EAST HANOVER, NJ – In a 4,000 square-foot facility with cinderblock walls that are reminiscent of a high school classroom, a company is building customized protective gear for football players and commanding respect from the NFL.
The technology, designed by a company called XTECH Protective Equipment, is hidden underneath football jerseys in a shoulder pad system that surrounds the broad upper builds of NFL quarterbacks, running backs, defensive tackles and defensive ends.
Using patented foam XTECH licenses from a company called XRD Extreme Impact Protection, which is comprised of molecules that condense together and stiffen upon impact, the equipment is meant to offer protection from high-impact tackles without compromising an athlete’s mobility.
A series of three-point swivel systems and locking mechanisms — part of XTECH’s own design patents –provide players with a full range of motion while protecting them from reverberations and dispersing the blow across the surface area of the shoulder pad system.
XTECH’s co-founders — Bob Broderick and Ted Monica — say those are among the unique features that set their product apart from market incumbents. (XTECH has design patents for its 3-Point Swivel Systems, Dual Outside/Inside Cantilever System and Adjustable 3-Piece Body Cushion System).
The ability to have custom built pads to fit a person’s body based on the position they play has attracted pro players such as Latavius Murray, Minnesota Vikings running back; Justin Tuck, former Giants defensive end; Damon Harrison, Giants defensive tackle and former Jets player; and Jets defense ends Leonard Williams and Muhammad Wilkerson. All have traveled to XTECH’s East Hanover, NJ facility for fittings.
But Broderick, a 35-year-old former NY Giants ball boy with a stint in sports-related public relations, also attributes the company’s success to the reputation of Monica, a 61-year-old who has been at the forefront of NFL shoulder pad innovation for 35 years.
Monica began his career in 1981 as an assistant equipment manager with the Giants. He went on to manage equipment for the USFL Jacksonville Bulls before designing shoulder pad equipment for Riddell for 17 years. Just prior to starting XTECH in 2012, Monica was an equipment manager for the Hartford Colonials. Equipment managers across the NFL know him by name.
Shoulder pads may not get as much as attention as helmets with concussions being such a high-priority problem. A few years ago, Broderick says most players he met were unable to name the brand of the shoulder pads they used. XTECH is working hard to change that.
To get pro-level players to pay attention and make shoulder pads sexier, Monica and Broderick have undertaken an unusual marketing tactic. They’ll request an intimate meeting with equipment managers or specific players and then demonstrate the power of the pads by slamming a helmet onto their hands while their palms are pressed against the table.
The only thing protecting them from shattered bones is a naked piece of foam. It’s a patented technology that XTECH licenses exclusively from XRD, which they claim absorbs up to 90% of the energy.
Monica or Broderick, whoever does the demonstration, doesn’t wince with the impact. In one fluid motion, they place the helmet down, remove the pad from atop their hand, wiggle their fingers to show all is well, then walk around the room shaking everyone’s hands as bewildered players stare.
With XTECH now in its sixth full NFL season and its pads represented on 29 NFL teams, with an average of 18 players using them per team, it’s easy to see how Broderick and Monica’s unusual grassroots and word-of-mouth marketing tactics have started to pay off.
The Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccanneers, Washington Redskins, LA Chargers, Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants and Jets are among the biggest users on its roster of pro teams.
But it’s the players in markets outside the NFL that represent the company’s biggest growth potential. XTECH has players on seven Canadian Football League teams, more than 250 NCAA football teams and in 200-plus high school football programs.
With high school football representing 91% of XTECH’s total addressable market, according to Broderick, the goal is to make a big push into the high school market within the next few years in hopes that kids become acquainted with its technology at an early age and carry it with them throughout their career, before they’re potentially recruited to play in college or professionally.
Some college football programs, such as UCLA’s, have started to advertise that they use XTECH pads as a way to recruit talent, which Broderick counts as a huge win.