Game-changer is a term thrown around the sporting and business worlds. However, sports companies and innovations often fail to live up to that high standard.
Onto the scene emerges Guardian Sports. Guardian Sports focuses on addressing sports injuries, particularly reducing head impact, through innovative solutions like the Guardian Cap.
Sports concussions, once referred to as the “silent epidemic,” received national attention in the early 2000s. In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that 1.6 to 3.8 million concussions occur annually in sports and recreational activities, with football being the greatest contributor.
In 2010, Guardian Sports engineered and patented the Guardian Cap to address the clear need to advance the standard football helmet. The Guardian Cap is the leading soft shell helmet cover engineered for impact reduction.
Erin and Lee Hanson, owners of The Hanson Group and Guardian Sports, with their “See a problem. Solve a problem” mentality, have truly changed the game.
JJ Weber, M.Ed., Co-Founder of Player Support Services, Ltd, sat down with Erin Hanson, owner and CEO of Guardian Innovations, to discuss Guardian Sports and their ground-breaking solutions.
JJW: Can you give me a brief overview of Guardian sports?
ERIN: We launched Guardian Sports in 2011. The company’s mission is to help as many athletes as possible. All the products we launched have a safety component. We felt that the market was sorely lacking in providing for player safety, so we wanted to create solutions and product innovations. We felt that if we could develop products that both improve performance and improve safety, athletes would be able to experience the benefits of sports without all of the repercussions.
JJW: One of your more popular and impactful products is the Guardian Cap. What exactly is the Guardian Cap?
ERIN: The Guardian cap was the first product that we launched. It is a soft padded shell that floats on top of a football helmet, reducing linear impact through cushioning. The Guardian Cap gives the hard-shell football helmet a softer surface.
In addition, since it loops around the face mask with four elastic straps, there’s movement there. Now, you’re redirecting rotational forces as well. It also insulates and keeps the inside of the helmet up to 20° cooler in radiant heat.
Another benefit is the reduction of sound. The Cap lowers vibrational and harmonic frequencies. When two hard shell helmets hit, it’s a pretty loud crack. When using the Guardian Cap, the impact noise is softened. We’re hearing a lot of anecdotal feedback from players that I’m not feeling fuzzy after a hit, or my head’s not hurting after practice. Our next goal is to explore further the correlation between dampening those vibrations and head injuries.
JJW: What feedback have you received from players regarding the Guardian Cap retaining heat or impeding visibility?
ERIN: It’s really cool because Cleveland Browns LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah used the Guardian Cap in the season’s opening game, and his feedback was, ‘I’m not feeling those hits. I took a couple of hits early in the game and I really didn’t feel them in the same way.’
Jeremiah also said he was initially concerned about heat. However, the Guardian Cap is super lightweight and reduces radiant heat. Some players assume it will be too hot during games since it covers the holes in the helmet. However, the vent holes are mostly aesthetic. Most of the heat evaporation comes through the face mask. A lot of times, if you flip a helmet upside down, the holes on the outside of the helmet don’t even line up with the vent holes in the padding. So yeah, I think that’s a perception thing, but Jeremiah commented that he felt it didn’t affect his vision.
JJW: What type of testing has been conducted on its effectiveness?
ERIN: We conducted initial testing in our facility. We then ran independent testing at several labs, such as Oregon Ballistic Labs, ICS, SIRC, and Virginia Tech. Several universities, like Stanford, performed their own testing. The NFL, through their appointed lab, Biocore, also conducted their own tests to determine its effectiveness.
In 2017, we won the NFL Head Health Tech Challenge. As a result of winning the Challenge, the NFL paid for further testing. Winning the challenge, along with the NFL mandating its usage, was further validation of its effectiveness. Now that the NFL uses it, Biocore releases field data on injury statistics and tests any iterations we develop.
JJW: Do you have any statistics or findings regarding concussion prevention rates for the Guardian Cap?
ERIN: The NFL first mandated the use of the Guardian Cap for practice in 2022. The league shared that their concussion rate dropped by over 50% compared to the previous three-year average.
In addition, the CFL started mandating the use of the Guardian Cap in 2023 and reported over a 42% reduction in concussions for their mandated positions.
JJW: Are there any league rules preventing the use of the Guardian Cap during football games?
ERIN: This was the first year the NFL allowed its use during games. We first launched the Guardian Cap in 2012, and South Carolina was our first D1 school to use it. Then, it spread from school to school. Now, college-wise, all of the top 25 Power-Four college teams use them.
