Our most impactful drop yet…
We recently launched our High Impact Protective Sweatband in the HY shop and we have never been more proud of the team behind its development.
Through one of the most challenging years of manufacturing we’ve seen we have designed and created a product that achieves the 4 key components we laid out that it had to meet.
Safety / Agility / Comfort / Focus.
Safety - Premium lab-grade aerated non-Newtonian protective guard.
Agility - A streamlined, no-fuss design with a unique in-built pocket making it fully interchangeable so you can alter the protective level or band colour in seconds depending on your needs.
Comfort - Beautifully soft, yet reassuringly robust cotton.
Focus - All the above (and more!) giving you complete piece of mind on the field so you can concentrate on the job at hand!
Let’s take a deeper dive in to how we developed our our unique sweatband and our protective guards.
The Sweatband
This is the result of some very nice fabric engineering. When we spoke with our technical engineers at the factory they did initially laugh at the idea of single-piece sweatband with a pocket inside! However, after a couple of months of trial, error, trial and error we found a digital roadmap for the 3D-knitting machine that would allow us to create our unique sweatband design.
Made as a single-piece tubular design, we have managed to completely eliminate all seams at areas that take the most wear and tear! The only seam you’ll find is our patented (pending) 3/4 seam on the inside of the band the neatly lays against your arm keeping the velcro flap that leads to the internal pocket nicely closed flat.
You’ll also find little details across the band that elevate ours further:
textured & elasticated cuffs ensure a snug and secure fit every time.
hidden stitches at both ends of the internal pocket ensure the protective guard stays where it is supposed to be and doesn’t creep into the cuffs or round to the other side of your arm!
the Hard Yards branding is subtle, yet definitely there.
and finally, over the central part of the band, the cotton we use is knitted into the classic thread-loop structure called ‘Terry’ towelling which helps to wick away moisture from your arm or brow. We have doubled the density of the fibres here to give a super soft, yet reassuringly solid feel.
Most importantly, what sets our sweatband apart from the rest is our patented (pending) internal pocket that allows you to quickly change the level or size of the protection and means you can wear different colour bands or buy a new band without having to buy a whole new complete set!
The Protection
Now you’ll notice that Safety is at the very top of that list I mentioned earlier. This is not by coincidence, but by design because in our eyes it’s the most important aspect for us to get right for you.
You might be familiar with the thick sponge-like materials in many of the current arm guards on the market and to give them their fair credit, they do a half-decent job. However, if you’ve ever worn one of these guards you know just how bulky and sweaty they can get in the heat of the game and this can lead to a loss of focus on the field.
This is where we’ve taken a player-first approach. We started by asking what our athletes would want from such an item of sports protective wear. The answers were simple:
Lightweight; good. Forget that it’s on my arm; even better!
Streamlined form factor. We don’t want it getting in the way of our movements.
Wrap-around comfort. It needs to be form fitting.
With these in mind we looked towards the labs at Newcastle University who helped us to identify a material that would meet our players’ needs and after working with our materials science factory we have developed our 1st version of our High Impact Guard.
The key feature to highlight is that this is a non-Newtonian material and in it’s raw state it looks rather like a thick liquid slowly flowing and oozing but on a sharp impact the molecules come together tightly, creating a solid barrier that dissipates and absorbs the force across the entire material.
Now you might think that a liquid wouldn’t be the best option for a protective guard and you’d be right! So what we do next is process the raw liquid into a form that is a solid at normal temperatures, yet still retains its desirable ‘shear-thickening’ properties. Not only this, but we micro-aerate the molten form such that when it sets solid in the mold it has 1000s of tiny air pockets (much like an Aero chocolate bar) that not only reduces the overall guard weight, but also provides additional recoil or spring within the material, thus helping to return some of the impact force back into the projectile itself creating a deflecting-like quality to the guard.
All-in-all, this protective armguard is packed with serious tech and dashed with lots of little niceties that elevate it to the top of the market.