Any skier can attest to the fact that falling is an occupational hazard, and many of these falls result in a tear of the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in the thumb. Throughout this term my teammates and I designed and built a brace implemented into an existing ski glove that maintains full dexterity while reducing the risk of this injury.
Our team consisted of a US Ski Team skier, a former ski instructor, recreational and non-skiers with technical skills, providing the diverse background necessary to complete this project. We prototyped extensively, testing each generation and learning from their shortcomings. We designed force tests using an Instron machine to validate the strength of the brace and the amount of force it could resist until it surpassed a safe level of backwards extension for the thumb. Additionally, users rated the comfortability of our brace on average as 9.9/10 when compared to a glove without the implemented brace. Users were also willing to pay up to $20 beyond the standard price for a glove. From this information we developed a business model where we buy the ten most popular gloves on the market in bulk, modify them with our brace, and sell them directly to consumers.
Holden Langenhagen Projects 