Falls are a common but serious risk for seniors. Minneapolis startup Davenport Saf-T Systems wants to protect them with clothing that inflates like an automobile's airbag.
The company is currently designing wearable technology made to detect a fall before the user hits the ground. Its patented technology, the Saf-T Vest, is a lightweight garment equipped with a motion sensor and in milliseconds inflate airbags to reduce the risk of injuries. The airbags also rapidly deflate to absorb the impact and reduce a dangerous rebound.
You can see the device in action in the video below, a test of a company's prototype in a backward fall while fitted to a life-sized mannequin. The Saf-T Vest was able to detect the fall and inflate three dual-chambered airbags in less 0.4 seconds.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, falls affect more than one in four older adults every year. Globally, nearly 700,000 people die from fall injuries annually, and 37 million more are injured severely enough to require medical attention.
Ryan Davenport, the startup’s co-founder and CEO, noted that once an elderly person falls, they are twice as likely to fall again. His company would offer a solution by providing everyday clothing that could offer protection when it happens.
Davenport is raising a pre-seed round of funding to support advanced prototyping and early pilot studies. Those pilots are being planned for early 2025.
Founded in 2017, the Saf-T Vest began as the brainchild of Ryan Davenport’s father, Jay Davenport, who worked as an orthopaedic surgeon. Davenport wanted to continue living in a rural area after reaching 80 years old. In his mind, as noted by his son, one major thing that could derail his plans would be if he fell. He drew up designs of clothing that would inflate where fractures most often occur during a fall — the hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists, back, neck and head.
Ryan Davenport, who has taken the reins of the company, is not a scientist himself. He's been in the public relations field for years, including working at a medical device firm and for 16 years at Fairview Health Services (now M Health Fairview).
Davenport said a challenge in launching this business was being able to afford engineers to design this product. He partnered with the University of St. Thomas, where two teams of students helped design the technology for their senior projects. Davenport recruited Kablooe, a medical device engineering firm based in Coon Rapids, to continue the work.
The startup was a semifinalist in the 2020 Most Fundable Companies survey. In 2022, the company received a Launch Minnesota Innovation Grant. It was also a semifinalist in the 2019 Minnesota Cup's Impact Ventures division. Most recently last week, Davenport was an exhibitor at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Ryan Davenport said CES was a terrific experience, adding that many people had their own stories to share about family members falling and wanted to know more about the business, as well as offer advice and pathways to consider.
“We can’t think of a better place to show how the Saf-T Vest will change the way we think about safe and healthy aging,” CEO Davenport said in a statement.
