In 2024-25, a complete of 396,525 youth gamers have been registered with USA Hockey. All of them, efficient Aug. 1, 2024, have been required to put on neck safety throughout video games and practices following a brand new USA Hockey rule masking all age classifications besides adults.
All gamers getting into the NHL in 2026-27 and past must wear neck guards as a part of the brand new collective bargaining settlement between the league and NHLPA. Neck safety was already mandatory for skilled gamers in England, Finland, Germany and Sweden. In Canada, neck guards are required in minor hockey, CHL and girls’s hockey.
These guidelines fulfill Teri Weiss personally and professionally. She is the mom of Boston Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei. Her son’s security was the explanation Weiss based Skate Armor, a Wisconsin-based firm that designs and manufactures neck guards.
As of July, Weiss projected she would promote roughly 12,000 items in 2025-26. No present NHLers use her neck guards.
As for her son, Lohrei began the 2025 World Championship in Sweden and Denmark carrying a Crew USA-issued neck guard. All gamers should use neck safety throughout IIHF competitors.
Weiss shipped a Skate Armor neck guard abroad for Lohrei to put on throughout the event. It arrived as Lohrei turned a wholesome scratch. It stayed in his bag. Lohrei doesn’t use a neck guard throughout NHL play.
“I simply hate carrying a neck guard normally. Wasn’t a fan of it,” mentioned Lohrei, who appeared in 5 of Crew USA’s 10 video games. “That being mentioned, I didn’t play a ton of the video games over there. Didn’t need to put on one up within the stands.”
Weiss ceded that her 24-year-old son has aged out of parental attain. So she worries.
On Feb. 3, 2024, whereas enjoying for the AHL’s Windfall Bruins, Lohrei suffered a skate minimize on his knee. Weiss instantly knew what had occurred by the style by which he went down. Lohrei didn’t play once more for 13 days.
“You wish to make this alternative,” Weiss mentioned of gamers like her son who decline to put on neck safety. “However if you happen to care in regards to the people who love you, which have gotten you to this sport, which have spent effort and time and cash, you then’re going to exit and skate and not using a neck guard on? One thing that, sure, is uncommon. But when it does occur, it might kill you. So why? You probably have a mother, a dad, a brother, a sister, a spouse, youngsters, why aren’t you carrying a neck guard?
“Do I wish to throttle him about it? Completely.”
Weiss believes in her neck guard. It has but to catch on. Even her son won’t put on it.
A mom’s invention
Someday, Lohrei returned from the rink with a bruise on the facet of his neck. Lohrei, then 9 years previous by Weiss’ recollection, had taken a stick up excessive.
The neck guard Weiss had purchased was in Lohrei’s bag. He didn’t like carrying it.
Binding on the seams irritated his pores and skin. Upholstery foam contained in the neck guard retained Lohrei’s sweat, making it heavier. Weiss had no bother slicing the neck guard open.
“I took my kitchen knife I exploit to chop hen with,” Weiss recalled. “Actually the primary cross, I sliced proper via it.”
Weiss entered her household room the place Lohrei was watching TV. She poked her thumbs via the gash she had opened and confirmed the neck guard to her son.
“Mother,” Lohrei mentioned. “If you happen to make me one thing, I’ll put on it.”
The Skate Armor neck guard is designed to cowl the neck as much as a participant’s ears. (Photograph courtesy of Teri Weiss)
Weiss dug in. She settled on SpectraGuard, a polyethylene Honeywell product utilized in cut-resistant gloves within the meals processing business.
As for design, Weiss devised tabs that cowl the edges of the neck as much as the ear lobes. The tabs embrace rubber that forestalls them from rolling down.
Weiss believed this protected extra of the neck than collar-style guards, which, relying on their peak, can expose the realm underneath the ears. The carotid arteries, which provide blood to the mind, journey via all sides of the neck to the bottom of the cranium. The jugular veins, which transport blood from the mind to the center, run alongside the backbone and on the entrance of the neck.
In 2015, a Mayo Clinic study examined 14 manufacturers of neck guards to find out skate minimize resistance. The Skate Armor neck guard and certainly one of three fashions of the Reebok 11K neck guard didn’t fail underneath a compression load of 600 Newtons. The take a look at outlined failure as injury to polyethylene foam positioned between a neck guard and a neck type.
“I feel I designed the most effective neck guard available on the market proper now so far as protection and minimize resistance,” Weiss mentioned. “As a result of if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be doing it.”
When Weiss was first bringing her creation to market, carrying a neck guard was really useful however not obligatory. A suggestion turned a requirement throughout the USA Hockey Congress winter assembly on Jan. 28, 2024. It was not a coincidence the change occurred three months after former NHLer Adam Johnson died due to a skate minimize to his neck.
“It’s a really uncommon incidence,” mentioned Kevin Margarucci, USA Hockey supervisor of participant security. “However when one thing like that occurs, it opens your eyes a bit bit extra. That undoubtedly was one of many occasions main as much as our requirement that elevated our conversations in trying into this a bit bit additional and in the end main us to the requirement.”
In principle, the rule change ought to have helped Skate Armor land on extra gamers’ necks. In observe, that has not essentially been the case.
Business requirements
At Pure Hockey in Needham, Mass., there are 5 neck guards out there for buy: CCM NG900, CCM NG600, Shock Physician Extremely 2.0, Bauer NLP21 and Aegis Interceptor. All are made in Vietnam.
