Neck Protection: Let's Talk About It

Life in a wheelchair: It’s something many riders fear more than death itself. But each time we swing a leg over a motorcycle, we’re accepting an inherent risk of serious injury. However unlikely, the danger is always there, and we continue to come up with ways of protecting ourselves against it. The most recent development in protective wear, and also one of the biggest since the advent of the modern helmet, aims right at protecting the neck and spinal cord – the epicenter of vulnerability for life-threatening and/or permanently debilitating injury: the neck brace.

At the rate that neck braces such as the Leatt, the Alpinestars and the EVS are sweeping two-wheeled motorsports, we thought it was time to ask some important questions.

What is it that is compelling our industry to snatch up these pricey devices at an exponential rate? Will these devices really save our lives? Or are we merely buying into superstition in response to one of our greatest fears?

In this two-part in-depth feature, we set out to not only discuss, but scrutinize the different concepts of neck protection in the industry. We look into the background of the companies producing these systems, learn more about each one’s intended design, and investigate the research and development behind them.

In the second half, we’ll take it a step further and discuss the most common criticisms and greatest misconceptions about neck protection and spinal cord injuries. Do we fully understand what they are, as well as what they are not? Do we have realistic expectations as far as what they can and cannot protect us from? Are we wrapping our necks in a false sense of security? Are we in effect buying confidence off the shelf? What do we know other than what we’ve been told?

Especially for something touted to be a life saving device, we can’t be afraid to scrutinize what we know, question what we’ve been told, and ultimately make up our own minds on the concept of neck protection.

The Arrival

As a result of our growing sport, faster bikes and bigger tracks, we were all witness to a growing incidence of neck and spinal injuries. From the Dakar Rally to Supercross, heroes of the sport were falling: Ernesto Fonseca, Chris Blais, Doug Henry and even stars that had barely begun to shine like Ricky James. The need for protection against spinal cord injuries was apparent, but until three years ago, no one appeared to have an answer.

As we will go on to see, the argument over who had the idea first is open to debate, but there’s no question as to who had it to the market first.

Dr. Chris Leatt and the Leatt Brace arrived on the scene in 2006. The idea for the brace reportedly came to Dr. Leatt in 2001 after witnessing a motocross racer crashing and consequently dying of a C2 neck injury in his home country of South Africa.

“Within 30 minutes of that crash is when he came up with this idea,” Geoff Patterson of 211 Distribution explained. For Patterson, himself, the motivation to develop neck protection came five years later in a similar situation.

“I saw James Marshall break his neck on February 11, 2006 down in San Diego,” Patterson recalled. “Hence the name of this company – it’s 211 Distribution. I was in San Diego and I watched it happen with my 11-year-old boy sitting next to me. He didn’t get up and my son said, ‘Dad, is he going to be okay?’ And I said, ‘Buddy, I don’t think he’s going to be okay.’

“[Later that year] Ernesto Fonseca got hurt, then Ricky Carmichael had a really scary crash in St. Louis. People may not remember that, but he went head first right over the bars right on his head. He wasn’t injured, but it really scared him. It really scared us.”

Patterson got to work sketching his own ideas for a neck protection device, which caught the eye of eventual partner, Jason McCune, who came into Patterson’s auto body shop for an estimate.

“He saw that I was doing some drawings for things that would hang off the back of a helmet,” Patterson said. “He asked what I was doing. I told him and he said, ‘Well I heard about this website down in South Africa.’ I said, ‘Send it to me.’ The first thing I see is a picture of a neck brace up in the corner of the website. Within ten seconds, I knew that was the answer.”

Despite previous efforts, Dr. Leatt hadn’t had any luck getting his product picked up by a distributor in the USA at that point. “He had talked to Parts Unlimited,” Patterson said. “I believe he had talked to Tucker Rocky, and at the time, for whatever reason, they weren’t interested. Nobody wanted to get involved with Leatt in the beginning. They were afraid of it; they didn’t think it was going to go anywhere.”

So Patterson, along with McCune, teamed up with the goal of bringing the Leatt Brace to the North American market on their own. But infiltrating the motocross industry would prove to be a formidable challenge. Patterson recalls strolling through the pits of the Glen Helen national in 2006 trying to introduce people to the brace.

“I had a handmade prototype with me at Glen Helen and I carried it with me,” Patterson said. “I knew people were going to freak out when they saw it. Matt Walker looked at it and said, ‘Get that thing away from me.’ He didn’t even want to talk to me. I showed it to a couple of team managers; they wouldn’t even touch it.”

Leatt was met with much resistance in 2006, but a video that surfaced on VitalMX.com in February of 2007 was about to turn it all around. The video, of course, was David Bailey’s well-known “Stand for Something” speech. Through no reported affiliation with the Leatt company itself, the paraplegic motocross legend sat up in bed after a recent surgery and delivered a powerful plea. Calling individual riders out by name, Bailey practically wagged a finger at each of them, imploring them to recognize the responsibility they have as role models and challenging them to try out this potentially life-saving device.

Bailey’s emotional plea might have tugged at heart strings more so than providing a solid, logical argument for the Leatt Brace. But whether it motivated or scared more people into wearing the brace, it certainly had an impact. Almost overnight, there was a surge on the market and the Leatt Brace began to sell like wildfire.

The immediate and wide-spread demand for the brace challenged 211 Distribution to keep up with the pace. The wholly owned subsidiary of Leatt Corporation based in Valencia, California, got to work selling direct through a self-generated network of over 2000 dealers, moving 30,000 units in 2007 and 32,000 in 2008.

“After David Bailey’s video, our sales were increasing exponentially,” Patterson said. “The whole world logged on and it just blew up to where we could not stay on top of it.”

The industry waited to see if Leatt would finally be scooped up by a major distributor, but at that point, the company was happy to enjoy the spoils of its success the same way it was built – independently.

“If we turned it all over to distribution, we just become a product in the sea of 10,000 products,” Patterson said. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job so far. Because this product took off so successfully, we had no problem setting up dealers.”

Meanwhile, the same rash of spinal cord injuries that prompted Leatt and company to pursue neck protection hadn’t gone unnoticed by other companies in the business of protective wear (nor had the undeniably profitable market). Before long, there were glimpses of other neck protection systems beginning to surface. Alpinestars gave media a peek at their Bionic Neck Support prototype at a KTM ride day at Competitive Edge in 2007, which was remarkably similar to the Leatt in form and function. Rumors of a 661 protection system built into a chest protector were widespread. EVS was also quick to the market with the latest generation of their RC Race Collar, which featured a rigid frame.

Some Background

Everyone can agree that it’s just as impossible to replicate every type of crash as it is to predict them. For that reason, there are several schools of thought on neck and spinal cord protection. We sat down with representatives from Leatt, Alpinestars, 661 and EVS to hear about their concepts, and ask questions regarding their design: How does it work? What makes this unique and/or ideal? What was the inspiration behind developing this? What type of research and testing went into this design?

Before we open our discussion to criticisms, skepticisms and misconceptions of neck protection, read what each company had to say for itself.