Every parent is worried about the safety of their children. And concussions can be a very scary thing.
Last year for instance, over 5000 former NFL players sued the league for hiding how dangerous head injuries could be. The evidence is there, the judge ruled that the NFL would be on the hook for up to $5 million per player for head injuries related to repeated head trauma from their playing days.
And any fans of the NHL will remember when Marc Savard had to call it quits 5 years ago after his 6th concussion. And the effects have lingered as Marc says: " "It (the post-concussion syndrome) is nothing that will ever just, I don’t think, go away and there’s still little issues I deal with but it’s something I’ve learned to cope with, I guess you could say, and just keep going."
So considering the safety of the head, most parent will jump to a pricey helmet. One like the CCM Resistance ($299CAD) and assume that this is the best solution for their kid.
Not so fast says Dr. Stefan Huma of Virgina Tech's School of Bio Engineering and Mechanics. They have done a comprehensive test on all the helmets on the market and have found that price doesn't matter.
“For each helmet, we tested each helmet 48 times so front side, back, top, centric and non-centric,” explains Dr. Duma.
The results? Nine helmets failed to earn a single star.
Scoring the highest is the Bauer Re-akt 75 which retails for (189.99 with a cage or 149.99 without). It actually scored higher than the Re-akt and Re-akt 100 both of which are higher in price points and members of the same family line.
The worst scoring family tree?
The CCM fitlite. The 40, 60, and 80 failed to score a single star. The fitlite 80 retails for $149.99 no cage. So this is a mid-tier price point yet failed to receive a single star.
The discontinued Warrior Krown 360 was the only other helmet besides the Bauer Re-akt 75 to register a 3 star rating. Warrior replaced the Krown 360 with the px2+. This helmet has not been tested yet.
Update: Virginia Tech has tested the new Warrior helmets. The px2 and px+ were both scored. The Px2 received a 1 star rating and the PX+ received the 3 star rating, ranking it 1st place with Bauer's Reakt 75.
So O'Reilly Sports will take the pledge to put safety above sales. We won't recommend the 1 star $300 helmet to make more money. We will put the player's safety 1st.