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Head of the Class Xenith, a Rock Ventures company, is working to make the Motor City known as Football Helmet City. BY TIM KEENAN |
JOSH SCOTT
T
he moving assembly line, automobiles, and the Motown sound are things closely associated with Detroit. But football helmets? If Xenith has anything to say about it, Detroit will be known as a football helmet hub. The company has been working toward that end since it moved here from Massachusetts in 2015, when it became part of Dan Gilbert’s Rock Family of Companies. “We’re proudly based and built in Detroit,” says Matt McPhail, chief design officer at Xenith. “That’s a mantra we continue to talk about.” Founded in 2006 by former Harvard University quarterback Vin Ferrara, Xenith came into being after Ferrara dealt with several head injuries during his playing career. He believed there had to be a better way to make a football helmet. After spending three years on research and development, the company launched its first helmet — the X1 — in 2009, and the helmet and its derivatives are now worn by hundreds of thousands of players from the youth level to the National Football League. According to Xenith, the protection its headgear provides is superior to what came before because of the technology involved. “The challenge was to not only convince people that it was different, but fundamentally better,” McPhail explains. The first football helmets were leather. Next came plastic shells with a web of straps inside to cradle the player’s head, otherwise known as the suspension helmet. Then came foam pads that were affixed directly to the inside of the helmet shell. Xenith’s technology, in the most simplistic terms, merges the suspension interior with components that act as shock absorbers and are distributed around the player’s head. It’s called the shock and bonnet system. “The first X1 helmet has pneumatically operated shocks,” says Ron Jadischke, Xenith’s chief engineer. “What we did with later models is search globally for a company that has a cutting-edge material that can be changed with chemistry to have different characteristics and that has dynamic characteristics. We combine chemistry with several different geometries to get the desired result.” Subsequent models include the X2E+, the Shadow XR, and the Epic. Xenith’s research, along with production, takes
place in a 66,000-square-foot warehouse facility inside Renaissance Global Logistics, located in the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge in southwest Detroit. The company produces helmets, shoulder pads, and other football equipment. In addition, the facility has a helmet reconditioning area — every year or so, helmets are returned, disassembled, cleaned, repainted, and components are replaced if necessary. When returned to the teams, they’re like new. Xenith also has labs where products are tested. The impact testing lab is like an automotive crash test lane, where helmets and other gear are subjected to impacts as fast as 20 mph. Another lab has several instruments that are used to test helmets and components. This area features multiple crash test dummy heads, each wired with sensors that reveal how effective a helmet is or isn’t. The facility also houses offices, a custom paint booth, a showroom, and a warehouse. Xenith’s athlete-centric philosophy doesn’t stop at safety. It designs for needs that transcend protection, pushing the boundaries of fit, feel, comfort, durability, performance, and style. “The football helmet marketplace is full of orthodoxy and tradition,” McPhail says. “From an equipment standpoint, it’s hard to differentiate and make headway — and when you have a new technology, there’s that apprehension of not wanting to be the guinea pig. It was certainly an uphill battle because of how different the approach was, but the results of the testing proved it out and adoption (of the helmets) began to increase as more people became aware.”
According to Xenith, it’s the only manufacturer to exclusively design and produce 5-Star helmets under the widely accepted Virginia Tech star system. Other companies have 5-Star helmets, but they also produce 4-Star, 3-Star, and 2-Star products. The Xenith philosophy is that if a helmet doesn’t excel under the most stringent testing available, it shouldn’t be on the field. Considering the challenge to convert established players and programs to new equipment, Xenith is taking the approach of marketing to youth teams and leagues, in the hope that players will carry brand loyalty with them if they move up through the football ranks. One element of this strategy is sponsorship of the Kickoff Classic, which pits the best high school teams in the metro Detroit area against each other in the opening weekend of the season at Wayne State University. “That’s a relationship that’s several years old now,” McPhail says. “Anytime that we have an opportunity to partner with a Detroit-facing entity — whether it’s the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan or the Detroit Public Schools — it certainly pays dividends in terms of our support of the community. And we’ve been able to convert some of the high schools that participate in the Kickoff Classic to Xenith products.” Along with football helmets, Xenith sells SUDDEN IMPACT pads and Xenith moved to Detroit in 2015 shoulder and, since that time, the accessories like chin company has scored revenue straps, visors, face and employment gains. Today, masks, back plates, rib improved technology has guards, and gloves. elevated player safety.
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