Name: Kevin McLeanResume: Co-Founder of the Helmet Glide (Diamond Seal Systems)
Sport at USC: Football
Caroline Deisley (CD): How did you guys get your start?
Kevin McLean (KM): After Junior Seau committed suicide, I started reading up on CTE and because I used to work in glass, a light bulb went off. I said, "Hey Bret [Aiken], let's make a nano-technology coating that would reduce the surface tension on the helmet so frictional forces, if there is a helmet-to-helmet contact, slide right off one another. For a year, we did research and worked on product development. Then, I contacted (director of equipment operations) Todd [Hewitt] here at USC and he goes, 'Come on over let's test this out.' He saw our blue wash, which is used as a home product, and he knew of it because it's what he used to clean his pool. Then I said, 'Well, wait until you see this.' We did one side of the helmet and it just burst out the color of the Cardinal. We felt the surface tension and it was smoother than silk. Todd said, 'Alright, let's do this. We'll place an order and start using it this season.' We paid attention to it during the season, hoping that there weren't any helmet-to-helmet concussions and nothing happened. As we got near the end of the season, we decided to call UCLA up to see if they would use it so the Trojans and the Bruins could have them for their game, which was three years ago. We thought that was such a ground-breaking process because never before had two football teams been on the field with reduced surface tension.
CD: What did you learn from that ground-breaking process?
KM: We found out that when the helmets do collide there's none of that twisting action or grinding of the helmet, they're just sliding off each other. We had them test it out the next season again and then before the beginning of this season we started introducing it to high schools. We have about 30 high schools and every high school that we went to all the coaches immediately said yes. There's no testing to prove it right now because none of the helmet manufacturers have the technology. We're getting a test done by a laboratory right now to determine the surface tension on the helmet, so it can actually be sensed in reality what the actual tension of the helmet is after it has been treated. The philosophy is if you're a boxer in the ring, they put the grease and oil on them so when the punches hit they don't tear or rip the flesh. It's the same concept with a football helmet. Instead of it hitting them and throwing the brain, the energy is dispersed over the helmet. We want to avoid helmet-to-helmet hits at all cost with proper tackling techniques, but it's going to happen, it's football so we want to be prepared.
CD: Now that the helmets have been introduced, where do you see the company expanding?
KM: There have been a lot of traumatic hits that are just making us sick, so we're really going to be marketing this. UNLV called us and told me that they had to change out 15 of their facemasks when usually they have to change 50 or 60 of them, so he hooked us up with Gridiron Facemask Restoration. They work with thousands of football teams so he wants to help us with distribution. This next year is going to be a breakout year, it could be huge.
McLean's business partner Bret Aiken (BA): This idea was really birthed here at USC. When Kevin came to me, we were really just making technology for the LA Metropolitan Transit Authority and the city of Riverside to seal the buses and reduce surface tension. When Kevin came up with the idea, we knew in theory that we could do it, so we tinkered for awhile and it took us about six to eight months before we could even approach USC.
CD: Kevin, you were a communications major at USC, how did you even get into this business?
BA: It's interesting. Kevin worked in marketing and sales for hotels and residential sales of glass products. I provided the industry over the last decade, almost two decades, with nano-technology to seal all the glass.
KM: I would sell his product for storefronts, hotels, etc., and that's how it all started.
BA: We were friends and clients so he came up with the idea after Junior died. After that happened, it really motivated him and us to do something to make it happen. We invested all our own resources to see if there was something we could do to make it happen. We did guerrilla marketing, got in the car and drove to high schools, talking to athletic directors and coaches to tell them about the product. All of a sudden some of the Trinity schools, like Santa Margarita, Servite and even Mater Dei...every one that saw it was just amazed by the concept. Then, when you take a basic, untreated football helmet and a treated helmet side-by-side, they look worlds apart and feel completely different. If you touch a regular helmet it feels almost like glue, but if you take a Glide helmet, your hand glides right off.
KM: It's because it's a nano-skeleton, a billionth of a meter, so it's not a polish so it doesn't build up over time. It's as thin as a skin cell and that's as much of a coating that you need for this. You used to have to buff and polish helmets, but it can't penetrate the helmet now so it just rubs right off. The time in the equipment is cut down tremendously so there's more time for other parts of the uniform.
CD: How is it for you Kevin to be able to get back into football and attempt to improve the game you grew up playing?
KM: It's surreal. I get so excited when football season comes because I look at football from a different perspective now. I used to coach a little bit, but now it feels like I'm really helping out. I'm watching every single helmet-to-helmet contact. A funny thing is that UCLA, who uses our product also, its first game of the season one of its linebackers was doing a headstand sliding on the surface of the Rose Bowl. He slid for three yards without his neck moving just because he could glide right across before he fell over. You can never eliminate a concussion, it's going to happen, but we can lower the likeliness to get one which it has been proven the last two years that we've done by lowering the surface tension and the friction. We believe that this glide technology is going to change the way the game is perceived. When it comes down to the idea, it's really just seventh grade science but we have the technology to be able to make it work. No polish can do what our glide does.
