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Greetings!
SAFR Sports is proud to announce the Virginia Tech 5-Star helmet study results. In the past month we have recently completed extensive and very successful testing of the ProTech at VA Tech Helmet Testing Lab. The results validated the results from the 3 year on-field testing results of the Penn State Study.
As you probably are aware, since 2011, Virginia Tech researchers have been providing unbiased football helmet ratings that allow consumers to make informed decisions when purchasing football and other helmets.
The helmet ratings are the culmination of 15 years of head impacts in sports and identify which helmets best reduce concussion risk. A helmets rating is comprised of two components: the STAR score (lower better) and the number of stars (higher better).
STAR stands for the Summation of Tests for the Analysis of Risk, and the STAR score is calculated based on a helmet’s performance in a series of impact tests. The impact conditions are football specific and inclusive of the broad range of head impacts that football players are likely to experience. STAR is based on 2 fundamental concepts: 1) tests are weighed based on how often people experience similar impacts and 2) helmets that lower linear and rotational head acceleration reduce injury risk.
A helmet with a lower score offers better protection. STAR scores are assigned a number of stars to categorize impact performance. The number of stars varies between 1-5, with 5 stars being the best.
These methods have been published as peer-reviewed articles in journals such ad Annals of Biomedical Engineering.
VA Tech also calculates the risk of concussion for each helmet at each location and assigns a Risk of Concussion Score.
At VA Tech we tested against 3 different 5-Star helmets: Schutt F7, Riddell Speed Flex and the Riddell Speed. Over 320 tests, using multiple formulations of our ProTech for each helmet the result: we significantly reduced the risk of concussion for all three 5-Star helmets.
VA Tech’s lab ran over 320 tests at three different angles 40, 65, & 90 degrees. They tested four locations: side front, back & front boss (side angle hit) using three of the most popular 5-star rated helmets (Riddell’s Speed, Riddell’s Speed Flex, and Schutt’s F7) with and without the SAFR ProTech. They also tested the Guardian cap, and our scores bested the Guardian cap as well, doing significantly better on the higher impact hits.
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