As the football world continues to grow and raise awareness over the long-term effects of head trauma, the safety of football players has been more prominent than ever before, especially with the football helmet. A startup in Seattle is hoping to revolutionize the football helmet industry and is well on its way to funding its project with some very recognizable and influential investors lending their support.
Vicis is a small 25-person company, but their work over the last two years has led to an $8 million round in fundraising to develop their football helmet concept.
“We were able to raise from individuals who have expertise in this space and a passion for what we are doing,” Marver said. “It’s given us a lot of freedom and flexibility.”
Things are happening quickly for Vicis now, and the pressure to see their helmet project to reality is building.
“As we progressed in these past two years, the need has grown more intense and we feel like we have a real obligation to get this technology out there for the benefit of the athlete,” he noted. “We’ve raised more money to do more and move faster.”
So what exactly is making the helmet developed by Vicis, dubbed Zero1, so unique?
To put it simply, without going all technical on you, the Zero1 helmet uses more layers of padding to reduce the severity of any impact a player may take. The outer shell of the helmet is designed to reduce the force that is believed to be the cause of concussions. Essentially, the outer layer of the helmet absorbs the impact, a second layer continues to absorb the leftovers from the initial impact, and memory foam surrounds the player’s head underneath all of that, providing another layer before the initial impact reaches the skull, and thus the brain. The hope is this technology will become economical enough to produce, manufacture and sell before becoming the standard in the industry.
The LODE SHELL Absorbs impact load by locally deforming, like a car bumper. #Zero1Helmet #VicisPro pic.twitter.com/qywCVGdJG1
— VICIS (@vicispro) January 16, 2016
The hope is this technology will become economical enough to produce, manufacture and sell before becoming the standard in the industry. Vicis will reportedly sell the helmets for $1,500. That is considerably higher than the average rate between $200 and $400 from the leading helmet providers in the football equipment game. Of course, the NFL has ways of printing money without even trying, so odds are with the growing legal battles and concern over CTE, the NFL could certainly afford to invest in this kind of helmet.
