The Neck Brace Revolution: Part 2

Click photo to enlarge.

The neck brace revolution has certainly taken us a long way in a short time.

Almost overnight this new form of protection has turned into a multi-million-dollar industry, its momentum furthered by more and more companies developing new products and accessories. It seems the vast majority is effectively convinced of the need for neck protection, but with so many choices, conflicting ideas of protection and facts clouded up by too much hearsay, it’s hard to know what to believe.

In the first half of this feature, four current makers of neck protection systems (Leatt, Alpinestars, EVS and SixSixOne) talked about their products, how they work, why they’re unique and/or ideal, where the inspiration came from and what kind of research and development went behind their products.

After hearing what they each had to say, we will now explore some of the surrounding criticisms and misconceptions. Do we fully understand what they are and are not designed to protect us from? Could these systems be causing more harm than good? Are they giving us a false sense of security? Are we shielding ourselves from catastrophic injury, or just the fear of it?

Representatives from each company responded to these questions and also shed some light on many other controversial topics such as patents, knock-offs, potentially misleading statements and the growing competition.

We end with a discussion on whether or not there should be an industry standard on neck protection systems. Helmets, have them in the form of DOT and SNELL – should we hold neck braces to a comparable standard? If so, how do we come up with a standard? How can we, as consumers, impose some form of control, and protect ourselves from the protection revolution?

Common Criticisms

As wide spread and well-accepted as neck protection has become, there are still plenty of riders – from casual weekenders all the way to the top Pros – who are not on board with the revolution. Aside from the obvious issue of cost, or the question of rider comfort, there are still those who don’t believe the safety benefits of wearing a brace go much further than preventing you from licking your stitches. In fact, some will go as far as saying that a neck brace can be cause for additional injury in the event of a crash.

By virtue of being first on the scene, and thereby having had the most time on the market place, the Leatt Brace has had its share of criticisms in this area, which Geoff Patterson talked about.

“The first and foremost criticism of the Leatt brace that I can see is that it breaks collarbones. I’ve been hearing that for two and a half years,” Patterson said. “We’ve tried to acknowledge it. Chris [Leatt] has acknowledged it. It is the Leatt Corporation’s position that it does not break collarbones.

“We haven’t gotten any official data, but of the collarbones that were broken in 2007 in AMA Supercross and Motocross, just by the ones I counted, were 13. Seven of which I believe were with the Leatt Brace and six without. That would tell you that you’re less likely to break your collarbone with the Leatt on because more people were wearing the brace while riding than not. So if it’s almost 50-50 collarbones being broken, but 60 percent of the riders were wearing the Leatt Brace, you’d think that it would break more. It hasn’t.”

“Way back when Sean Borkenhagen was hurt, he broke his collarbone and it severed a nerve in his arm,” Patterson said. “His arm went numb, and the whole world said, ‘Leatt Brace broke his collarbone! My God! It’s terrible!’ Three months later we saw photographs of his crash and you can see that he didn’t go head-in. He went on his side – there’s a series of four pictures and you can see that he never landed directly on his head. So it’s very difficult to make those statements if you didn’t see the accident or it’s not on video.”

Another well-known accident was that of desert racer Chris Blais. After a high-speed crash that resulted in a T7 injury, Blais was left paralyzed from the waist down. Blais was wearing a Leatt Brace in the accident.

“From what we were told, from what I was told, the bike hit him,” Patterson said. “Chris Blais believes that the brace saved his life. The statements that I’ve heard say that he broke his back from the brace. Well, Johnny Campbell was riding right behind him when it happened and he said, ‘No, the bike drilled him.’ If a 250-pound bike’s going to drill you at 100 miles per hour, things are going to happen.”

Either way, the fact remains that Blais didn’t fracture or damage his C section – the only area the Leatt Brace is designed to protect.

“Chris Leatt has never said the neck brace protects from all injuries,” Patterson commented. “We can’t cover every aspect. [Dr. Leatt’s] design was to protect the cervical spine – in the C section: C1 through C7/8.”

“We’ve heard about many riders that have broken their back or compressed their spine and they blame it instantly on the brace,” Patterson said. “But then you hear a week or two later that there was a guy riding behind him who said, ‘No, no, that’s not what happened. The bike drilled him in the back,’ or, ‘He went over the hay bale and bent backwards.’ Unless you’ve seen it or there’s video of it or a photograph of it, it’s very difficult to make those statements.

“We all take an inherent risk when we get on a motorcycle and ride it. It’s not the neck brace’s fault that you were involved in an accident. But it’s trying to help reduce catastrophic neck injury.

