High-tech football equipment manufacturer Xenith moved to Detroit two years ago from Lowell, Mass., and is now a "growing part" of Cavaliers Owner Dan Gilbert's family of companies, according to JC Reindl of the DETROIT FREE PRESS. The company "employs about 100 people in Detroit during its summer production peak and its helmets -- designed with patented 'Shock Bonnet' technology -- are among the highest-ranked football helmets for safety." Xenith is "considered the No. 3 player in the football helmet business, behind Schutt Sports and market leader Riddell." Xenith said that it has "grown since moving to Detroit, even during a continued decline in football participation across the U.S. amid heightened concerns about concussions." The company's helmets are worn by 60 NFLers, and "helmets are its main seller." Xenith President Ryan Sullivan "declined to specify annual revenues." However, he said that the company will "make more than 1,000 helmets each day this summer." Three Xenith helmet models "ranked in the top six" in the NFL and NFLPA's '17 Helmet Laboratory Testing Performance Results. Xenith once made baseball helmets and had "considered moving into other sports, but is currently focused on just football." In a possible sign of Xenith's growing size, Riddell last year "sued Xenith in federal court, alleging infringements on its football helmet patents in Xenith's EPIC and X2E helmets." Xenith has "denied all of the patent-infringement allegations and claims in court documents that Rideell brought forth its lawsuit 'with wrongful intent, or at least gross negligence.'" Sullivan said the suit is "not an existential crisis for us." Gilbert was "one of several early investors in Xenith," and he was "instrumental" in the company's '15 relocation to Detroit (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 6/11).
