Ask the president of Derby-based Force3 Pro Gear how he came up with the idea for an innovative sports mask that reduces the risk of traumatic brain injuries and he’ll pull no punches in answering.
“I was a minor league umpire for 10 years,” Jason Klein said. “And I got tired of getting hit in the head.”
Force3 Pro Gear, located on New Haven Avenue, recently announced that Atlanta Braves catcher Tyler Flowers will be wearing their next generation of protective face masks — the Force3 Defender — during the upcoming season.
“I’m excited to join forces with a company dedicated to tackling an issue that is in the forefront,” said Flowers in a prepared statement.
Flowers, a 30-year-old major leaguer who has a .223 career batting average with 46 home runs and 142 RBIs over a six-year span, said he wants to spread the word about the new face mask to catchers and umps at every level of the game.
Klein said that while the Defender may look traditional, it is built with a special “shock suspension system” that reduces the severity of impacts and g‑forces caused by them.
The company said the masks were tested by a third party lab that hummed softballs at them at 70 miles per hour, and baseballs at 100 mph.
“Never before has there been a mask of this quality and protection on the market,” Klein said.
He said following more than five years of designing, prototyping and exhaustive testing, the Derby company, which has been in operation for 10 years, is proud of the result.
The company is also marketing a version of the mask styled for hockey players.
The catcher’s mask is slightly heavier than others on the market, and is designed to be tighter around the head than normal masks, so it can absorb impacts without coming off of the head.
The retail price of the mask is $149.95 for the baseball mask and $169.95-$179.95 for the hockey-style mask.
The issue of brain injuries in sports has gotten a lot of attention recently, as more and more former professional football players and their families have spoken out about the long-term effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) — a degenerative disease caused by head trauma.
A 2013 episode of the acclaimed PBS documentary series FRONTLINE took an in-depth look at the issue. Click here to watch.
And last year saw the release of “Concussion,” a movie starring Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian forensic pathologist who fought against efforts by the National Football League to suppress his research on CTE.
While the company doesn’t make football equipment, Klein said the “movie certainly has focused added, welcome attention on this issue, no doubt.”
That attention, Klein went on, “was long overdue” for athletes in all sports.
To learn more about Force3 Pro Gear and the Derby company, visit www.force3progear.com.
