Hamilton's Aegis Impact Protection is selling out of neck guards following the on-ice death of former NHL player Adam Johnson due to a neck injury. Several years ago, Ross Longbottom was playing hockey when he got hit in the neck with a stick. It was accidental, Longbottom said, but it left a mark.
For the company that made Longbottom's neck guard, the result of the increased attention on neck protection has been a boom in sales —"We've had our best sales week ever since we've started our business," Aegis owner Joe Camillo said. "People feel it's sad that it took this tragic death … to really bring to light the importance of adequate protection."Joe Camillo owns Hamilton-based Aegis Impact Protection, which makes hockey neck guards.
He says it seems neck guards, which were already standard in many hockey settings, are becoming even more normalized, like seatbelts or bike helmets.