Safety in football has become synonymous with one brand: Vicis. For the second year in a row, the helmet maker earned the recognition of both the National Football League and the NFL Players Association, who today released their annual Helmet Laboratory Testing Performance Results. The Vicis Zero1 helmet yet again clinched the test’s top rating and the company can now claim the top two positions among the 34 helmets tested. Not bad for a brand that’s only a few years old.
In its annual testing process, the NFL and NFLPA examine the performance of all helmets currently in play in the NFL in order to assess their ability to reduce the severity of head impacts. This information is then disseminated among teams and athletes to help them make wiser decisions about what equipment they ultimately use on the field. As it stands, the top of the line is the 2018 Vicis Zero1, which promises several improvements over the previously top-ranked 2017 model. The newer helmet claims better impact performance, a lower weight, and to top it off, lower cost.
“These results demonstrate our ability to drive innovation and performance improvement in protective headgear,” said Dave Marver, CEO and co-founder of Vicis. “I’m immensely proud of our engineers, who found a way to reduce the weight, lower the cost, and improve the performance of our already top-ranked Zero1 helmet.”
The key differentiating factor of the Zero1 is its deformable outer shell and Reflex layer which is meant to slow impact forces, much like a car bumper might. These two aspects combine to help the helmet reduce the trauma associated with a head-on collision. While the helmet was initially introduced exclusively to NFL and NCAA teams, the Zero1 has recently been made available to younger players at the high school level, providing athletes the protection they need when they are perhaps at their most vulnerable.
Thus far, in the first few months of 2018, players on more than 400 high school teams and 110 professional and collegiate teams have begun sporting the Zero1, which will hopefully cut down upon the instances of traumatic brain injury resulting from the sport.