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.
Grip that breaks ground.
A new product category.
It wouldn’t be fair to write an article about grip socks without acknowledging our friends at TruSox as one of the 1st to give this new athletic technology a go. However, with their early success has recently come a gluttony of new brands trying to capitalise on this young and exciting niche with cheaply-made socks that are showing evidence that they struggle do the job effectively and cost you more in the long run.
James and I saw the potential that grip socks could have for our athletes’ performance. Our intuition and experience as athletes ourselves said that this simple concept made complete sense; if your foot is sliding around in your shoe, your balance will be off, your sprint speeds will be slower and you’ll be losing power each and every stride. These small margins could be the difference between winning or losing and so we set about designing a grip sock that would help you reclaim those margins back.
A deeper dive.
Now when we looked at the core problem, we found that almost all grip socks on the market have at least 2 key problems:
Poor quality grip material
Grips on the outside only
First, we started by evaluating the grip material itself and we found that every sock on the market uses a simple rubberised material. While it is fairly grippy on the first wear it is fragile and wears down quickly meaning that your grip reduces after each game. Working with the team at PremGripp, we decided to utilise medical-grade silicone for our grips. It is far more heat tolerant, more hardwearing/longer lasting and ultimately medically safer for athletes allergic to rubber and latex compounds. The specific application process for this silicone also has a naturally smooth surface meaning that risk of blistering is mitigated, compared to rubberised materials.
Second, we also noticed that almost all grips socks out there are only doing 50% of the job by using a single layer of grip on the outside of the sock and to fully optimise your speed returns and capture that extra 50%, we could not compromise in this area and had to apply grip to both the inside and outside of the sock. This ensures that the sock grips both your foot and the shoe creating a rock solid foundation for your explosive movements on the field.
Finally, in the socks that did have grip on both sides (note - we could only find 3 out there!) the PremGripp team showed us how placing the layers of grip dots directly on-top of each other created an uncomfortable pressure on the sole of the foot while playing, creating discomfort and distracting from the game. We therefore moved the outside layer of grips forwards to create an ‘offset’ pattern where the grip alternates inside - outside - inside - outside meaning that when you press your foot into the ground, the grips all level off and work with each other in unison, rather than pressing against and sliding over each other which would defeat the intended purpose. Our athletes have let us know just how comfortable this change makes the socks, so much so you forget they are even there after a few minutes!
grip to the future.
We wholeheartedly believe that grip socks are here to stay and we are so proud to have teamed up with PremGripp to develop what we consider to be the absolute best grip sock available on the market.
Every detail has been thought through to optimise your performance:
2-layers of ‘offset’ medical-grade silicone grip
Targeted breathability zones
Durable cotton construction
Enhanced ankle support and protection
Anti-blister technology
We are also incredibly excited to be working with Newcastle University to extensively lab-test our next addition to our grip sock line-up, stay tuned!
In Pursuit of 1%.
1%. It doesn’t sound like much.
When we think of performance generally, we usually think about the big changes as being the most important such as upgrading to that new tennis racket, working with a new coach, a wearing the latest smart watch to track your vitals.
Sure, these could all be impactful changes when done right but they don’t (and shouldn’t) happen that often and can be high risk, high cost, and potentially low return if poorly executed.
Whether it’s treating unwell patients, rehearsing for a concert or practicing your technique off the field we all want to take it to the next level and make our best, better.
At Hard Yards we take a different approach, we pursue the 1%.
We strive to find those small changes; seemingly insignificant day-to-day that over time aggregate and accumulate to make a massive difference to your long-term game.
It might be a minor adjustment to your grip. Perhaps you take that extra minute to visualise your game plan before you head out to the pitch. Or you might invest in something you wear each and every time you play and it’s not until you look back that you see the gains you have made and the hurdles you have overcome.
But like any change, if you are not consistent, you’ll not reap the rewards. As an illustration of the effects of small, consistent gains you can see the long-term power of chasing those 1%s.
We are here to help you reclaim these 1%s!
Credit : Mr James Clear - https://jamesclear.com/continuous-improvement
Serious About Sustainability
When you enter an established market such as sportswear, having a superior product is a prerequisite. The team at Hard Yards is well aware of this. In fact, their entire business strategy is to inject technology, research, and design into a category normally treated as perfunctory.
At Verdn, we believe this principle holds true along a different dimension as well: in a world mired by environmental challenges, those who choose to introduce new products carry a responsibility to ensure that they are more sustainable than existing alternatives.
A few months ago, Harry and James from Hard Yards came to us at Verdn to explore a partnership. I was ecstatic — after chatting to them it was clear to me that we were fully aligned in our approaches. Hard Yards wanted to be a premium, sustainable brand. Verdn, was created to facilitate exactly that.
Planting trees with every product.
With every product sold, Hard Yards pledges to plant trees.
The trees planted are mangroves, known for their effective absorption of CO2, and their pivotal role in maintaining healthy coastal ecosystems. The trees are planted in either Madagascar, Kenya or Mozambique, and provide crucial income to local communities that are employed to plant and protect the trees in areas that were previously deforested.
To make these pledges effortlessly, Hard Yards uses software provided by Verdn.
Additionally, Verdn allows each customer of Hard Yards to track their own trees, after they buy their products. They can do so on unique dashboards, generated by Verdn, and updated over time by our tree planting partners.
About Verdn
Verdn launched soon after meeting Hard Yards for the first time — in September 2020. Since then, we’ve helped brands plant over 150,000 trees, and recovered over 100,000 kg of ocean-bound plastic. Verdn is expanding to new types of impact, including coral planting, clean water, and more.
We could not be more excited to work with a progressive brand like Hard Yards.
Precision R&D, from the lab to the pitch
As keen sports players ourselves, we know just how important it is that you can rely on the products you wear to do exactly what they are supposed to.
We are passionate about going beyond what is expected of a sports brand, delivering you sports accessories that perform for you time after time, game after game.
Our vision is to bring you technical sportswear that gives you the confidence to dig deep and give that extra 1%, because it’s all those one percents that can make or break your game.
To achieve this benchmark, we partner with world-leading universities and world-class athletes to make sure that our products will stand up to our claims.
Our R&D is supported by