“What most doctors will say is if you’re going to be paralyzed from an accident, it’s much better to be paralyzed further down your back,” Patterson continued. “Would you rather be able to push your wheelchair, or would you rather be on a ventilator because you couldn’t breathe?”

Photo right: Many riders still elect not to ride with a neck brace, such as Ricky Carmichael, shown here at the 2009 X Games.

Alpinestars’ representatives have reported hearing similar criticisms about their Bionic Neck Support. Tim Collins explained how the dense foam material of the BNS is designed to compress and/or break away, putting to bed any rumors of the neck brace intending to transfer shock to the collarbone area.

“The idea is that it’s not completely rigid so that it’s going to cause additional injury if you were to have an impact against the body. It’s not designed to break the collarbone – it’s designed to prevent breaking the collarbone because it’s lifted above the area. So you could say that’s one of the myths busted by Alpinestars’ product. It’s not necessary to break a collarbone to save your neck or your spine.”

Beyond these types of rumors, to some, there remains a general aversion to the very idea of wrapping a rigid collar around your neck and getting on a motorcycle.

“I’ve run into a few people who have said they’re not completely sold on the concept,” Collins said. “Maybe they’d be better off without it or something. It’s introducing such a new safety mechanism that it’s going to take people a little while to embrace it. I think it’s similar to seatbelts or helmets. When I was growing up, it was like, ‘Oh, well I don’t need to wear a seatbelt. I’m safer being able to duck out of the way of something.’ Statistically, that’s not the case. Is there going to be a person that may have suffered an injury with or without it? Possibly... it’s hard to say. But statistically, like seatbelts or helmets, ultimately in the long run, you’re better off wearing some type of protective system based on the inherent risk of the sport.”

“It’s pretty obvious that now with the bikes going so fast and jumping so far and just the level of speed they go, it’s gotten pretty scary,” Eddie Cole of SixSixOne commented. “When I grew up racing motocross in the ‘70s and ‘80s, we didn’t go fast enough to really see the things that we’re seeing today. We’ve seen an awful lot of riders get seriously hurt.”

The resistance to trusting the new technology is quite an exasperating topic for many of the people behind the development of neck protection, such as Guido Rietdyk, president of EVS.

“In the face of facts that something helps you to protect yourself, there’s still people who choose not to,” said Rietdyk. “If you look at the development of the bikes and the tracks and the sport, it’s become faster and bigger and longer and better, but our bodies have stayed the same as they were 20 years ago. That gapping of equipment and body is somewhat of a concern. Our protective equipment ought to be staying in step with trying to fill this gap.”

Misconceptions: A False Confidence?

From unfair accusations all the way to unrealistic expectations, there are misconceptions about neck protection across the board. Under the latter category, the number-one misconception seems to be: If I wear a neck brace, I won’t get paralyzed.

As we’ve already seen from our earlier discussion, that is certainly not true. So where does this common misinterpretation come from? Is this false assumption what is prompting us to rush out buy neck protection at such an alarming rate? At the end of the day, are we shielding ourselves from catastrophic injury, or just the fear of it?

Rewinding all the way to the beginning, or at least to the person who convinced us to embrace the idea, let’s take a look at what first commanded our attention. David Bailey’s video on VitalMX.com, in which the paraplegic motocross legend held up the Leatt Brace and fervently endorsed it, left us wide-eyed and sweating bullets about our current standards of protection. It was a compelling speech that effectively turned the entire motocross industry on its ear. Bailey wasn’t trying to sell anything – in fact, he had no reported affiliation to Leatt whatsoever at the time. But the fact that drove it all home is the conclusion we all likely drew from his emotional plea: That had he been wearing one in 1987, perhaps he wouldn’t be in a wheelchair today.

In the video, Bailey repeatedly says, “I would wear this,” and talked about telling his kids to “wear this brace so I don’t have to worry.” He even referred to it as a “bullet-proof vest” and a “life vest” more than once. As revered as Bailey is, and as well-intended as his speech may have been, those are clearly some potentially misleading statements.

References to the Leatt Brace as a “bullet-proof vest” can be misleading to Joe Public who believes that this high-dollar protective wear is like a suit of invincibility, and now he can finally pin it across the desert, or hit that big triple.

Another incident came in February of ’07 that got the Leatt ball rolling, and that was when Kevin Windham showed up at the San Diego Supercross wearing a neck brace. “K-Dub” had been struggling in the Supercross season up to that point, and admitted that it was a confidence problem – a mental block that he was struggling to overcome.

