Innovation produces football’s helmet of the future

After years of stagnation, the football helmet industry has welcomed some much-needed innovation.

It’s been provided by Vicis, a Seattle-based company whose product debuted on the field last year and was named one of Time Magazine’s 25 best inventions of 2017. Founded in 2013, Vicis has provided hope that better-designed helmets could significantly reduce concussions.

Dave Marver, who has a medical device background, formed the company with Dr. Sam Browd, a pediatric neurosurgeon, and Per Reinhall, an engineer who is a University of Washington professor. The inspiration for the company came from Browd, who had grown frustrated after advising teenagers they had to retire from contact sports due to head injuries.

The Future of Football: Editor’s note

For years, mounting evidence has linked football violence with brain trauma and life-threatening conditions. Now that we know the sport can produce deadly results, where do we go from here? The Chronicle offers this special report on The Future of Football.

Part 1: How is the NFL trying to make its game safer?

Part 2: Youth football participation is a telling sign of things to come

Part 3: What will the future of football really look like?

Opinion: We know what needs to be done: But will we do it?

“I don’t think a concussion-proof helmet is realistic,” Marver said. “But I do think helmet technology can continue to improve and we can potentially make football as safe as other sports so that kids can participate without undue concern.”

Before the regular season, the NFL for the first time banned the use of 10 models of helmets that tested poorly. Now, of the league’s remaining 24 approved models, its two top-rated are the only two models that have been produced by Vicis.

The Vicis Zero1 helmet features a softer shell that deforms on impact, reducing the force on a player’s head. The company was assisted by a grant of $1.1 million from the NFL.

“None of us come from a traditional sporting-goods background, and so we’ve been able to approach things very differently and start with a clean sheet of paper,” Marver said. “And that kind of informed the design of the helmet as well, so we were we able to start from scratch without any legacy ideas.

“And by deforming, it slows impact forces before they reach the head. And these are principles that you’ve seen in automotive safety for decades — the notion that bumpers and crumple zones better protect passengers so the car yields and slows those collision forces. Well, a helmet does the same thing.”

The Future of Football

Last year, about 75 players on 18 NFL teams used a Vicis helmet. This season, at least 150 players (about 9 percent of the NFL) representing 26 teams are wearing the helmet. Several prominent quarterbacks, including Washington’s Alex Smith, Seattle’s Russell Wilson and Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, wear a Vicis. Hall of Famers Jerry Rice, Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett serve as consultants to the company.

The co-founders were surprised to find so little competition and innovation, particularly given the increased attention to head trauma in football in recent years. Riddell, Schutt and Zenith are the only other helmet manufacturers.

Vicis’ $1.1 million grant came from the NFL’s Head Health Initiative, a four-year, $60 million collaboration designed to spur innovations around traumatic brain injuries.

“They were seeking to fill a void that was there because the current helmet companies were not innovating,” Marver said. “We’re working to draw attention to the fact that helmet technology can improve. And we’re also, I think, catalyzing the rest of the industry to potentially do more.”

There is also optimism that a concussion-sensing mouth guard will provide better understanding of the magnitude and frequency of impacts players experience, including lesser blows known as subconcussive hits.

The NFL’s focus on concussion-inducing collisions hasn’t shed much light on these smaller impacts, often absorbed by linemen, that have been linked to brain trauma. Dr. Julian Bailes, a top expert on the long-term effects of brain trauma on NFL players, has advocated for the elimination of the three-point stance. Bailes believes it would limit the helmet-to-helmet collisions in the trenches that are an unavoidable part of football.

Previous sensors, which were affixed to the back of helmets, did not produce reliable data, but Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, thinks the mouth guard will be a “game-changer.” They are being used by the University of Virginia football team this season, with plans to have a limited rollout in the NFL in 2019.

“What’s so revolutionary about these sensors is that, by being in the mouth, they will be much more centrally located,” Sills said. “And therefore a lot more reflective, we think, of what the brain is experiencing.”