The Riddell Speedflex helmet is being retired after many years with the Pinewood football program, and a new and more advanced helmet is taking its place: the Axiom Helmet. This new helmet, Riddell’s direct descendant of the Speedflex, will provide increased safety for the players. 

   Football helmets are crucial in protecting players from concussions after collisions. In the past, techniques such as fitting foams and air adjustments were added to many helmets to cushion the player’s head. The Axiom Helmet implements a different method of doing this.

    “One of the biggest upsides of these new helmets is each helmet’s ability to be custom fitted to each individual’s head,” says Yong Kim

   This increases comfort while also providing extra protection. To customize the size of the helmets, the Axiom Helmet implements a sensor in the helmet that scans the player’s head with the help of Riddell’s Verify app in order to install padding to the dimension of that specific player’s head. 

   Another feature of the Axiom helmets that increase player safety is the extension of the flexible shell around the helmet. The new Axiom helmet has expanded this protection to encompass the helmet fully to protect players from injuries from forward collisions.

   “Arjun Ari mentioned when he first tried on the sample helmet that the field of vision is so much better,” Kim said. “This is a nice aspect in terms of being able to better see potential impacts.”

   The Axiom increases the player’s field of view due to the top bar of the face mask being removed. This allows the players to see areas that were formerly covered in previous helmets. This also helps spread the force of an impact away from the forehead. This increases the safety of the player and limits the chances of concussions.

   The Axiom Helmet is a big step up from the Speedflex and provides additional safety to the player. As more and more safety features, such as the new Axiom helmets, are implemented at Pinewood, the sport as a whole will get safer.