The Severity of Head Injuries in Lacrosse Has Gone on Too Long.
Lacrosse helmet chin straps have remained virtually unchanged for the last half century. Over that same period of time, every other product and piece of equipment on planet earth had been redesigned, reengineered, and rebuilt ad nauseam. The old chin strap is a small piece of leather stitched to two straps overlapping. The strap element of helmets, at its very core, should secure a helmet to the head of the wearer by way of a facial retention system. This system ultimately decides if the helmet, during an impact, is properly and securely aligned with the head of the wearer. If it is not, the technology built into various parts of the helmet liner and shell cannot properly interact with and protect the skull. This can cause serious injuries for lacrosse players. This is not akin to a bike helmet or other recreational helmets where impacts are rare. Lacrosse players can have 25-50 impacts of varying angles, intensity, and g-force every time they put on their helmet. The old strap is not only failing to keep the helmet stable, but it is failing to keep the helmet on the players head altogether. This can have catastrophic results. The old strap also has no intention or ability to protect the entirety of the jawline. Jackal Jaw not only secures the helmet centrally during impacts with a chin contoured cup and elasticity in the material, but the JX1 also provides the first-ever jawline protective padding system built to absorb and deflect direct impacts to the jaw from underneath the player's helmet.
While everything else changed for the better, this critical element remained unsolved. During this time of chin strap stagnation, helmet technology has evolved dramatically across contact sports. Yet, hundreds of thousands of lacrosse players have been forced to use an uncomfortable, and by modern standards, inadequate piece of critical head safety equipment.
The Research Behind the Build
We knew Jackal Jaw would take time to build correctly and we knew full well it would take even longer to be properly lab tested and vetted by the best players in the sport. Our team shared the same ethos: quality and lab results outweigh speed for this type of product. Jackal Jaw required high-level mechanical engineers, industrial designers, material scientists, and players in order to build it. Thousands of edits, shape changes, material choices, structural decisions, the list goes on. We lab tested it the whole way, filed tested it the whole way — completing the full in-depth process before entering the market.Jackal Jaw
Not Just a Chin Strap. A Head Safety System.
It is no longer enough to simply hold the helmet in place, the JX1 was engineered to absorb direct and indirect forces to the jaw, align the helmet centrally before, during, and after impacts, and prioritize skin health.
The design is anatomically contoured around the facial structure, uses injection molded flexible materials with antimicrobial additives, and incorporates open airflow moisture release channels to allow water and sweat to drain away from the skin during high-intensity play. Learn more about the full engineering story on our Technology page.
