Milltown man develops high-tech GAA gloves
By Claire Henry
Miltown man Sean Hehir is combining his love of GAA with experience in engineering to launch a new company, Tection Sport, and his novel new ‘Gaelic Skin Gloves’.
Mr Hehir graduated with an MSc in Engineering from NUI Galway and worked in research and development in the medical device sector for almost a decade.
He has been a standout player for his North Galway club Miltown over the past two decades and, while studying for his masters, decided to take a part-time job with Elverys Sports in Tuam.
Mr Hehir could see from both his playing career and from his work in Elverys that the gloves on offer at the time would break down and degrade quickly. Mr Hehir said to himself that “some- body is going to come up with better gloves someday, but I didn’t think it was going to be me”.
From his work in R&D, Mr Hehir was introduced to many materials, many of which had performance built in. One material in particular stood out to Hehir, which he now uses in his Gaelic Skin Gloves.
“We were unable to use this particular material in the medical device that I was working on at the time as it was too sticky, and I begin to think what other devices or products could benefit from this.”
The overlap of having a GAA background and a medical device background was the magic combo that created Tection Sports and Gaelic Skin Gloves.
Mr Hehir was also very aware of the lack of weather-specific gloves for GAA players. Latex foam is used in many sports gloves on the market today, which aims to cover all weather conditions. This results in medium performance from most GAA gloves.
Gaelic Skin gloves use precise engineering for peak performance. The company has developed the new gloves for dry weather with materials specific to enhance grip and ball control during dry playing conditions.
Likewise, Mr Hehir has devel- oped a second pair of gloves that uses high-performance materials specific for wet playing condi- tions.
“With both club and inter- county players performing at such a professional level and the use of statistics to examine drop balls and turnovers, these are the inches that can win or lose the game,” he said.
Mr Hehir believes that the grip performance in his new product is at such a level above current gloves on the market that players will make a percentage more catches that would have been previously dropped.
GAA players may also have the opportunity to create new dummies as the grip is so advanced that they can hold the ball more comfortably using just one hand.
“The gloves will aid players not just at intercounty level but also at a club and underage level, allowing underage players to have better ball control,” he added.
– For more information visit www.tectionsports.com
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