Dear sports equipment companies
Companies that make sportingequipment need to open their eyes. If they do then maybe they would realize that stuff is too expensive for most people.Why do you say that you care about safety when your actions show something different?
As someone who plays lacrosse I have had my fair share of injuries. Most of mine have been things like a twisted ankle and things like that. So nothing serious. The worst injury that I have had is a concussion. We were doing a drill and I got hit. When I fell my head hit the field. The helmet that I had was a Cascade XRS. This helmet is in no way cheap; it will cost you around $300. The helmet claims “The XRS is full of brain-saving technology with their Tri-Liner System”, yet a very small hit that barely knocked me to the ground gave me a concussion that had me out of all sports for a couple weeks. So still it wasn’t a serious injury but the company’s claim didn’t really stand up to what they said.
A major reason why the numbers aren’t to the levels that they should be is because parents when they see an expensive helmet or piece of equipment they will see an outlandish price and then right next to it they see something that they can afford they will buy. Now because of that outlandish price they are putting the childs or persons safety at risk all because the companies want to make as much money as they can instead of making sure that safety is a priority. I get that companies’ main goal is to make as much money as they can but that still doesn’t risk the safety of players in my opinion.
I will give it to you that you are making technology that is making all sports safer but you still don’t get the point; but still the technology isn’t as safe as you claim. We all are confused why you don’t understand. The number of injuries might be going down but not at the rate that your technology claims to be able to stop these injuries.
Even the people that can afford this technology that you claim can lower the risk are still getting hurt. According to the NY Times article “Collective Force of Head Hits, Not Just the Number of Them, Increases Odds of C.T.E.”, A lot of NFL players now have a very serious injury called CTE. CTE is something that is caused by repeated contact to the head. It is a degenerative disease that causes memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, anxiety, suicidality, parkinsonism, and, eventually, progressive dementia. They have to live with CTE the rest of their life. All of the companies claim that they have “even better padding” when a new helmet comes out, is that really the case?
While the numbers of brain related injuries in the NFL have been going down is that really because of the helmets or is it because the NFL are making rules to make sure that those hits will not happen.
Another big thing is a false sense of security with equipment that claims to be safe but in reality isn’t. Someone could go out and play a game. For example football someone who is wearing a helmet that claims to have “more space to reduce concussions” they might go make a big hit but now since that claim was’t true they now have a concussion.
According to a San Diego Union Tribune article about the claims of sports equipment being false. Companies are also exploiting the fear of getting concussions in sports and marketing products that claim to lower the risk but don’t.
