform features a type of chainmail mesh for superior breathability along with Flywire technology to protect the players. Football does seem to be getting rougher these days.

Finally, it looks like this gear isn’t just for the pros. It has been announced that four Nike college teams, including Florida, Boise State, TCU and Oregon will all wear the 2011 Pro Combat uniforms in the upcoming bowl games as well as into next season.

Nike Air Zoom Alpha Talon

Nike Pro Combat Uniform

Imagine you’re on the soccer field, and go for the ball, but the cleats on your shoes are just a hair short for the muddy surface and you slip. The opposing team gets the ball and scores the winning point of the game. Get the a pair of Nike CR Mercural Vapor SuperFly IIs and you’ll have an extra 3mm on the adaptive studs depending on the ground conditions and pressure exerted by the player. The adaptive traction system can extend or retract by those 3 mm, possibly saving the field and maybe even the shoes from undue wear when not needed.

Blades are positioned directionally on the forefoot to maximize cutting and allow for quick changes in direction. Secondary toe traction provides added toe-off power to get you started on that sprint during a play.The new pair of Nike shoes with an ostrich skin print designed originally in 1987 for the Air Safari running shoe is the shoe of choice for soccer player Christiano Ronaldo. That would be the “CR” in the name of the shoe.

The shoe uses Nike Flywire materials and construction. That’s a lightweight composite that forms the upper and increases range of motion while locking the foot to the sole plate, and ensures maximum transfer of energy from the foot to the ground. A carbon composite chassis keeps the player close to the ground, improving stability and responsiveness.

Nike Soccer

The technology in place is similar to the motion capture used in the making of video games. It uses advanced sensors combined with biomechanic and orthopedic research, and track an athlete from all directions. But instead of making for a more compelling video game experience, this technology will allow researchers to determine how to get the most power when throwing a ball, swinging a bat or just plain running. Thus instead of merely recording an athlete with a video camera, this can provide a fully 3D representation – ala Avatar – of the athlete. This can then be viewed from any angle, and used to analyze not only the performance, but how much stress is on the joints, ball speeds and the G-forces used to hurl the ball.

This also isn’t some niche project either. Among the schools working on this include the Movement Lab at New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while several pro teams have already gotten into 3D. Could this really be the next dimension for sports?

Movement Labs at New York University

[Via The New York Times: From ‘Avatar’ Playbook, Athletes Use 3-D Imaging]