The NFL requires all NFL players to wear the Guardian Cap during practice. It’s mandated for all contact practices for all positions except quarterbacks, kickers, and punters throughout the entire season and postseason. The league took additional action to permit its use during games.
Five players wore the Guardian Cap during games in the first week of the 2024 NFL season, then seven players in the second week.
JJW: What other leagues, besides the NFL, CFL, and the NCAA, allow athletes to wear the Guardian Cap or recommend it to its players?
ERIN: Pop Warner, the American Youth Football (AYF), the NCAA, and the National Federation of High School Sports (NFHS) permit its use in both practices and games.
JJW: What differentiates the Guardian Cap from other safety features introduced in recent years?
ERIN: Over the years, helmets have incorporated more padding. So, naturally, people ask us, ‘Why not just put more padding on the inside of the helmet?’ I usually tell them that the NFL pads the outside of the goalpost for a reason. If you were a player running full speed directly towards the goal post, would you want the padding on the outside of the post or the inside?
For instance, if one hard-shell helmet collides with another, your finger gets smashed between two helmets or a hard-shell helmet strikes your knee or ribs, you will feel it quite differently than against a padded surface.
The hard-shell helmet serves a crucial purpose. I mean, before they came up with the polycarbonate shell, there were skull fractures, and players were dying on the field. The hard-shell helmet accomplished what it set out to do.
But that was over 70 years ago. There was no focus at that time on brain injury or the negative repercussions of the accumulation of non-concussive blows. We now know more that it’s not just a skull fracture that players are experiencing. So, we set out to do all we could to mitigate those forces.
We believe that a two-part system is the ideal solution. It’s the hard-shell helmet and the inside padding that prevents skull fracture. And then it’s having something moving on the outside to redirect impact forces, so you’re minimizing forces on all helmet-to-helmet, helmet-to-body, and helmet-to-ground blows.
It’s not just the big hits that affect players; it’s also the accumulation of smaller hits during the season and throughout a player’s career that affects their health.
A 2012 study from Purdue University found that the average high school lineman took more than 1500 hits per season. And that was within a 3–4-month period.
I know leagues are making technique changes and rule changes. It’s a multi-pronged approach. We’re not the end-all-be-all. We’re not the panacea for sure, but I think that when you dampen each one of those 1500 hits, that cumulative effect makes a difference.
For the players who want to get to the next level, we want them to do it in a safer way, and we also want them to have a life after football. Not everybody goes on to the NFL. Not everybody will play D-I collegiate football. We want players to benefit from playing football without those long-term repercussions. If we can even play a small part in that, that’s a win.
JJW: Are you seeing a reduction in other injuries with the Guardian Cap?
ERIN: Yes. The L.A. Rams were the first to order Guardian Caps in 2021 after Matthew Stafford threw the ball and smashed his thumb on a lineman’s helmet during preseason. After that, the coaches said they wanted Guardian Caps on anybody in front of Stafford. So, they bought them to ensure Stafford’s hand was protected.
JJW: Approximately how many teams use the Guardian Cap?
ERIN: It’s about 500 colleges, 5000 high schools, every NFL team, and all CFL teams. I don’t know how many youth players, but we’ve got about 500,000 caps out there. There’s a lot.
It’s interesting to us because it was a real uphill battle. I mean, aesthetically, nobody wants to wear a protective covering over a bright, shiny helmet with really cool decals.
However, the Guardian Cap just spread. It was making a difference. As college coaches took over new programs, they implemented the use of the Cap with their new team. Assistant coaches told other coaches about how the Guardian Cap helped their players. And so the spread was more organic.
Now, we’re starting to get recognition in the press. But that’s 14 years in. I mean, this is no overnight success story for sure.
People in the football world have been focused on the concussion problem for a long time. When Miami Dolphin quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered another concussion early in the 2024 season, everyone started talking about the problem all over again. People suggested Tua should have slid. Tua should have done this; he should have done that. I was asked if a Guardian Cap could have prevented his injury. That’s tough to answer. Our product is not a magic bullet. It will not prevent all concussions. I believe the focus should be on the accumulation of impacts over a player’s career and how lessening the impact of those blows can make a difference. Tua could have been wearing a Guardian Cap and still gotten concussed. Football is a contact sport, and all sports have risks. Everybody has been saying there’s a problem and somebody needs to do something. So, we stepped up, and it’s been an exciting ride.
