Just'n Time For Football Season: Could there be another rising star out of Youngstown?

Check out this new device that got it’s start at Astro. We did the initial prototyping on
this. If it makes the NFL, you will know where it came from.

Just'n Time For Football Season:
Could there be another rising star out of Youngstown?

Scrimmages this fall could turn out to be a bigger “impact story” than in previous years,
thanks to Youngstown’s rising star, Shockstrip. This proactive sports equipment, born
and bred in the shadows of Youngstown sports greats as Michael Zordich, Brad Smith,
and Bernie Kosar, can be seen on the practice field with Ohio youth state football
champions, the Westside Patriots.

Shockstrip™ is a patent-pending exterior helmet pad that when applied to a player’s
helmet, scores higher in safety testing than the currently certified football helmets
alone.

Shockstrip™ helmet pads are applied to the exterior shell of a helmet. These pads are
designed to help absorb and deflect the violent vibration that occurs in helmet-to-
helmet contact so players experience less of the violent vibrations that can cause
concussions and brain injuries. Shockstrip can reduce the probability of a player
sustaining micro traumatic brain injury. The pad can be applied to virtually any helmet.
(football, hockey, baseball, lacrosse, bicycle, etc.) Shockstrip has tested to decrease
the impact of stress forces on the cervical spine and it dampens helmet to-helmet
cracking which can also reduce the possibility of hearing problems and headaches.

Shockstrip is popular with the team members, not only because they no longer hear a
loud cracking noise when their helmets collide, but because they think helmets
retrofitted with Shockstrip look cool!

The inventor, Dr. Steve Novicky, claims Shockstrips can reduce the probability of micro-
traumatic brain injuries and concussions, decrease stress forces on the cervical spine,
and also decreases hearing problems and headaches.

To support these claims, two third-party laboratories utilizing Drop Testing and Linear
Impact guid

elines have independently tested the Shockstrips. Not only did Shockstrip pass the
Drop Test, it was also determined that the helmet fitted with Shockstrips showed a
substantial decrease in the SI (severity index) and HIC (head injury criteria), a
measurement of impact used by sports equipment manufacturers and independent
testing facilities.

Linear Impact Testing measures impact and the probability for causing micro-traumatic
brain injury and concussions. Seventy four percent of the testing revealed a decrease
in the probability of a micro-traumatic brain injury or concussion. And 40% of the
testing revealed a significant decrease.

Linear Impact Testing also revealed a decrease in the stress forces placed upon the
cervical spine at impact. Results showed up to a 28% decrease in the percentage
probability for a micro-traumatic brain injury or concussion.

In a recent interview with Dr. Novicky, we tackled the tough questions...

This year’s statistics, by all accounts, are pointing towards a winner here, Doc,
so tell us more about Shockstrip.

I came up with the idea after seeing one too many teenagers come in with a headache
and other concussion-like symptoms during the summer and fall. The origin of these
injuries, when I started looking into it, could be traced back to playing football. I
immediately turned my time and attention to researching sports-related micro-
traumatic brain injuries and concussions. I was shocked to find a cited research report
by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research stating, “a child who has
helmet-to-helmet contact while playing youth football, either direct or indirect, by the
age of 30 has a 19 times greater chance of early onset of dementia.” I wanted to
attend to the youth of today and be proactive on the medical problems of tomorrow.
Kids shouldn’t have to face preventable medical issues because they participate in full
contact sports.

Tell us more about the product development cycle of Shockstrip and where it’s
made today.

In the beginning, we contracted with Astro Design and Manufacturing in Eastlake, Ohio
for the design and prototype stages. After several practice rounds of design and
testing, design engineer, Lindsey Frick, identified Action Polymer Products as having the
versatile material we needed to make our product effective. That’s when we moved

over to Action Polymer Products, where experienced polymer chemists identified the
impact properties we needed within their proprietary medical-grade material. The
polymer used for Shockstrips will withstand extreme temperatures (hot or cold), is anti-
microbial, and does not "bottom out," offering continuous protection. The properties of
the material offer superior absorption, deflection and sound deadening qualities. Our
final design and material were independently tested with Loctite® 4205Adhesive.
Shockstrips are being manufactured for us at Action’s headquarters in Hagerstown,
Maryland.

There are so many stories in the news about concussions… more than ever
over the course of 3-4 years. How do you see Shockstrip getting in and
staying in the game?

I’ll start with the high profile lawsuit, where 75 former players are suing the NFL. The
suit contends that the league failed “to regulate practices, games, equipment and
medical care so as to minimize the long-term risks associated with concussive brain
injuries.”There’s another lawsuit pending in which the plaintiffs discuss negligence
dating back to as early as 1920. If this is true, and if sports equipment still has
inadequacies and fails to minimize the long-term risks of preventative brain injury, then
our device is an immediate solution.

In the future, we hope to partner with equipment giants like Lorain County’s helmet
and sports equipment manufacturer, Riddell, to make Shockstrips a part of every
player’s game.

Dick’s Sporting Goods is lending a hand to accomplish the goal of testing 1
million student athletes for concussions through the nation’s largest baseline
concussion screening initiative called PACE (Protecting Athletes through
Concussion Education). How does ShockStrip fit the program?

Our device would be a great draft for a concerned organization like Dick’s Sporting
Goods. I understand they are donating $1 for any shoe purchase, or social network
“likes and checkins” on Facebook or Foursquare. Perhaps our aftermarket concussion
reducing solution could be another product that would add a donation to the PACE
program. One can dream, right?

On that dreamy note, do you think Madden will pick up the Shockstrip since he
now has a teaching tool that educates players about concussions on his video
game?

Wow, I never thought of that. [Laughs] Novicky. I’m not sure. Anything is possible in
football.