Image courtesy GuardianSports.com
(Special to GwinnettForum)
PEACHTREE CORNERS, Ga. | A Peachtree Corners company is designing and manufacturing sporting equipment worn by youth and high school football teams, college teams, and most recently, mandated by the National Football League.
Guardian Innovations was formed in 2011 by Erin and Lee Hanson, along with other family members and dedicated employees. It was created as a sister company to their material science company, The Hanson Group. The local family, who has more than 25 years of experience operating their company, has operated out of the Adriatic Court location since 2014. The company occupies 90,000 square feet over eight acres and now has 34 employees.
Their flagship product is the Guardian Cap, which was created to advance the standard football helmet by dispersing some of the energy that is generated during impacts. The Hansons used their expertise in material sciences to engineer, patent and manufacture the Guardian Cap, a lightweight, external soft cover that fits on existing football helmets to disperse energy from cumulative blows. To say that it is successful is an understatement.
Several years ago, the company started selling Guardian Caps to youth football teams. The one-size-fits-all helmet covers drew the attention of several notable football players. NFL running back Jerome Bettis of the Pittsburgh Steelers, along with the late Tim Lester, former fullback and friend of Bettis, purchased the caps for the Milton (Ga.) High’s Steelers.
Jake Hanson, a Wesleyan and Georgia Institute of Technology graduate, and director of strategy and operations at Guardian, says: “They wouldn’t let the team play without Guardian Caps,”
The musician Snoop Dog donated 2,000 caps to underprivileged youth playing in his California youth league. Little by little, the helmet covers started to be worn by more youth teams and then high school and college teams. Clemson University has worn Guardian Caps in practices for the past 11 seasons.
When quarterback Matthew Stafford suffered an injury to his hand, coach Sean McVay required the caps be worn to protect Stafford’s throwing hand.
Reporters started writing articles, “What’s with the padded helmet caps the 49ers are wearing at training camp?”
In 2022, after independent testing by NFL-appointed engineers, the NFL mandated the covers be worn during training camp practices. As a result, the NFL observed a more than 50 percent reduction in concussions as compared to a prior three-year average of those position groups. The 2022 preseason was the first time players from all 32 NFL teams wore the Guardian Cap.
The Hansons were teased at first. People said they were trying to put bubble wrap on football players. “You’re laughed at and considered crazy…until you’re not,” Lee Hanson says. Many players didn’t want the game to look different, even though they agreed that better outcomes were needed.
The Guardian Cap is only one of many products engineered and produced by the company. After the success of the Guardian Cap, they turned their efforts to lacrosse.
Guardian’s answer was the PEARL ball, manufactured in their Peachtree Corners facility and made completely out of a urethane that doesn’t change over time. PEARL is now used by 13 out of the top 20 NCAA Division 1 men’s teams. Guardian Innovations is the only lacrosse ball manufacturer in the USA. The company also manufactures a turf infill product called Guardian Bio- Based TPE Infill made of corn and soy which is natural and keeps fields up to 28 degrees cooler. Unlike other infill products available, Guardian BioBase doesn’t emit toxins when hot that can make some people sick.
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