Certor Sports, Guardian Sports Enter Strategic Football Partnership

PLAINFIELD, INDIANA (January 8, 2025) – Certor Sports, the parent company of football brands Schutt and VICIS, and Guardian Sports, creator of the Guardian Cap, have entered into a new strategic alliance. This collaboration is focused, with a shared passion for safety, on providing unparalleled protective performance to football players of all ages and skill sets through advanced technologies and continued innovation.

The Schutt and VICIS brands have been at the forefront of football safety for decades, including the iconic Schutt F7 and VICIS ZERO2 helmet models. Schutt F7 helmets are one of the most popular models in the game and the inventor of tektonic energy absorption technology. VICIS technology revolutionized the sport with the first ever position-specific helmets, the ZERO2 QB and ZERO2 TRENCH, specifically designed to better protect quarterbacks and linemen from the impacts typically absorbed by those positions, respectively. The ZERO2 QB helmet ranked first on the 2024 NFL Helmet Performance Testing Results, and now hundreds of players across the NFL, college, and youth game have adopted these helmets.

“Certor Sports admires and appreciates any company who is committed to developing protective technologies, and Guardian Sports is clearly in this category. While we remain highly confident in our industry-leading Schutt and VICIS helmet technologies, we fully support any player, parent, or coach who chooses to utilize the Guardian Cap additional protective device to further their confidence in the safety of the sport,” said Jeremy Erspamer, President and CEO of Certor Sports. “We encourage continuous innovation and believe that all participants should do their research and choose the protective equipment that best meets their personal preferences.

“In doing so we are formally stating, under NOCSAE regulations, all Schutt and VICIS helmets worn in practice or games with a properly installed Guardian Cap remain fully certified and warrantied should the player, parent, or coach choose to do so and if allowable by applicable league regulations.”

Guardian Sports introduced the Guardian Cap, its flagship product, over a decade ago in 2012. The Guardian Cap is a universally sized soft-shell device that fits over football helmets to reduce impact and re-direct rotational forces through its patented technology. Guardian cited this information in the joint news release with Certor:

• Guardian Caps are currently being used by over 500,000 youth, high school, and college athletes and are mandated for practice by the NFL & CFL.
• In 2024, Guardian Caps were used by 92% of the Top 25 NCAA teams, including 11 of the 12 College Football Playoff teams.
• The NFL released post-season data that showed concussion rates among players mandated to wear Guardian Caps dropped more than 50% compared to their previous three-year average.
• Jeff Miller, the NFL’s Executive Vice President of Health & Safety stated, “the performance of the Caps exceeded our expectations” and the NFL expanded Guardian Cap usage in 2024 to allow players to wear Guardian Caps in games.

“The mission of Guardian Sports has always been a relentless pursuit to make the game safer, and teaming up with Certor Sports is a perfect match,” said Erin Hanson, founder and CEO of Guardian Sports. “With the partnership of leading brands Schutt and VICIS, and the related certification of a combination of our technologies, we’re able to broaden the availability of Guardian Caps and the best performing helmets to players across the world.

“We will also work closely to co-develop even more advanced technologies and solutions moving forward. By combining Certor Sports’ world-class helmet technology with the Guardian Cap’s innovative soft-shell design, this partnership represents a bold step forward in the mission to protect football players everywhere.”

Certor Sports is a supporter of NSGA.