Helmet Lab testing supports Australian athlete

Today at the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab, we have some special visitors from Australia. One of these people is Caleb Daniel. He's a professional Aussie rules football player, most recognized for him wearing headgear, and he wanted to see firsthand how we test and rate helmet gear here in the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab. I switched to Swarm Global's headgear this year, knowing that it was sort of the best out there, and I want to protect my brain for as long as possible. and in a contact sport, you're going to get head knocks and I think why wouldn't you look to reduce the risk by wearing high performing headgear, so it's a no brainer for me. Yeah, the back story about why I wear a football helmet I guess originated when I was about six or seven years old, wanting to play football. My mother, she's a nurse, so she sort of wanted me to protect my head as much as possible And I suppose in the Australian rules footy, there's not too many players that are wearing headgear, especially at that sort of age. So it was a bit of an anomaly and a bit of a change for me. But yeah, since that day, I've sort of never gone without it. And it's just part of sort of my kit. And it's like putting your mouth guard in or putting your boots on. One of the reasons we do come to Virginia Tech is to get a better understanding of the incredible depth of research it goes into coming up with the protocol testings and the rating systems. For us it's being able to use the science of Virginia Tech into branding so that we can promote our product to parents with the understanding that parents know it's been independently tested and it's in the upper echelons of the Virginia Tech five-star testing system. So the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab has a star rating system which is a patented process to determine which helmets better perform than others. By doing that, we actually give the manufacturers a blueprint to improve the helmets and obviously inform consumers on which helmets are better and safer than others.