Football helmet manufacturing marries competition with care. The goal is to sell a product but with a heightened sense of doing everything possible to protect the athlete’s brain.
It’s not an easy task.
Concussions are big news this season in the NFL, as the league has cracked down on violent hits and standards have gotten tougher in diagnosing and treating players before they step back onto the field.
But before all that, the helmet is the first line of defense.
No helmet can prevent concussions, but that doesn’t stop the quest to reduce risk. Schutt Sports helmets, featuring thermoplastic urethane (TPU) cushioning, have become the go-to equipment for players in search of the best protection.
Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson suffered a concussion earlier this season, and upon his return switched to Schutt’s AiR XP helmet.
“And he’s had a lot of success with that,” said Glenn Beckmann, marketing communications manager at Schutt Sports.
Jackson isn’t alone. Beckmann estimates about 30 percent of NFL players are using Schutt helmets, and that number is growing. Riddell is the official licensed helmet provider of the NFL, and those helmets are provided free. But more and more are choosing to pay for what they feel is a better option.
The issue is TPU versus foam.
Most helmets have foam padding in them. Tests have shown that TPU performs more consistently through all the conditions a player finds himself in over the course of a season.
“Foam and other materials perform worse in gamelike conditions versus their performance in a testing lab,” Beckmann said. “Our helmets absorb anywhere from 25 to 55 percent more impact in those gamelike conditions, depending on which helmets you’re comparing.
“What we found is that the TPU that we use performs consistently, no matter what temperature inside that helmet, no matter what the environmental conditions. And foam or other padding systems actually get much worse the colder or hotter it gets. Our research has found that the temperature inside a helmet can reach 115-120 degrees in some cases. It’s not adversely affected by the environmental conditions.”
TPU is an adapted military technology, and Schutt “refined it, re-engineered and redesigned (it),” Beckmann said.
“For the first time, this year 12 of our 13 helmets have TPU in it. Our goal is to get every helmet in our product line to have TPU in it.”
And as for the future of helmet technology?
“I think what you’ll see are evolutionary changes as each manufacturer works with ever-increasing medical knowledge,” Beckmann said. “We’re all looking for new materials to make helmets out of to make them stronger, lighter; different materials that can absorb impact, dissipate impact over a shorter distance and things like that.
“I don’t foresee any helmet being able to say it’s concussion-proof in the near future. The biggest problem is the concussion occurs inside the skull, where we can’t protect it.
“And every single individual is different.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