JJW: Does Guardian Sports have any other products on the market?
ERIN: Yes – our son was a lacrosse goalie at Georgia Tech, being hit with a projectile at 90-plus miles an hour. I can’t tell you how many times I took that kid to get stitches because he kept splitting his chin open. We were furious. We wondered why lacrosse balls are as hard as rocks. Why are they making them out of rubber? We know rubber gets harder over time, just like car tires. Who came up with that idea, and why do we continue to make balls in that fashion?
So, we went to the lab and created a urethane lacrosse ball that doesn’t harden or slick up. It’s grippy and comes out of the stick the same way every time. We dialed down the hardness, and the composition of the ball never changes over time. The ball we created is the same weight and same diameter as a rubber lacrosse ball. We have to meet all the specs to meet the NOCSAE standard mark. So, it’s consistent. We care about safety. We are now the official ball of the MCLA (Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association) and the official tournament ball of the NCAA.
Next, we teamed up with Xenith to launch our LOOP, which is a padded headband. It’s designed for use in flag football, cheerleading, basketball, volleyball, rugby, soccer, and more where incidental contact occurs. We’re very proud that it’s rated 5 STARS on the Virginia Tech headgear chart, and it’s also the least expensive.
Another one of our products is Guardian Infill. It’s the same concept as the lacrosse ball. We didn’t like that athletic turf fields were using ground-up car tires. Somebody along the way decided, ‘Our landfills are filling up with tires. What do we do with all these? Well, let’s grind them up and put them on kids playing fields.’ It makes no sense.
We created a bio-based engineered infill and puffed it with air. So, it reduces impact. We also added a reflective agent to keep the field about 28° cooler. The Infill is nice, clean, and smooth. It’s not like those black rubber pellets that get caught in your shoes and cause abrasions when you fall.
JJW: Are there any new products or innovations on the horizon?
ERIN: One advancement for the Guardian Cap is aesthetics. Performance-wise, in the medical community, if you get a couple of percentage points of improvement, that’s considered phenomenal. Obviously, things are working when the NFL reports more than a 50% drop in concussions.
What we have is working, but we feel like we can always do better. We want to make it even lighter. We want to make it thinner. We would like to have it smoother for aesthetics. We have a new version coming out this year, where the sides are smooth instead of the turtle shell pattern, so teams can logo the sides and make it look more inconspicuous and more like a helmet. It will give players a little more confidence so they’re not feeling like they’re compromising on the look of the helmets.
We set out as a practice device. We never thought we’d get past the pageantry of game day, and so we never in a million years thought anybody would wear them in games.
Last year, Park High School in Minnesota wore the Guardian Cap for all of its games, and we started hearing from more and more high schools.
We were excited that the NFL was interested in allowing it for games. They asked us to devise a solution to match the helmets next to them. So, we created a sublimated cover. We call it a Gameday Cover, which is just a sublimated pinnie cap that goes over the Guardian Cap. Now you see the flag, stripes, and logos of team helmets. For most team helmets, it’s hard to tell who is wearing a Guardian Cap during a game and who isn’t.
JJW: What’s next for Guardian Sports?
ERIN: Solving problems. When we see a way that we can make things better, both in performance and safety, we will go all in. People come to us with problems. We have had people from equestrian and baseball reach out to us.
As I said previously, football is a contact sport with inherent risk. When I ask former players if they would play football again knowing the injury risk, most say, ‘Yes, 100%.’ But they also would have liked to do it in a better, safer way. Many former players tell us, ‘My son’s playing football. I want him in a Guardian Cap.’
We saw a problem and worked hard to find a solution. That’s our goal for Guardian Sports. We are very focused on doing the right thing and making things better. For us, it is all about serving others and the mission of improving technology for athletes.
JJW: Where can people contact you?
ERIN: We’re always here if anyone has any questions. You can find us at guardiansports.com or email us at sales@guardiansports.com.
Player Support Services, Ltd. shares the same values of serving others, supporting athletes, and improving the lives of athletes. PSS is committed to revolutionizing player care for professional, Olympic, and collegiate athletes during and after their athletic careers. Our mission is to empower athletes to achieve their maximum potential on and off the field.
JJ Weber is a Co-Founder of Player Support Services and Director of Sports and Injury Psychology. JJ is also a parent mentor and an experienced writer specializing in sports and performance psychology, mental training, fitness, well-being, and parenting.
For questions about this article or Player Support Services, contact JJ: joe@player-support.com
