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CASE STUDY

Cutting Concussions by 25%: How Biocore Reengineered Football Helmet Safety
Biocore's helmet safety testing machine
THE CHALLENGE

Helmet Safety Used to Be a Guess

Head injuries are one of the most serious problems in football. Reducing them required something the sport had never had: a rigorous, engineering-based understanding of how those injuries actually happen on the field, and a way to hold equipment accountable to it.

Without that foundation, helmet quality was largely a guess. Manufacturers had no shared standard to design against and little incentive to push past "good enough." The league needed better on-field analytics, protective equipment, and biomechanics-informed rules. Someone had to build the science underneath.
THE STORY

Borrowing a Playbook From Car Safety

Injury biomechanics didn't start in sports. It was built in automobile safety, where understanding exactly how the body gets hurt is the difference between a car that passes and one that doesn't.

That engineering discipline is where our Biocore team built its expertise, well before Biocore became a part of Exos. And until Biocore brought it to professional football, the game had never had it.

The insight was simple: You can't prevent what you can't measure. So before designing any solution, Biocore set out to understand, in true engineering terms, how head injuries actually happen on the field.
Exos & Biocore teammates stand in front of a helmet safety testing machine.

A Custom-Built, Scalable Model

Exos doesn’t do cookie-cutter employee engagement solutions. Each of our programs is personalized to our clients’ unique needs, and they go far beyond just the fitness center. 
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Standardized Wellness Programs

Through rapidly changing eras including COVID-19, Exos consistently rolled out group fitness, nutritional support, mental well-being, and virtual employee engagement solutions to meet the evolving needs of employees. During Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccination program, Exos teams supported operations by checking in employees and leading movement sessions in line.

Strategic Design & Build Services

Our world-class space design and development team designed and built six new facilities and renovated six existing ones across the U.S. This included redeploying $300,000 in exercise equipment assets, obtained through acquisitions, to generate significant cost savings and upgrade Pfizer’s portfolio of workplace amenities.

Service Request Platform

Exos implemented an online service request system to support streamlined coordination of Recharge Breaks and other wellness offerings. This platform has supported global program delivery across Pfizer's workforce.

Global Hybrid Expansion

Exos virtual coaching gave Pfizer employees across the globe access to wellness programming, regardless of location or remote status.

Centralized Management

Exos implemented a unified standard operating model across 14 locations to ensure a consistent member experience. This included revenue/expense management, programming, staffing, and data tracking.

Recharge Breaks Deployment

As of January 2025, Exos officially deployed the three standard Recharge Break formats (for energy, creativity, or calm) across Pfizer. These sessions are delivered by both on-site and virtual coaches. To date, the team has completed 198 sessions with a total attendance of 8,255.

Data-Driven Efficiencies

Our team implemented Net Promoter Score (NPS) tracking, utilization data, and outcome monitoring to continually measure impact and improve how we serve each member.
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THE SOLUTION

An Engineering Standard the Whole Industry Has to Meet

Biocore's work on the Engineering Roadmap, in partnership with the league and its players' association, advanced the science of head injury and turned it into an accountable standard. Here's how Biocore got there, from the field to the lab and back.

 

Study Every Injury on Film

The team reviewed every concussion in detail from real game footage, building a true picture of the on-field injury environment rather than a lab approximation of it.

Recreate In-Game Impacts in the Lab

Those real impacts carried over into controlled laboratory tests that reproduced the exact situations players face, each paired with a measure of injury risk.

Set and Evaluate the Safety Standards

Biocore ran every helmet worn in the league through the same test and set a minimum standard for a helmet to be worn. Then, each helmet was ranked against its competitors so teams and players could choose with real data.

Publish and Defend the Findings

Biocore publishes its methods in peer-reviewed journals and defends them in the open. That openness to being proven wrong is what makes the findings credible.

THE RESULTS

When the Standard Rises, Everyone Builds Better

By publishing the standards and results, Biocore sparked competition. Helmet manufacturers then raced to score higher and continually raise the bar for helmet safety.

25%

Reduction in concussions over three years

50%

Reduction in practice concussions among players wearing added helmet protection

9x

Pace of helmet innovation in 2023 vs. 2015

99%

Of pro football players now wear top-performing helmets

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Fitness Center Management

people-group

Centralized Operations

programming

Hybrid Programming

headset

Virtual Coaching

group-work

Group Exercise

nutrition

Nutrition & Wellness Integration

space-design

Space Design & Renovation

training

Personal Training

massage

Massage Therapy

recreation

Recreation Management

nutrition-plan

Nutrition Consults

meal-plan

Meal Planning

coaching

One-on-one Coaching

app

Exos App

Results

Consistent quality, scaled delivery, and versatile impact.

63 NPS

vs. industry average of 26

14

centrally-operated fitness centers, expanded from 3 since 2000.

71,000+

global Pfizer employees served by Exos virtual coaching across 45 countries

8,200+

employees engaged through Recharge Breaks alone

11,000+

skin cancer screenings completed

26

melanoma cases detected
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

The Same Rigor, Applied to Your Outcomes

The standard that made professional football measurably safer was built on evidence — tested in the open, challenged by outside experts, and held accountable to results.

That's the same standard Exos and Biocore bring to every organization we work with. Whether you want to validate a product, answer a big question, or build your brand, our strategy runs on the same evidence-first rigor trusted by the most demanding teams in the world.

Put Research-Grade Rigor Behind Your  Decisions

If you want performance backed by science that holds up under scrutiny, let's talk about what our research team can build for your organization.