Every of the neck guards is licensed by the Bureau de Normalisation du Quebec (BNQ), confirmed by a BNQ label. This implies the neck guards have been examined to satisfy BNQ’s security requirements.
Equally, the Hockey Gear Certification Council (HECC) certifies helmets, goalie masks, face masks, visors and neck guards. Producers contact HECC to precise curiosity in certification. HECC then connects producers with the CSA Group, a Toronto-based company that conducts testing on a spread of merchandise, together with residence home equipment and private protecting tools. USA Hockey’s steerage for HECC was to measure neck guards’ minimize resistance and protection space.
“You probably have a product that’s actually stiff however covers lots of neck, children are going to attempt to not put on it as tight, roll it down or no matter. Now they’re not carrying it correctly,” mentioned Margarucci. “Gear can solely defend what it’s masking.”
The target of HECC certification is to assist customers decide which merchandise have handed security checks. However the market will be complicated.
Terry Smith, chair of the HECC certification committee, famous how Amazon’s ease of buy and supply may persuade households to order non-certified helmets that won’t have undergone security testing. Ryan Miosek, HECC common counsel, mentioned counterfeit labels are commonly positioned on merchandise that aren’t HECC-certified.
“It’s an advanced course of. However it’s sophisticated as a result of it’s essential for the buyer and for {the marketplace},” Miosek mentioned. “We don’t, at HECC, simply hand out certification labels simply since you need it. You must earn it. Our producers which have that label on their helmet, they’ve earned it. They’ve earned the fitting to hold that certification on their product to let the market know that this meets a typical.”
As of Aug. 1, 2025, USA Hockey mandated that each one neck guards should be HECC-certified. BNQ-certified neck guards will meet this standards for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons, in line with Margarucci, giving producers time to pursue HECC certification.
“It’s simply a part of your gear you placed on now,” Margarucci mentioned. “Over time, it’s going to be seamless.”
The rule places Skate Armor on the clock. Weiss beforehand had BNQ certification. The BNQ emblem — it appears to be like like a ladle inside a sq. with rounded corners — is affixed on Skate Armor’s present stock. In accordance with Weiss, BNQ certification prices $25,000 Canadian the primary 12 months and $13,000 each different 12 months following.
Weiss selected to let her BNQ certification lapse, partly due to the upcoming HECC requirement. She can be testing newer materials that, amongst different qualities, have cooling options and doesn’t wish to pursue HECC certification earlier than a design change.
On March 19, Weiss acquired a $10,245.56 quote from CSA for HECC certification. Weiss would even have to hold $5 million in insurance coverage yearly. She estimated coverage prices to vary between $12,000 and $25,000 per 12 months.
As a small enterprise proprietor, Weiss considers these prices important. She doesn’t have a alternative due to USA Hockey’s HECC requirement.
“That’s the backside line,” Weiss mentioned. “You’re going to need to have HECC.”
‘My job is completed’
The best way Weiss remembers it, she was driving from her residence in Wisconsin to Michigan when she bought the decision. Weiss was en route to look at daughter Zoe Lohrei, a former participant at Adrian Faculty, play a sport.
Caller ID confirmed Grand Rapids, Minn. Weiss thought it was a buyer when she answered.
“Hello Teri, that is Sue Johnson,” the caller mentioned.
“Hello Sue,” Weiss responded. “How can I enable you to?”
“I’m Adam Johnson’s mother,” the caller replied.
Weiss was surprised. That they had by no means been involved.
Johnson advised Weiss tales about her son. He had been planning to suggest to his girlfriend. He was occupied with retiring from hockey, shopping for a farm and beginning a profession in finance.
Johnson then advised Weiss she preferred what she noticed on the Skate Armor web page.
That decision helped validate Weiss’ work. They’ve since turn into mates. Skate Armor donates $1 from each neck guard offered to the Adam Johnson Memorial Fund.
Weiss has spoken to bigger producers about licensing to broaden Skate Armor’s footprint. No offers have been made. She has been advised that margins on neck guards are skinny.
Different producers provide a portfolio of merchandise, from sticks to skates to protecting tools. Additionally they produce neck guards at better scale and decrease prices. Skate Armor has three neck-specific objects: the neck guard, a neck guard shirt and an influence insert.
Abroad manufacturing may save Weiss cash. She doesn’t wish to danger compromising the manufacturing course of. The supplies for the neck guard are laser-cut in Wisconsin. Manufacturing takes place at Brownmed in Spirit Lake, Iowa.
So Weiss makes Skate Armor neck guards out there for buy on-line and in three retail places in Littleton, Colo.; Appleton, Wis.; and Fargo, N.D. Skate Armor is worthwhile, in line with Weiss.
“There’s nothing like when I’ve a mum or dad name me and inform me a narrative about it saving their child,” Weiss mentioned. “I’m like, ‘Properly, my job is completed.’ I didn’t do it considering I’m going to promote hundreds of thousands of those and make all types of cash. I did it as a result of I noticed that change nonetheless must occur so this a part of a hockey participant’s physique is roofed and we do our easiest to ban this factor from ever occurring once more.”
(Prime photograph of Teri Weiss and Mason Lohrei throughout his days at Culver Army Academy: Courtesy of Teri Weiss)