Photo right: Kevin Windham showed up at the San Diego Supercross in '07 wearing a Leatt Brace and credited his podium finish to the added level of confidence he gained from it.

“We’ve just had such a huge amount of neck injuries here as of late,” Windham said prior to the race. “Any precaution I can take [I will]. The Leatt Brace feels good to me. It kinda gives you an added level of confidence; I’m enjoying it.”

That night, Windham seemed to get his groove back, and for the first time that season, he got on the podium. He credited his newfound confidence to the Leatt Brace, saying, “It was a huge mental thing for me; I had some blocks. I was just so mentally prepared tonight and luckily for me, I was on the podium.”

Neck braces began flying off the shelves at an exponential rate, and the testimonials came pouring in. Time after time, someone walked away from a scary crash wanting to thank the neck brace – swearing it saved their life. Endorsements from doctors also began to appear, offering up professional opinions that “this person would not have survived had it not been for this brace...”

Certainly no one can call these opinions false, but we can call them just that – opinions. The truth is there’s no definite way to know what would or would not have happened in each specific crash. That’s not to say you can’t take stock in these opinions – whether it’s from a doctor, a pro racer, a biomechanical engineer or your next door neighbor – just take them with a grain of salt because it’s not science. It’s speculation.

In Windham’s case, it just so happened that the confidence he gained by putting on the brace was exactly what he needed. We all know that so much of riding and racing is mental. In that sense, confidence itself can be a useful piece of protective wear. But the other side of the coin points to a significant danger that can come with a false sense of security. All too quickly, overconfidence leads to stupidity.

Dumbo’s Magic Feather

In the animated Disney tale, the baby elephant with overgrown ears doesn’t realize that he is capable of flying. But a group of crows give him an ordinary feather, telling him that it’s magical and will enable him to fly. Sure enough, Dumbo grasps the “magic feather,” spreads his ears and takes flight. Of course, it’s the mere confidence that allowed him to fly and the feather was bogus. Still, as long as he had it, Dumbo was fearless and could perform amazing aerial stunts.

There could be a similar phenomenon happening with neck protection. If having one on effectively eliminates the fear of falling perilously to the ground, are we attempting bigger, bolder and more dangerous stunts? Are false assumptions about neck protection leading some to believe that spinal cord injury is no longer a threat?

Nearly every company involved in this feature agreed they’ve seen some form of the “Magic Feather” phenomenon. In fact, they each jumped at the opportunity to address this mistaken belief, and with it, the value of educating ourselves on what neck protection systems can and cannot protect us from.

“I think the problem with all protective gear is it gives a sense of invincibility to the user,” Rietdyk said. “[People think] ‘I have a neck brace; now I can never get hurt.’ Well that’s not really true. If a guy falls out of the sky from 100 feet, there’s almost nothing we can build that can save him.”

Image right: An excerpt from Alpinestars' Safety Critical Information packet which comes with every BNS.

“It’s not a superman cape,” Collins said. “I think a big misconception is that if you put it on then you’re fully protected. Then maybe you increase the risk you’re going to take. That false sense of security when you put this around your neck could be cause for potential issues.

“To just give somebody something without there being a full understanding – people are going to think they’re superman and they might lawn dart into a landing ramp and become paralyzed and think, ‘What the hell happened?’

“It’s definitely an amazing piece of equipment that’s designed to really do its job in those sorts of impact, but you never know what’s going to happen,” Collins concluded. “There’s just so much more to it.”

Alpinestars makes the effort to address this misconception right off the bat in its Safety Critical Information packet that comes with the Bionic Neck Support. The first page reads, “...the risk of a neck fracture will ALWAYS remain – even WITH the Bionic Neck Support.” Under the section entitled “What you really should know about Neck Injury mechanisms” they address another misconception, pointing out that “...the BNS is designed for the neck, not the back.”

Many of these misconceptions stem from our habit of extrapolating information too far and reaching untrue conclusions – for instance that neck braces can guard against all spinal-cord injuries. Geoff Patterson commented on the general willingness of people to jump in line with an assumption, especially one that would be so nice if it were true.

“I think it’s just human beings,” Patterson said. “People go in the direction they’re pointed in. You look at this economy. They said to refinance the house and everyone said, ‘Yeah, we’re going to refinance our houses!’ Logic just starts going out the window. But the reality of riding a motorcycle, think about how dangerous it is. I understand the inherent risks of getting on a motorcycle. So therefore, I don’t push the outer envelope.

