New Stronger Carbon Fibre Helmets Step up to the Plate

As part of the labor agreement, all major league baseball players will now wear the new Rawlings S100 Pro Comp batting helmet designed to provide greater protection.

The mandatory implementation of Rawlings’ batting helmet is outlined in the 5-year collective bargaining agreement signed in November 2011 by MLB and the MLB Players Association. Approximately 200 MLB players elected to wear the S100 Pro Comp last year before the league-wide rule went into effect, including National League batting champion Buster Posey of the World Series champion San Francisco Giants.

Art Chou, senior vice president of product for St. Louis-based Rawlings said;

Collectively with MLB and the MLB Players Association, we developed the Rawlings S100 Pro Comp batting helmet to provide increased protection for the world’s best baseball players, while meeting their specific functional and performance demands, the evolution of the Rawlings S100 product line clearly illustrates how we can deliver innovative protective solutions at the very highest level of the sport while still delivering high-performing equipment so these players can continue to play at their peak levels.

Made using aerospace-grade carbon fibre composites, the new Rawlings S100 Pro Comp batting helmet provides enhanced protection for ball strikes up to 100 miles per hour. Earlier this week, the innovative Rawlings S100 Pro Comp helmet design was named a finalist for the Edison Awards in the category of material science-composites. The Edison Awards honors excellence in new product development and innovation.

The next-generation S100 Pro Comp is 300-percent stiffer and 130 times stronger than the traditional ABS plastic helmet that was the previous standard in Major League Baseball, yet features a significantly lighter and smaller design than previous models that have been tested in recent years. The similarities in weight and size to the traditional helmet allow for a seamless transition to the Rawlings S100 Pro Comp for all MLB players.