2019 Season Updates
By Guardian Athletics August 19, 2019
Last season we shipped 1,000 Kato Collars to NFL, NCAA, and High School teams across the United States. When we asked the football community about KC’s launch, two themes emerged.
1. We need to quicken efforts to get more collars on teams. Many of you stressed the importance of the right gear used as not only a return-to-play tool but also getting in front of potential injuries before they happen.
2. Budgets are tight. With decreased resources available for your teams, greater flexibility is essential. At the same time, with increasing pressure from parents and others who question football’s safety, you’re accomplishing a lot with a little.
Launched earlier this summer, our rental program offers packs of collars from 25 to 80 with a 1-year rental agreement. We are accepting pre-orders for the remainder of this season that will ship in the coming weeks (you can sign up for updates here). We are incredibly grateful for the support we’ve received and thankful for the input from athletes that have helped guide us through the updated designs.
We’ve redesigned the pads. The former design utilized a post to connect to the pad, which we’ve replaced with a rivet. This new design is impervious to extreme heat and other stresses that the collar must endure during its life span. For those of you that have purchased a collar, we’ll be shipping you the replacement pads in the coming weeks.
Additional pad sizes will be available online for purchase. These make sure no matter your size, you have options to find the best fit, with .5″ pads available in addition to the standard 1″ pad.
The flange is redesigned, too. We heard concerns about the stress on the fabric, and we responded with a new design that has been tested to show a 300% increase in durability.
We’ll also offer a new medium collar for athletes that typically wear shoulder pads from Youth XL to Adult M. This offers a great opportunity for JV players to have access to our product, too.
If you would like to share your input with us, or if you have experienced issues with the current design, we want to hear from you. We are all about making sure we back up our product. Our customer service email address is admin@guardianathletics.com.