“It’s unfortunate that we don’t use enough common sense to make sure that we protect ourselves at a level that’s consistent,” Patterson continued. “Nothing is guaranteed. Airbags are the best thing to happen on this planet as it relates to car safety. People die in cars all the time.”

What are the facts?

All that being said, what exactly are these protective devices worth? Where are the facts? What do we know? How do we educate ourselves?

We’ve accepted the fact that it’s virtually impossible to test every feasible crash, but with modern technology, years of controlled experiments and hundreds of busted helmets from slamming dummies into walls and dropping anvils on cadavers (there’s a pretty picture), there’s still plenty that we have learned. A number of studies have shown that these devices can offer certain amounts of protection in certain situations.

At www.Leatt-Brace.com click on Products and then Testing and you will find a brief summary of their basic test procedures and the results. At the end, you will also find information on where to find the full detailed publications of these tests.

More on the Leatt Brace

A spread in the 2009 EVS product catalog is dedicated to explaining the design, construction and basic concepts of their device. On the RC Evolution page of the site (www.EVS-sports.com), click on Development and then Testing for a comprehensive overview of their research.

Alpinestars, as we’ve seen, makes it a point to get its research and information in front of as many eyes as possible. The BNS comes with the Safety Critical Information packet which explains (in nine different languages) their concept of protection. Using charts, graphs, illustrations and plain language analogies (even photos of the cadaver testing) they make it as simple as possible to understand.

More on the Alpinestars Bionic Neck Support

As we all know, plenty of testimonials and endorsements are also available on the internet everywhere we look, but if you’re after facts, and facts alone, it’s important to push aside the conjecture and recognize science from opinion.

Enter the Competition

It’s a simple economic fact that where there’s demand, there will be a supply. So it comes as no surprise that we now have a multitude of neck protection devices on the market. Of course, there are two sides to that coin, as well.

“In any arena, quality competition is a good thing,” Leatt’s Patterson commented. “It’s not a bad thing. Quality competition breeds the ability to always innovate and do new things.”

“Would it be really easy for me to say, ‘I could make a lot more money if there were no competition?’ Yeah, that’s probably true.” Rietdyk of EVS said. “But that’s kind of standing in the way of evolution. [The neck brace] is an evolutionary piece. It’s an evolution for us, but it should also serve as an evolution for the other people in the industry.”

But for the sake of protecting ourselves, how do we distinguish “quality competition” from opportunism?

“I think that there are some companies out there that are jumping on the bandwagon and maybe putting out something that is price point relevant for a certain consumer base,” Collins commented. “Just the same as any helmet manufacturer or motorcycle manufacturers at this point, there’s going to be somebody who wants to replicate it cheaper or get it out faster. It’s unfortunate because the concern is the misconception of neck protection – what is does. One of our goals is to come out and say, ‘Here’s what it will do but here’s what it won’t do.’ And I think some of the others are putting it out there with nothing; no information and just saying, ‘Here you go.’ Kinda playing on the misconceptions, saying, ‘This one is this much money, but this one’s only this... So I’m going to take this one because it seems like it’ll do the same thing...’

“I think for us, the best thing we can do is continue to educate people on the Alpinestars product and maybe how to tell the difference between our product and some of the others when it comes to the technology put into it.”

Representatives from SixSixOne and EVS disagree with Collins’ notion.

“I don’t really see anybody being irresponsible in the market place,” Cole said. “The companies that are in this category are viable companies with good, strong resources and I think that competition is healthy. I think all those companies are reputable and they’re going to challenge each other to really drive the technology forward and take it to the next level. And who wins? The rider.”

“I think that the companies that are trying it are reputable for the most part,” Rietdyk agreed. “I think that there’s almost no opportunistic companies in our field. There are elements of [the designs of other neck braces] that I don’t agree with. But they all have a decent solution with some level of benefit to the user.”

Being the first to the market, Leatt and company definitely feel that other companies are standing on the shoulders of their research trying to make a profit.

“The problem right now in my opinion, you got guys out there that are taking the Leatt Brace that are saying, ‘We want to make something similar to that’,” Patterson said. “And I don’t think they really, truly understand what they’re making.”

Yet according to Patterson, the competition has been somewhat beneficial to the Leatt brand.

“What it’s doing for Leatt right now, the competition that we’re seeing is only driving [our] sales up,” Patterson said. “I’ve looked at every single one of those products; I have put every single one on. I am not a medical professional, I’m not a biomechanical engineer, but I consider myself to be very knowledgeable in this, and I have not seen one that is anywhere near what the Leatt Brace is.”

