Recorded at the SIA Snow Show 2012 in Denver KineticShift’s Enid Burns visits the Kali Protectives booth to get a look at Kali’s unique helmet design. Composite materials guru Brad Waldron has created a helmet with increased impact dissipation and lighter weight.

Kali Protectives Official Website

(Click Image for closer view)

Head injuries have become a serious concern in numerous sports, and Bauer Hockey is taking the issue head on so speak by revisiting the way helmets take hits. While most helmets are designed to address linear impacts a bigger risk says a Bauer study is the rotational forces that can contribute to head injuries.

Bauer’s RE-AKT helmet is the first hockey-specific helmet designed to manage the multiple type of hits that players take including rotational-force impacts, which have been scientifically proven to cause significant head injuries. To address this issue the Bauer RE-AKT takes on the problem with the SUSPEND-TECH liner, a unique patent-pending rotational impact protection system to protect the head from excessive rotational acceleration when the helmet is impacted.

This liner is designed of a super-light pliable material called PORON XRD Extreme Impact Protection, and offers the ability to dissipate extreme force that the wearer might take. The free-floating stretchable liner also is unique in that it moves completely independently from the rest of the helmet, which reportedly better manages the rotational forces. In addition the helmet also utilizes Bauer’s Vertex foam, which is a lightweight multi-impact material that can help lessen the impact when compared to other EPP foams. Combined the Bauer RE-AKT, which has been two years in development, will manage multiple types of hits from low-energy impacts to high-energy impacts and even rotational impacts.

The Bauer RE-AKT should hit the ice later this season, and from the sound of it the helmet could be hitting back.

Bauer Official Website

But now Helmet Band-Its could be the answer, as the company offers an easy way to accessorize helmets, offering style whilst retaining the protection.

The patent-pending Helmet Band-Its, which are being shown at this week’s Snowsports Industry America’s trade show in Denver, are just as the name implies, fashionable bands that can be worn over and around a ski helmet. These are made of European faux and premium furs (sorry PETA), as well as high-quality cotton and even novelty materials for more whimsical designs. It allows skiers to look chic while skiing it safe!

Helmet Band-Its Official Website

But that’s not all the company has to offer either. Since helmets are becoming not only recommended, but required at some locals, there is true geek chic with the Avid Grom R2-D2 helmet ($99.95), which features a polycarbonate shell and Spin Fit System that allows the wearer to adjust the fit just right.

No word on whether it can stand up to a blast from the Death Star, but at least it will have you showing that you can be feisty on the slopes.

Burton Official Website
[Via Cnet: Star Wars rides the half-pipe with Burton snowboards]

The Pro-Tec B2 Snow instead features multiple-impact rebounding foam under the shell that can reconstitute after a crash. This allows the helmet to be used time and time again. The downside to this budget minded helmet is that it has just 15 fixed vents and no adjustment, with no audio options. But those who want a helmet to last and last, let the Pro-Tech B2 Snow be the last word in brain buckets!

Pro-Tec Official Website
[Via Outdoors: Pro-Tec B2 Snow]

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]

It was noted recently that Bauer had released the 9900 Helmet for hockey this season, which is the first to utilize PORON XRD technology. This feature is designed to absorb maximum impact without adding stiff or constricting bulk to the helmet. Moreover this is helmet is actually 10 percent lighter than the 9500 model. But the question remains is it enough?

Some don’t think so, and this includes Danny Crossman, an Ottawa entrepreneur and British Army veteran, who served in Iraq, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Crossman is now chief executive of Impackt Protective, and he’s working to develop a sensor that could be used on hockey helmets.

The concept is similar to what we’re seeing in football helmets, and would the Shockbox as it is called would instantly alert team officials (or parents as the case might be) when a player takes a dangerous blow to the head. The sensor works via Bluetooth wireless technology to transmit the data when a helmet takes rapid acceleration. Using color codes, data could indicate degrees of the hit. Yellow for hits that could be a concern if the player has a history of head injuries and orange for notably higher g-force of 90 or more – the level that often results in a concussion.

According to reports the Shockbox is already being used by several varsity hockey teams in Ontario, but this sounds like the kind of thing that could make its way to all helmets.

Impakt Protective Official Website
Bauer 9900 Helmet Official Website

The men’s G2 and women’s Cougar 2 feature Bern’s Zip Mold in-mould construction process that includes a detachable soft-peaked liner. The helmet features three-position air vent slider on top as well, so on a warm day the vents can be left open so the wearer doesn’t get too heated, but on the colder/wetter days the vents can be closed up. These weren’t actually developed with cyclists in mind, and were actually first used on the slopes – so whether it is for snowboarding or cycling through the winter these will keep the head warm! And while we’d like to think that this could prevent brain freeze but that’s not something effected by weather!

[Via BikeRadar: Winter-Friendly Commuting Helmets From Bern]

“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

Each year helmets get lighter, but they also get stronger. Technology lends itself to a higher degree of protection using lighter-weight materials. However, even when you’re going to get down and dirty off road you’ll still want to look good doing so. For 2012 Louis Garneau will release the Carve helmet, which will offer that higher degree of protection without sacrificing style.  This new helmet promises to be lightweight, highly ventilated and totally geared toward mountain bikers.

The helmet uses an MSB (monocoque structural base) at the base of the helmet. This reinforces the perimeter with a construction method that uses the helmet’s outer layer or “skin” to support structural load. The MSB and a fully bonded back spreads any shock impacts. The two elements also provide support while maintaining the lightweight mandate by which helmets these days abide. The Carve helmet utilizes U-Bar technology made with U-shaped plastic ribs that are folded six times to provide reinforcement. The ribs construct an exoskeleton that builds and reinforces the helmet structure, while Spiderlock Pro Retention wraps around the back of the helmet with a dial that allows for adjustment of size. Twist the wheel for a tighter or looser fit.

LG will release the Carve helmet in January, well before the 2012 season. It will sell for $84.99.

Louis Garneau 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

These brain buckets are handmade in Oregon and are the brain child of Dan Coyle, who has a personal interest in woodworking and sports. He’s reportedly made his own clothes and fitness gear by hand, and this year began to make helmets that are a natural alternative to the traditional ABS plastic and foam. The helmets are created using a patent-pending status designed for “natural fiber helmet shells’ that works with his CNC machining tools.

The process involves prepping the wood and using the CNC machining for an hour or so, which produces a lank. From here the helmet can be transformed as necessary for the specific intended sport. To date Coyle Wood Design has produced about 20 prototypes, so don’t expect to see these at retail just yet. But he’s designing helmets that could be using for snow sports, equestrian, climbing, paddling, skate boarding and of course biking.

Now Coyle is working with the Oregon State University Wood Science and Engineering program to do impact studies with various materials. According to reports Coyle believes that the helmets should actually be more effective in terms of energy-damping than other materials including ABS, Mylar or even composites. Of course this could depend on the type of wood used. It is certainly interesting to see something thinking of new ways to protect what we do our thinking with, and to do so with a sustainable material at that.

Coyle Wood Design Official Website
Coyle Wood Design Facebook Page
[Via GearJunkie: Upstart Company to make Sports Helmets out of Wood]

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