There has been a lot of talk lately about helmets. Specifically, helmet safety and just how safe our helmets really are. For years the focus seems to have been on how many vents or how aerodynamic a brain bucket is, but the whole point of wearing a helmet is safety, right? More and more companies seem to be picking up on this as research is showing that small impacts, not just the big ones, matter too. HIP-TEC is the brain child of former pro kayaker and founder of WRSI helmets, Nick Turner and is a company that focuses exclusively on head injury prevention technology. HIP-TEC doesn’t make helmets, but they do make them safer. HIP-TEC uses a patent pending layered design to lower the amount of G forces your head encounters by using all of the layers or just a few depending on the speed of the impact. The result it a helmet that protects just as well at slow speed as high.
HIP-TEC (Head Injury Prevention Technology)—maker of the HIP-TEC Inside interior helmet protection system—today announced the company’s global launch and partnership program. HIP-TEC focuses on making the best impact-absorbing interiors for the world’s top helmet companies.
HIP-TEC’s Inside interior helmet protection system is designed to fully integrate with other companies’ helmet shell concepts in an ingredient brand approach, meeting the needs and new benchmarks of the action sports industry and athletes that continue to push the limits of their sports. HIP-TEC’s formulated and tested interior capsule dramatically exceeds today’s outdated helmet standards and designs, which concentrate on reducing single, high impact skull fractures.
In extensive independent testing at certified labs, with HIP-TEC implemented into a partner’s helmet, the severity of an impact is reduced by 40 – 60 percent across all angles, impact testing velocities and drop test heights.
“Our interior technology system is a game changer because it mitigates against all three accident scenarios that can contribute to head injuries — high velocity impacts, low speed falls and rotational impacts,” says HIP-TEC co-founder Nick Turner. “Not only do helmets with HIP-TEC Inside technology significantly reduce the force of these impacts better than top helmet brands’ current interior technologies, HIP-TEC Inside outperformed while being 20 percent thinner than a traditional helmet’s protective core.”
The technology has been co-developed over the past decade at internationally certified labs with development through Johns Hopkins University joint research projects and testing at HIP-TEC’s Truckee-based helmet lab.
Current medical research indicates that the lower the g-forces associated with an impact, the less likely a concussion will occur. HIP-TEC’s patent-pending layered design, lowers g-forces during an accident by slowing down the speed at which the head feels the weight of an impact, thus lowering the critical peak acceleration to dead stop and decreasing head and brain injuries. The formulated design of HIP-TEC allows protective layers to engage together as one unit or as separate energy absorbers depending on the severity of an impact.
“Because of current standards decision makers refusal to recognize the progression of sport and new medical research findings, helmets are not evolving at the speed of the athletes they are designed to protect,” comments HIP-TEC co-founder Tom Feiten. “International standards still require that a helmet is tested to keep an impact below 250 g’s (g-force) and then it’s certified to sale. We firmly believe helmets still need to pass this “skull fracture” standard, but at the same time they also must address accidents that are causing the majority of concussions happening at smaller, low falls that register between 90 and 150 g’s. HIP-TEC Inside does this and does it better when engineered into another brand’s helmet.”
With its proven ability to lower the severity of head injuries and compatibility with current helmet shell designs, HIP-TEC technology is set to revolutionize sports safety.
“It’s our friends and families pushing these sports and getting injured,” adds Turner. “Our mission and passion is to protect them through education and offering helmet brands the most protective interior technologies to integrate into their products.”
Based in Truckee, California, HIP-TEC (Head Injury Prevention Technology) solely focuses on making the best impact absorbing interiors for the world’s top helmet companies. The proprietary technology far outperforms current products and standards, meeting the needs and new benchmarks of industries and athletes that continue to push limits. HIP-TEC is part of FT Accelerator, a San Francisco-based growth program for fashion tech startups. Visit http://www.hip-tec.com
