Safety of players is of the utmost importance in any active sport, and in recent years a number of improvements have advanced the state of the protective sportswear art significantly. Particularly important to any protective sportswear scheme is a combination of headwear and eyewear to protect against injuries to a player's head and eyes. The improvements mentioned above have provided a variety of functional advantages, such as better protecting against concussions, paralysis, blindness, and UV rays, among other things.
As certain types of safety equipment change to offer improved protection to players, other types of equipment used in conjunction with the changed equipment may be impacted. For example, a combination of old and new elements may provide less-than-ideal protection. Furthermore, a change in a certain type of equipment may provide an opportunity for innovation in the design of other equipment to provide even higher levels of both protection and functionality. For instance, in a traditional football helmet/face shield combination, the face shield is a cylindrical shape with a bottom arcuate length equal to a top arcuate length. When coupled with advanced football helmets, however, the traditional cylindrical structure is awkward. For example, the cylindrical shield must be bent in order to fit into the structure of the advanced helmets. Bending the shield compromises both the safety and optical properties of the shield. Gaps occur between the shield and the helmet in which players may get fingers or clothing stuck, which can pose a grave injury risk to all involved. A poor fitting shield also raises the possibility of injuring the eyes of the wearer of the shield. Further, the distorted optical properties caused by bending the shield can prevent the player from seeing clearly, negatively impacting the quality of the players' performance.
Thus, it would be desirable to manufacture an advanced face shield designed to effectively couple with advanced sports helmets.