Would Your Helmet Actually Protect You? Va Tech’s ‘Helmet Lab’ Is Testing Every Sport

Would Your Helmet Actually Protect You? Va Tech’s ‘Helmet Lab’ Is Testing Every Sport

Would Your Helmet Actually Protect You? Va Tech’s ‘Helmet Lab’ Is Testing Every Sport VA Tech Helmet Lab staff testing a hockey helmet – credit, VA Tech Helmet Lab In 2011, Steve Rowson and his fellow engineering students at Virginia Tech were asked by the Hokies equipment manager if they could test commercially-available football helmets to see which was the safest. Obliging the man, they ran a series of impact assessments, and found a broad spectrum of differences between them. At that moment, the institute’s “Helmet Lab” was born, and Rowson would go on to become its director. Now, he’s training the next generation of students producing the VA Tech Helmet Rating with the aim of providing consumers the unbiased information needed to make informed decisions when purchasing helmets. Now they test all kinds of helmets: cycling helmets, football helmets, snowsport helmets, construction site hard hats, baseball helmets, hockey helmets, and equestrian helmets. “If you think about what we first …