Xenith: How Detroit Builds A Helmet
Detroit, MI (CBS Detroit) - After several head injuries during his football career, Vin Ferrara, a former Harvard quarterback and Columbia University MD, believed that there had to be a better way to make a football helmet. After spending three years on research and development, Xenith launched its first helmet in 2009 and is now worn by hundreds of thousands of players across the globe.
"At Xenith, we're incredibly proud to be headquartered right here in Detroit. We have three locations in the City, two office locations and we're standing right here in our production facility," explains Ryan Sullivan, CEO of Xenith. "Here we ship helmets from anywhere to local schools like Cass Tech and Martin Luther King High School, to The Lions, Michigan, Michigan State, all the way to international customers and customers all over the country. And all that product is produced right here in Detroit."
Xenith's headquarters and production facility are located on Woodward Ave and at Fort Street in Detroit. The 66,000-square-foot facility houses an impact testing lab, custom paint booth, reconditioning operation, showroom and warehouse.
"We're incredibly proud to employ about a hundred people in the City right now, and at our seasonal peak we'll employ close to 125-130 people, right here in the City of Detroit," adds Sullivan. "We're very excited and proud of the impact that we have in the community every single day. It's wide-ranging.
"All of Detroit Public Schools' football teams are 100 percent Xenith! We also work very closely with teams like Detroit PAL. Our products are used at every level of play ranging from youth to The NFL. In the Super Bowl, we had eight players across both teams wearing our product."
Adds Goulet "And knowing that it was made right here in Detroit is something that we get really fired-up about!"
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