Guest contribution By Michelle Sisco
My 10-year-old son Drew suffered a concussion this year. It was a freak accident when he was snowboarding – and he WAS wearing a helmet. This experience made me much more aware of the growing problem of concussions in youth sport.
As I looked for ways to keep my children safe, one of the companies I learned about was Unequal Technologies. They have developed a new line of headgear to give players the confidence they need without affecting their style of play. Unequal protective sports gear uses patented military-grade materials that are 5x stronger than steel.
They do not claim their products will prevent concussions, but rather reduce the risks as their technology absorbs and disperses the energy from common sports impacts.
I was also impressed that to get Unequal protection you do not need to purchase new helmets. Instead they offer supplemental protection for baseball, softball, football, hockey, lacrosse and action sports helmets. Just insert the Unequal pad inside the helmet and it will absorb and disperse the impact.
The one sport that Unequal has been very active in is soccer. Since soccer players do not wear helmets, they created the Unequal Halo™ – a stylish headband that offers the same type of protection.
For those of you with kids playing soccer, you might be interested to know that Ali Krieger, a defender on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, has chosen to wear the Unequal Halo for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup after suffering the second concussion of her career in April – less than two months before the start of the World Cup.
In the company’s press release announcing this, Ali Krieger said, “I had never worn protective headgear before so I was surprised how comfortable, and lightweight the Unequal Halo is. The fact that that it helps protect me and does not affect ball control made the decision easy to continue wearing it in the World Cup and beyond. I have learned the hard way that concussions are not fun. Unequal has empowered and bolstered my confidence since coming back from my most recent concussion.”
Hopefully when other young soccer players see one of the best players in the world wearing this headband, they too will think it’s cool.
For more information about Unequal, visit http://www.unequal.com or check them out on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/UnequalTechnologies
Role Mommy 3.0