Youth Helmet Benchmarking

During my summer 2022 internship with Xenith, the first project I was assigned was a youth helmet benchmarking project. The youth football market is the primary consumer of Xenith’s helmets, but most of Xenith’s testing data was collected from adult helmets. The focus of this project was to compare data and observations from Xenith’s Shadow XR Youth to Riddell’s Victor and Speedflex Youth. Data was collected for all sizes (Small-XL).

To begin this project, I created a PowerPoint presentation with background research. I detailed information displayed on each company’s website: the price, key marketing features, etc. Then, I searched for customer reviews for each helmet and took note of any common complaints. Lastly, I noted appropriate patents issued to Riddell which pertained to Victor and Speedflex.

Next, I disassembled all three helmets down to every fastener. I took note of how many components each helmet used and what each component’s function was. Then, I found the mass of each individual component and added them to find the total mass. I have included photos of each helmet’s disassembly below.

Once each helmet was re-assembled, it was time for testing. I followed NOCSAE testing guidelines and ran tests using both the Pneumatic RAM (pictured on the left) and the NOCSAE drop tower. For the Pneumatic RAM, I ran tests at each designated position. For the drop tower, however, I ran tests at each designated location and all random positions. At the worst performing locations for each helmet, I ran another test when the helmet had been pre-heated, allowing the shells to thermally expand, and thus getting a more accurate worst-case load scenario.

Once the testing was complete, I organized and processed the data using a PivotChart and table in Microsoft Excel and added it to the product team’s reference documents.