World Cup kicks G-Form into high gear for protection

PRO FORM: G-Form Vice President of Innovations Thomas Cafaro says the company is an “athletics company” first and foremost despite its electronics-protection work. / COURTESY G-FORM
PRO FORM: G-Form Vice President of Innovations Thomas Cafaro says the company is an “athletics company” first and foremost despite its electronics-protection work. / COURTESY G-FORM

The team at Providence’s G-Form LLC last year almost couldn’t believe what they were seeing: an in-match photo of Neymar, one of the world’s most popular soccer players and soon-to-be-star of the World Cup, rolling down his sock to reveal shin guards featuring the company’s bright yellow signature hardening gel cells. What made the image surprising was that G-Form, at the time known for bicycle knee pads and heavy-duty iPhone cases, didn’t market soccer equipment.
But Neymar and other players had discovered the attributes of the company’s gel, which instantaneously hardens when struck, and started wearing it on their own. Starting this spring, G-Form now produces shin guards specifically marketed for soccer, along with a wide array of body armor for football, skateboarding, extreme sports and stuntmen.

PBN: I watched many hours of World Cup matches this summer – how many of those players were wearing G-Form equipment?
CAFARO: We do not have a definite number, because the shin guards are worn under their socks. We know we made custom shin guards for a few of teams, specifically Croatia, where we incorporated the colors of their flag into the shin guards. We have developed relationships with 20 players’ unions, and they represent thousands of professional [soccer players].

PBN: Giants like Nike and Adidas pay hundreds of millions to outfit these teams. Don’t they insist on their own shin guards?
CAFARO: My understanding is when there is a kit sponsorship, that includes shirts, shorts and socks. Most guys at the professional level are allowed to choose their own shoes and after that everything else that is not seen, such as underwear and shin guards, is not a marketing opportunity, so they can choose.

PBN: Is there anything that distinguishes a G-Form shin guard, besides the use of the hardening gel instead of plastic?
CAFARO: There had never been a soft-sided shin guard before that can meet all these protection requirements. Until G-Form came along, shin guards were a hard plastic shell attached by straps. This rigid apparatus can be annoying and performance prohibitive because you keep having to readjust. We put our technology within a high-tech wicking lycra sleave with no straps or tape. First and foremost, they stay in place. … They are also lighter weight and you can throw them in the laundry and wash them.

PBN: This would seem like a big opportunity considering how big soccer is globally. Do you see soccer becoming a big part of G-Form’s sales?
CAFARO: It is the most participated-in sport in the world and the most in the U.S., just not the most commercially exploited here. … In 2010, when we started making an extreme-sport product line, soccer players started wearing-mountain biking shin guards and then we said, “What does it take to be a soccer shin guard?” Myself being a soccer player in high school and captain of the Rhode Island College soccer team, it made sense. We literally just launched soccer before the Word Cup. We are still getting into retail locations. … Our hunch is soccer will become one of the biggest, if not the biggest category.

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PBN: What sales channel do you see holding the most potential for the future?
CAFARO: There are many ways to get products onto athletes. Some of them are direct institutional sales to clubs, some are brick-and-mortar stores. There are a lot of e-commerce and soccer websites. Our future is in getting our technology to athletes to protect them in ways that they couldn’t have been before. In some cases that isn’t necessarily in G-Form products. For example, our first [original equipment manufacturer] partnership is co-branding with Bauer Hockey, the top brand in hockey. They saw what we were doing in protection and, just like in soccer, NHLers, including some Boston Bruins, were using G-Form extreme-sports gear as a baselayer. Now there is a line of baselayer products under the Bauer brand co-branded with G-Form technology with our logo on it. It is also in a helmet. There is growth potential for the company in finding the right partners to put our technology into their products.

PBN: It seems like in the early days of the company there was a greater focus on electronics, such as all the iPads being dropped from helicopters. Is there a conscious move toward more of a pure sports focus?
CAFARO: G-form is an athletics company. We use the word electronics, but in reality, even our phone and laptop cases are, in our opinion, athletic gear for your electronics devices. … When we are out there doing the things we love, like mountain biking and snowboarding, we want our gear to be protected the same way our bodies are. Our athletic protections for electronics are only sold in athletic outlets, not in Best Buy and Staples.

PBN: So with all this growth, how much have you increased employment and expanded facilities?
CAFARO: G-Form last year officially acquired the manufacturing facility in North Smithfield. It is still run as a separate entity, but it is a wholly owned subsidiary. With that acquisition and our satellite office out in the United Kingdom, you can describe it as 100-plus employees. •

INTERVIEW
Thomas Cafaro
Position: Vice president of innovations at G-Form LLC
Background: A Burrilville native with a background in sales and marketing, Cafaro joined a group of four fellow employees at polymer manufacturer PolyWorks LLC in North Smithfield to found the sports protective-gear spinoff G-Form.
Education: Bachelor’s in communications from Rhode Island College, 1991
First Job: Paper route
Residence: Foster
Age: 45

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