GameGear headgear, Connectivity and Monash University in world-first concussion trial
Melbourne — 3 February 2026 — GameGear headgear is proud to be partnering with Connectivity Traumatic Brain Injury Australia and Monash University to undertake an independent, world-first concussion and head-impact study. The research will examine impacts across community and elite players in Australian rules football and rugby league.
GameGear was developed to address a clear problem in contact sports: concussion rates remain high and traditional padded headgear has never been proven to reduce risk.
Developed in Australia, GameGear aims to slash concussion risk in contact sports. Independent crash lab testing shows GameGear reduces head acceleration by up to 94% more than any other product on the market.
The new independent study with Monash and administered by non-for-profit Connectivity will assess on-field exposure to head impacts for those wearing GameGear, and those without, for 600 athletes aged 16 and over across Victoria, Queensland and the ACT playing Australian rules and rugby league. The study will also assess other concussion-related outcomes, providing the most comprehensive real-world evaluation to date of how protective headgear performs during match play.
Professor Lindy Fitzgerald, CEO, Connectivity Traumatic Brain Injury Australia, said the study would be a world-first in understanding the effectiveness of headgear in protecting against concussion and concussion symptoms in sport.
“Concussion is a complex biological injury and is difficult to manage in contact sport. We need stronger, real-world data on head impacts, force exerted on the brain, and recovery — especially in community settings where most athletes play. This study is important because it combines clinical science, biomechanics and biology to establish a clearer picture of both the problem and the potential value of protective headgear,” Professor Fitzgerald said.
Combining real-world exposure data, clinical assessment, biomechanics, modelling, and biomarkers, the trial will set a new benchmark for understanding protective headgear in contact sport — and determining how GameGear headgear can be effective at reducing concussion.
Dr Stuart McDonald, Monash University, is the lead researcher of the team competitively selected by an independent expert panel to conduct the study.
“Independent lab testing has shown this headgear can significantly reduce the forces transmitted to the head during impacts, which gives us strong reason to think it might lower the risk of brain injury in collision sports such as Australian football and rugby league. The crucial question now is whether those lab findings translate to real games, so we’ve designed a large multi-state study to see if and how it reduces concussion risk for men, women, boys and girls,” Dr McDonald said.
GameGear is the only product to pass the AFL’s Advanced Football Headgear Standards, the highest headgear performance benchmark in Australian sport.
“There is no higher priority for the AFL than the health and safety of players at all levels, with concussion continuing to be an extremely complex and evolving subject,” AFL Chief Medical Officer, Dr Michael Makdissi, said.
“The AFL is committed to supporting important research projects that assess whether headgear that complies with the minimum requirements of the standards additionally reduces the severity of head trauma and the risk of concussion.
“The GameGear innovative headgear technology has been the first product to go through the headgear certification process and the AFL is strongly supportive of the proposed trial by Monash University to assess this headgear in the field.”
GameGear’s unprecedented results come from its patented lattice design, built from interlocking spheres and made from a unique material that offers progressive resistance to force from any angle. GameGear headgear was developed to help manage specific head-impact forces without restricting performance.
Graeme Attey, the industrial designer behind GameGear, said player welfare was central to the product’s ethos and the driving force behind funding an independent trial.
“We want to achieve for concussion in sport what seatbelts achieved for road safety. I’d heard for decades that concussion is a part of football and we’ve just got to live with it. It doesn’t have to be like that
“We built GameGear helmets so that players can run onto a field feeling that they’re actually protecting themselves and doing all they can to protect their wellbeing,” Mr Attey said.
GameGear ambassador Christian Welch, a former NRL Melbourne Storm forward and Queensland State-of-Origin representative, said as someone who experienced multiple concussions throughout his career he never thought wearing traditional headgear would make any difference to the risk of concussion, but in GameGear there could be a product to negate the risk of concussion in contact sport.
“I had about eight official concussions on my medical records over my career, but I’d say probably double that to be honest when I was coming through. I never wore headgear and it basically didn’t stop any concussions. It only stopped the cuts, the superficial things that might happen in a game of footy.
“The reality is, it’s going to be very difficult to eliminate concussions all together, but if we can make the sport safer for both elite players and juniors we should at every opportunity, and that’s what we should be trying to do with GameGear,” Mr Welch said.