Originally Posted by Anonymous
One more thing and this is a swipe at NOCSAE...I include myself in a large set of parents who have 1. liked Cascade products for years, 2. had kids playing in Cascade helmets as recently as two weeks ago, and 3. now know that NOCSAE at least knew of some safety concerns or bells to ring at least months ago. Some safety warning from NOCSAE -- and not from Cascade's website diagram that suddenly appeared in early November -- about head tilted fitting being non-conforming would have been good before the biggest club play month of the year.

If you look at NOCSAE's website you do learn that companies like Cascade and STX pay a very rich royalty for each product item sold with a NOCSAE certified seal to NOCSAE. The idea is that NOCSAE keeps up with the resources to monitor and regulate the industry. The more industry grows through products and volume, the richer the royalty stream to NOCSAE. I would love to see NOCSAE financials and would guess they cash flow very well. But then it appears that NOCSAE is a very small group in the Midwest of a few people who answer their own phones. Do they have NOCSAE contractors in the field doing ongoing quality testing and confirming? Did they only first get off the blocks when STX tattled on Cascade and Warrior, then hustle out to the local Lax Unlimited or [lacrosse]'s and buy some helmet samples to catch up on what they were not really monitoring for over 16 months? If there were no Schutt/STX helmet and no negative ad campaign, would NOCSAE have stood still another 16+ months on this without ongoing testing? Would we still have had kids wearing these helmets in an unsound fit not knowing the dangers for another 16 months?

Ok, NOCSAE is not a government regulator but they are a private industry regulator well paid by the same industry. All NOCSAE standards come out of research and testing where the brands industry is the underwriter. All ongoing testing and assurance that the NOCSAE seal means something is a good faith bargain and it now looks like it is reasonable to ask this question: had NOCSAE allowed itself to keep cashing royalties without keeping up with the demands of all their certified industry products? When was the last time NOCASE did field tests and random samples of Cascade R helmets in the 16+ months prior to November 2014.

The best question for NOCSAE now is did you allow yourselves to be outgunned in the field to the point where the industry you are supposed to regulate is left to self police? If the answer is yes, then drastic reforms are needed.


Excellent post. You raise several poignant questions that need to be answered.