An interesting fact in this race for dominance is that no company has a patent yet. Each and every patent from Leatt, Alpinestars, EVS and SixSixOne is pending. It hasn’t stopped threats of lawsuits and making public comments about “taking action” against other companies. Patterson openly commented about “ongoing battles that we’re having with Alpinestars.” Who knows how the chips will ultimately fall, but once the patents are settled, we can sit back with a bowl of popcorn and watch the legal knock-down, drag-outs commence.

Setting a Standard

It all brings us to the idea of setting a standard, or a baseline for makers of neck protection devices to adhere to. As of now, there is nothing to stop a company from stepping forward and claiming that their product is a life-saving device. There is no standard as to who is qualified to make that kind of claim, but to protect ourselves as consumers, perhaps there should be.

Photo right: The ADVenture is the price-point model in the Leatt Brace line, and currently a huge seller.

“For helmets we know that there’s DOT and SNELL,” Cole explained. “But beyond that, it’s kind of just, ‘Do what you want and claim what you want,’ and I don’t know that that’s correct. I am a big fan of less government but I think when it comes to safety, maybe we should be holding some of these companies to a larger, better standard than that. I think not only with this product, but probably in other areas of body protection.”

“There are so many products coming on the market, I think it would be a good idea,” Collins agreed. “Short term I think it would be important to have some sort of regulation on what’s coming out. Long term, as far as the integrity of the actual piece, maybe once there’s more information and more studies available on exactly how it’s protecting, what it does, what it doesn’t do [then we can set a more meaningful standard].”

“There has to be a baseline for these things to be tested,” Patterson declared. “Because if everyone is out there trying to make a quick buck and they don’t understand what they’re making, the potential to hurt somebody is there. We don’t want that.”

It’s easy enough to agree on the need for high standards, and the concept of a baseline, but the problem then arises of how to define that baseline. As we’ve seen in both parts of this feature, there are many schools of thought when it comes to neck protection as far as what you can and cannot protect against. We’ve also seen that there’s no way to control all the variables enough to draw definitive conclusions from testing.

“I think having a standard is a good thing,” Rietdyk said. “But I think it has to be a meaningful standard, one that really measures a multitude of real-life scenarios. I think the problem with that is it’s almost impossible to do.

“No crash is alike. No injury is alike. You can put a blanket solution that in a common sense way, will say, ‘Yeah, this brace would have helped.’ And you’d probably be right. But to fairly test that in a [controlled environment], all the variables out, all things being equal is pretty difficult. I think to come up with a meaningful standard, all these guys, Eddie Cole, Chris Leatt and some folks at Alpinestars, we probably should all say, ‘What’s a fair standard?’ But everybody has to have the right thing in mind and I’m not sure everybody does.”

“I would be in favor of even a really baseline test that says, ‘Let’s put these together and see which one does best’,” Rietdyk continued. “But do you really serve anybody with that? We can say, ‘In this scenario which, Mr. Customer, you might never experience, this product would be best.’ That’s kind of giving him a false indication because he might have a riding style that’s always causing him to fall with his left ear to the ground. So that’s dangerous in a way because it’s pointing someone in a direction of a product that might not be right for him.”

Nonetheless, according to Patterson, Dr. Chris Leatt is already one step ahead and currently pursuing the development of a baseline for neck braces.

“Right now Chris Leatt is working with a number of sanctioning bodies, a number of independent agencies to get neck protection to perform to a certain standard,” Patterson said. “In Europe right now, the brace is now CE certified. In the United States, there really is no such thing. But it is working with a number of bodies to solve that problem. There should be a standard.”

In Conclusion...

All this information leaves us with a lot of unanswered questions, the foremost of which remains, “So which one is best for me?” Well... we can’t answer that for you at this point. We’ve seen that controlled tests are extremely limited (only applying to a rider of a certain weight, traveling a certain speed hitting a specific surface or object at a particular angle) – and therefore the results are potentially negligible. Unfair criticism, false assumptions, rampant hearsay and numerous misconceptions don’t make this decision any easier. Magazine reviews can tell you which is most comfortable, or most stylish. Dealers can tell you which is most popular and price tags can tell you what is most practical. But beyond that, the decision is up to you. All we can do is educate ourselves on the subject, and not be afraid to scrutinize, question and challenge what we’re told before making a potentially life-saving decision.

Back to Part 1: Neck Protection - Let's Talk About It