CCM Vector Helmet - Way off course?
Written: Jan 06 '08 (Updated Jan 20 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: This is a pretty average helmet, but it's better than nothing
Cons: Reduced an excellent product to an empty promise
The Bottom Line: If CCM introduces the Zorbium liner, consider the Vector. Otherwise the Cascade CTX is the best helmet on the market today.
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| puckmugger's Full Review: Ccm Helmet & Cage Vector Combo |
Finally!
I’m finally getting around to reviewing the item for which I’ve had the most requests. Apparently I created quite a buzz with my review of Hefter’s prototype helmet a few hundred years ago. OK, it was a little less than 3 years ago that I got to take a look at the prototype and review it. The Hefter Helmet was going to be one of the most positive changes that hockey safety has seen pretty much since the invention of the helmet. Unfortunately, CCM purchased the company and then wasted another year getting the helmet on the market. But the real question you have to ask is why did they mess with the design.
A little background
Hockey helmets are all pretty much the same. Every helmet currently in production uses a plastic shell and one of three types of padding. The padding styles are Vinyl Nitrate, Dual Density Foam (Generally Vinyl Nitrate in two levels of stiffness) and Expanded Polypropylene (also known as EPP). Of these padding types Vinyl Nitrate is the cheapest and least protective followed by Dual Density and then EPP. Strangely pro level players prefer the lower end padding. What do they know that the rest of the world doesn’t?
For starters, EPP is a pretty mediocre helmet padding. It It looks like Styrofoam and the protection it offers degrades with each successive impact. Essentially the material breaks down from micro-fractures each time it compresses. It's too stiff for to offer significant protection in high speed impacts. Yet in a hockey helmet you’re typically tipping the scales at $100 or more by the time you get into a helmet with this padding. If you’re playing check hockey, you really don’t need a helmet that shouldn’t be taking repeated hard hits.
To the average consumer this means that spending more money on a helmet doesn’t really offer more protection. EPP has great ratings at room temperature when it’s brand new. However, in colder temperatures (like say in a hockey rink or outside) EPP becomes stiffer and absorbs less impact. While the numbers aren’t as good for Vinyl Nitrate, it isn’t as adversely affected by colder temperatures or as prone to micro-fractures. However, it was state of the art about thirty years ago.
Let’s really put this into perspective now. About 1 out of 5 kids playing competitive check hockey (Travel A or better) will suffer a concussion by the age of fifteen. What parent in their right mind would let their kid play knowing that statistic? A concussion is a major injury and brings with it the inherent risks of permanent brain damage. It’s bad for the sport and it makes me angry. Why? CCM apparently bought the Hefter Helmet in order to bury a competitor.
What have they done?
The Hefter Helmet was designed by a hockey father who wanted to make the sport safer. With the statistics on concussions where they are, why wouldn’t he be concerned? A significant amount of research went into the helmet design. Hefter considered a composite shell to replace the industry standard of plastic. However research indicated that composite would give minimal improvement with a large increase in price. Thus, the focus turned to the padding. Hefter chose a material called Zorbium. Zorbium is a proven material that was developed for the snowboard industry. It stays supple in very low temperatures and has no noticeable degradation from usage. Most importantly it absorbs a significant greater amount of impact than the best hockey helmet liner on the market.
CCM purchasing the Hefter design seemed like a dream come true. The helmet would be mass produced by a mainstream company. It only seemed logical that success would follow. However, the timing of the sale was so close to the annual rollout of the new line that CCM (or more accurately their parent company, RBK) deferred the rollout of the new helmet for a year.
When the helmet finally hit the shelves about seven months ago it was a sad imitation of Hefter’s dream. CCM did keep the shell vaguely intact. It’s still a pretty decent looking helmet. However, much to the dismay of anyone who was waiting for this revolution in cranial protection, the padding was reduced to EPP. CCM had taken out the one thing that would have made this helmet the only one to buy.
The Vector Helmet
Yes, the Vector was a decent helmet when compared to the other tripe on the market. It has a plastic shell with easy tool-free adjustments. It slides much more easily than most of the older ratcheting designs which nearly required a firm point set in concrete and a tow truck to adjust. The Hefter also had the occipital lock that Bauer introduced to the world. Essentially it’s an adjustment to lock helmet on the back of the neck. This is missing from the Vector.
The lining is plain old EPP with comfort foam. It’s no better or worse than the Nike/Bauer 8500, Itech HC100 or Mission Intake in this respect. For that mater it’s not better or worse than the CCM helmets which preceded it.
Ear guards are clear and removable on the Vector. This along with the decent looks of the helmet give it a passing grade in the cool factor (also known as the mirror test). Essentially, it doesn’t look like an oversized golf ball on your head.
Venting on the helmet is pretty good, perhaps not as good as the Mission Intake. The Vector falls short of the Nike/Bauer 8500 in the chin strap. Nike/Bauer has a nice padded chinstrap, while the Vector uses a standard nylon strap.
The Mask also falls quite a bit short of a couple of the newer cages on the market. Both Itech and Nike/Bauer improved the visibility of their cages for 2007. Itech introduced the Phantom with low interference colors including a gunmetal grey and a black cage with white on the player side of the wire. Nike/Bauer’s top of the line cage uses oval wire to minimize the amount of visual impairment while actually improving strength. The Vector is a basic chrome wire cage with average visibility.
More important is the failure of the Vector to distinguish itself from the crowd in terms of safety. Why buy an improved design just to make it like everything else on the market? It makes no sense to me. CCM has the technology to be among the front-runners in the helmet industry and they are sitting on it. Meanwhile, Cascade came out with what is probably the best helmet in hockey when the introduced the CHX with the only unique liner in hockey. Cascade has made excellent helmets for lacrosse and white water rafting for years, but CCM let them get their foot in the door and introducing the Vector with Zorbium in 2008 would be nice, but a little late (assuming that they bother to do so).
Sizing
The Vector comes in small, medium and large. Each size has it’s own shell meaning that all the helmets fit high and tight keeping the cool factor in place. Sizing is as follows: Small fits head size 20-22", Medium fits head size 21.5-23", and Large fits head size 22.8-25"
Recommendations
CCM had the ability to make hockey a safer sport and has sat on their hands for almost two years. It makes me furious. I wouldn’t recommend a CCM helmet to anyone right now. If they upgrade to the Zorbium liner for 2008 that’s another story and anyone who needs a new helmet should strongly consider that helmet alongside the Cascade. For now, I’ve been recommending that players and parents support the Cascade CHX.
Every purchase of a Vector helmet tells CCM that it’s acceptable for youth hockey to remain unreasonably unsafe. Every purchase of a Cascade helmet tells the industry that we as consumers are concerned about safety. Thus, I highly recommend that players and parents NOT buy this helmet. However, this is strictly a political view.
For the money, the helmet isn’t horrible, in fact it’s on par with other helmets in this segment for safety. However, you would still do better for features with a Mission or Nike/Bauer helmet than you would with the Vector. I gave this helmet 3-stars based upon its merit alone. It’s an average helmet in terms of safety for the price, but a little short on features. However, what’s more important is that this should have been a new standard in protection. Based upon that, it’s worth about 1 star.
© 2008 Scott Noble – All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited.
You might also enjoy my book on hockey, Hockey for Weekend Warriors. Click here to read the reviews.
A few of my other reviews that you might find helpful:
Fitting and Selecting Hockey Protective Gear
Bauer 5000 Helmet
Hefter Evolution Helmet
Itech HC100 Helmet
Recommended:
No
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