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My Bauer Reakt - $549.99 USD CCM Custom X - $579.99 USD

Great call guys. I never thought of trying a shirt. Funny, I actually have one of the Shock Doctor shirts. I'll give it a try tomorrow night.

Your wear like a dri-fit material swimming sort of cap. It flattens out all of your hair like it would fit in the under the helmet.

Like I mentioned in my earlier post, the CCM retail display feels better to most people and I say "most people" because feel is subjective. I'm not trying to argue here and I totally get your point. I talked to a local Pure Hockey manager, who I coach with, and he told me the same thing. The CCM helmets feel softer to the touch and are more comfortable when you try them on in the store. CCM did a great job with that. But here's what's totally different with a scan to print product, the helmets you see in the store aren't going to feel 1:1 with the custom helmets customers receive. Digitally created custom-fit helmets are a new thing, we need to think a bit differently, and trust the process. The helmet liner does not really smush or compress into your head like a traditional foam liner. This isn't like custom skates where they tweak regular stock parts to fit your feet better. They scan your feet and then best fit you into an existing skate last or size. It's also not like traditional custom goalie masks where they add or remove some padding to make it fit right. With these custom helmets, they start from scratch and each liner is digitally created to match your unique head shape. So, instead of thinking, "The CCM display feels great, so it will feel better than the Bauer", my hope is that people understand "the Bauer helmet is digitally created for me. The final product will be a perfect fit, without pain points or hot sports, and the retail model is just a display to help me understand what the final product looks likes". Unless you order a custom Bauer helmet, you won't really know how it'll feel on your head. That's the tricky part about this project—for consumers, there's no way to try it on and see how great it is until you actually buy one. There's no test run. This website still survives because it's the most educated and hardest core hockey consumer. That's why I am here to share some thoughts and help out potential buyers or anyone curious. I can't say for sure if VT will test the Bauer helmet, but I hope they do. VT usually buys the helmets themselves for testing. We won't know the results until the test is done and they share the info, but I'd bet that the myBauer helmet gets a good rating and beats 1 star.

Yes, it's scalable, but that is still the most challenging part. Traditional foam materials are relatively inexpensive and die cutting sheet foam or molding foam is faster than 3D printing. 3D printing is more of a top price point technology right now and I wouldn't expect to see it in any lower price point / value products in the next few years For protection, the best think I can think of VT ratings? I know it's not perfect and people could find flaws in it, but I don't see any equipment OEMs publicly presenting safety data. VT is the only neutral source I am aware of? I would expect this helmet to be rated there and I check for it personally, I want to see that we did a good job. Yes, hockey helmets have the same concept. There are foams specifically designed for safety or absorption and others designed for comfort. That is why traditional helmets have multiple foams inside the liners. They are designed to balance weight, comfort, and safety. With 3D printing, you vary the diameter of the lattice strut, the shape of the cell, and/or the base feed stock material to reach the same goals. Our IP, which Bauer uses, is about the lattice shapes morphing into each other. That will most closely mimic the traditional concept of multi-density foams fused together. Yes, the shell is the same as the Re-Akt 150. The software decides if you are a S, M, or L shell and then it wraps the lattice around your unique head shape, creates a build file, and then the parts are built. The parts are printed contoured / round and uniquely to your head shape. The parts look like a piece of cantaloupe almost. Check out the images I posted above. Top right image is exactly what the printed part looks like. It's contoured.

For the basketball, when/if it comes to retail on/or it gets launched, get ready for something more exclusive than any pair of Jordans… As for the Nest Tech, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to come on here and answer some questions? I hear comments like that and I think that hockey consumers might need to embrace thinking differently as 3D printing becomes more commonplace. You might need to take a bit of a leap of faith on a custom product. With 3D printing, it’s the ultimate flexibility in design. You can adjust the cell geometry, the thickness of the struts, and the material used to create the lattice. You can tune things in a way literally unimaginable with sheet foam or molded foams. The IP my company developed, which Bauer included in their design, is around different cell shapes flowing or morphing into each other. This would be the equivalent of traditional dual density liner foam liners. No other 3D printing technology can offer that. Each change will impact the performance of the end part. IMO, there is basically a balance of engineering trade offs of weight, comfort/breath ability, and protection. If you go too far in any 2 design directions, you will greatly sacrifice the 3rd. If you focus too heavily on lightweight and comfort, you will sacrifice protection. However, with the head scanning technology, the “comfort” is sort of irrelevant? The helmet pictured above is based off a scan of my head. It’s tad snug to pop on and then it feels like you are wearing nothing while playing. There are no pressure points because it’s made 1:1 for your head. Makar wore the prototype on the way to the Smyth. So yes, it will feel less squishy on the retail shelf to head to head, but this will be most comfortable helmet you’ve ever owned if you get one. It’s also way more breathable and shouldn’t sacrifice protection compared with the traditional foams. Please fire away with more questions! The intersection of work and hockey is a dream come true and I’d like to answer as many technical or behind the scenes questions as I can.