Attey said his concept was based on a rubber ball that compresses upon impact as it bounces, dissipating the energy before returning to its normal shape.
After settling on a prototype, Attey found business partners in Peter Cummins, founder of Cash Converters and now a Perth Bears board member, and former NRL chief executive Jonnie Stewart, who was appointed CEO of Gamegear.
Stewart said independent testing of the headgear at Crashlab, which is Transport NSW’s body, reinforced their belief that Attey’s product was cutting-edge technology that would “redefine” the protective capacity of headgear.
“When you test this thing in a crash lab, it’s 10 times more effective than anything that’s out there,” Stewart said.
Inventor Graeme Attey.
“We have really, really good results in the crash lab that show you that we can reduce the impact to the head and that this is an effective product.
“We’re very clear and we’re very confident that we have the best product in terms of impact reduction. The next step is that we’re actually going to fund the first ever medical field study to research concussions and headgear.”
“In order to claim or prove that you can stop a concussion, you have to do a medical trial. That’s going to cost $1 million in private funding and we’re going to have to fund the whole thing, but that’s what we’re prepared to do.”
“It will take two years and at the end of the data we will evaluate and ultimately hopefully be able to say that this particular headgear design actually reduces the incidence and severity of concussions.
“That’s what we’re going to prove. We can’t say that today, but we can say that we’re investing money in the trial. So there’s a serious investment in medical research — an investment that the codes can benefit from if the results are positive.”
While they await the results of the research, which is expected to involve 600 athletes, the Gamegear helmets are already being offered to NRL, AFL and Super Rugby players for testing.
“We want to do for contact sports what seat belts did for road safety.”
Gamegear inventor Graeme Attey
Veteran man Jake Trbojevic, who suffered three concussions last year, wore one on trial during preseason.
Former Melbourne Storm prop Christian Welch, who was forced to retire 12 months ago after a series of head knocks, and former AFL Brownlow medalist Simon Black have signed up as Gamegear ambassadors.
Gamegear helmets already sell for $215 each, often to parents of younger gamers who have heard about them through word of mouth.
Concussion has become a major issue in sports in the quarter century since American neuropathologist Dr Bennet Omalu discovered a link between head impacts and the early onset of dementia in former NFL players, a condition he called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
More and more footballers have been forced to take extended breaks from the game or retire early after suffering concussion-related symptoms. Many former players have been posthumously diagnosed with CTE after undergoing autopsies.
Dr Rowena Mobbs, an independent sports neurologist who is considered a leader in her field and has treated many concussed footballers, said she would reserve judgment until the results of the research were published.
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“Gamegear is representative of many front-line efforts to reduce concussion, in this case proposing to dampen the impact at the nodes to ‘break up’ the energy before it hits the brain,” she said.
“Clinicians like myself will be anxiously awaiting any hard evidence from the upcoming two-year trial, which I understand will be conducted in collaboration with Connectivity Traumatic Brain Injury Australia.
“The science has to precede the hype and we’re really just in the warm-up phase. We may be looking at a percentage reduction in risk, not total injury prevention, if there’s any benefit at all with headgear in football codes.”
Attey just hopes his invention can “make a difference” for athletes.
“I actually said to my wife 13 years ago, ‘Would you mind if I did this project? It’s not going to make any money,'” he said. “I wanted to do it because it’s something that needs to be done. That was my mindset when I started.”
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