Product shields troops, honors life of daughter

Team Wendy creates helmet padding that protects U.S. soldiers and Marines.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Nearly a decade ago, Cleveland businessman Dan Moore created Team Wendy as a memorial to his eldest daughter. She died from head trauma after a 1997 skiing accident in California.
The mission: Develop a helmet that was more energy-absorbent, something that might have protected Wendy, 29, as she cascaded down that icy slope at Mammoth Mountain.
It was passion born of pain. Wendy wasn't wearing a helmet that day, but if she had been, it probably would not have provided adequate protection, Moore discovered. It didn't take long for Moore's entrepreneurial instincts to take over. He enlisted the help of local chemists, physicists and engineers to invent a substance that would better cushion the force of blunt blows.
The result was Zorbium, a patented black goo that turns from liquid to foam.
But as fate would have it, skiers and snowboarders aren't the ones benefiting from Zorbium, at least not yet. It's the thousands of men and women serving with the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Team Wendy's helmet pads have become standard military issue. The Army embraced them first and, more recently, so did the Marines.
Creating the product
Located in a corner of an old plant -- a large, beige brick building -- Team Wendy cranks out several thousand sets of pads a week. The process begins when a variety of chemicals are mixed together and then shot into crates where the liquid hardens and rises into spongelike loaves of dark gray foam.
The loaves are then sliced like bread and the pieces are glued together in twos to create a foam laminate. The individual pieces are then cut from the laminate.
Each helmet takes seven pads -- a circle for the crown, two trapezoids for the front and back and four rectangles for the sides. If the military personnel don't already have the necessary fasteners and four-point chin straps, they get those, too.
Nearly 1.5 million pad sets have been shipped already. They retail for 30 to 80 a set, depending on the accessories, although the military gets a discount. Each plastic-wrapped package that leaves the plant asks, "What's Inside Your Helmet?"
Team Wendy's diversion from recreation to war came when Moore learned the Army was developing an advanced combat helmet that included padding. Another firm's pad was already in use, but only sparingly. Comfort was one criterion, and Moore would test samples on himself as he rode his mountain bike around Shaker Lakes.
After testing by the Army, the Team Wendy pad got the highest marks, said John Sweeny, chief executive officer of Team Wendy and a retired Army lieutenant colonel. The first pads were shipped to helmet makers in early 2005.
Blunt-force protection
While the Zorbium pads aren't designed to stop bullets or shrapnel, they will provide superior protection against blunt force, Sweeny said.
The military's push for a padded helmet began several years ago, but the introduction of roadside bombs in the Iraq war added to its urgency, Sweeny said. Vehicles are cloaked in armor these days, but that armor creates an unintended risk when a blast rattles those riding inside.
Without an armored door, "you'd get blown up," Sweeny said. "But now that you have the armored door, if you bang your head against it, you could very seriously injure yourself with either a concussion or something perhaps much, much more serious."
Team Wendy is working on other accessories for the military, including an extra helmet pad designed especially for paratroopers, as well as a sweat-removal system that wicks away moisture from the pads inside.
While it's rewarding to help save the lives of fighting men and women, Team Wendy doesn't plan to stop there. Moore still finds the quality of sport and recreation helmets to be lacking.
In particular, Team Wendy is working on a hockey helmet and another that could serve multiple uses -- biking and skiing, for example. But they won't be cheap.
"We could be knocking off 6 bicycle helmets or 20 ski helmets and probably be making a lot of money doing it," Sweeny said, but that runs counter to the commitment to safety made years ago.
"This is about creating a legacy for Wendy," he said. "This is about honoring her life in a meaningful and substantial way."
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