A Johns Hopkins football player developed a new anti-concussion product that he hopes will make the game he loves safer to play.
Carter Hogg, a sophomore at Johns Hopkins University, decided he wanted to make a difference after watching his brother’s football career cut short due to a concussion. The son of an entrepreneur who has more than 700 patents, Hogg decided to harness his family’s entrepreneurial background to create a product of his own and invented the G8RSkin. The G8RSkin is a somewhat flexible neck brace that aims to stabilize the neck in the event of a collision. The product will hit high school and college football fields this fall as part of a pilot phase. Hogg said the product is the first of many that he wants to develop in a sports protection space, an industry he said hasn't changed in decades.
“A lot of the actual sports protective equipment and the design themselves haven’t changed over the past 60 years,” Hogg said. “Overall, our company goal is to innovate and invest in athlete protection devices, whether that be for concussions or others.”
Hogg said that while many concussion prevention products are in the helmet space, there wasn’t really any product looking to work in addition to a helmet. The G8RSkin acts as a somewhat flexible neck brace made out of a blend of “proprietary materials” that stabilizes the neck. The idea is a stronger neck limits the movement of the skull and limits some of the shock when a player gets into a large collision.
“Helmets reduce the force from a collision, but they don’t do anything to stabilize the head and neck,” said Hogg. “The G8RSkin still allows for a full range of motion while providing protection.”
Hogg’s brother got his concussion in November 2021, and it took about a year for the prototype product to be developed. After coming up with his idea, Hogg went to his dad and the two got to work. He said the project started with research into biomechanical systems and how concussions occur. The next step was to contract a design firm that built the prototype. Hogg said all the money used for the project is personally funded, and that there has been “more than a couple thousand dollars invested.”
His work paid off when he took the G8RSkin to the Virginia Tech concussion lab to test the effectiveness of the product. Hogg said the results were even better than expected, as the lab results showed that the product reduced concussions by 59%. The next step was to start production of the G8RSkin, which is manufactured in the United States.
In addition to his dad, Hogg has received help from several other seasoned entrepreneurs who specialize in the startup space. Hogg said his company has about 10 employees, a mix of his dad’s colleagues and some of his fellow college students. The company’s chief financial officer is actually his godfather, who is also a seasoned startup CFO.
"As the progress of the pilot program continues, we will continue to expand to whatever we need and whatever is necessary," Hogg said.
Some high school and college football players will be wearing the product so that Hogg can get some in-game collision data, and he wants to really launch the product in the winter after the data comes back. Hogg eventually wants to take the product from the field to the slopes and sees the product being worn not only by football players but also by skiers, lacrosse players and any athlete that can get hit.
