Kickstart: Making helmets in the US, but not for football

There’s a big game this weekend, if you haven’t heard, and this first Kickstart item is about plastic helmets. But not football helmets.

I’ve seen a couple of news items the past few days about companies making helmets in the United States. But, coincidentally, neither was about the pigskin.

First, Hard Head Veterans LLC, a Sweetwater, Texas, company that makes ballistic helmets for military and law enforcement, announced that it is adding injection molding capabilities for production of tactical bump helmets and in preparation for the upcoming release of a new series of aramid fiber-infused safety helmets.

The company is adding a 420-ton LS Mtron press, which will join a 140-ton machine that the company already uses to mold plastic parts.

“The addition of the 420-ton machine will allow us to scale even further, producing helmets with unparalleled precision while maintaining our commitment to U.S. manufacturing,” said Dub Robertson, plant director for Hard Head Veterans.

The second helmet story that caught my eye came from South Baltimore, Md., where STX LLC is bringing production of lacrosse helmets in-house.

STX is primarily known for its plastic lacrosse sticks. The company previously had a partnership with football helmet maker Schutt Sports, but that ended in 2020, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.

Now STX has made a seven-figure investment to bring lacrosse helmet production back to Maryland for the first time in years. Lacrosse helmets can go for around $300 each, and the sport is growing, so the company is bullish on this project.

Rhoda Miel already mentioned in Kickstart a few weeks ago that MacNeil Automotive Products Ltd. of Bolingbrook, Ill., will be a Super Bowl advertiser again this year. But now we have more information about the company’s big game message, and it’s a departure from a theme that we’ve grown to enjoy.

The ad this year, which is scheduled to run in the second quarter, is described as featuring “a carload of 70-something women raising hell on the open road while keeping the interior pristine, thanks to the floor mats,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

“This might be their best spot so far,” said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management who heads up an annual Super Bowl advertising review.

That sounds like a big change from the company’s usual made-in-America plastics manufacturing message, with ads highlighting U.S. workers using injection molding and thermoforming equipment to churn out WeatherTech floor mats.

PN’s written a lot about MacNeil Automotive over the years, and I’ve talked with CEO David MacNeil myself — I’ll share that story some other time. My favorite story about the company came in 2011, when David spoke to the Society of Plastics Engineers' annual thermoforming conference. The company rarely talks in detail about plastics manufacturing, so that story is still worth a read.

Over the years, we’ve learned that when resin companies are considering building new capacity in Texas, we usually hear about it first when they apply for a school tax abatement.

The latest example came Jan. 30, when the Houston Business Journal reported that ExxonMobil Corp. has applied for abatements under the new Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation program to potentially build a $8.6 billion polyethylene plant in Calhoun County.

The newspaper reported that this project isn’t guaranteed to move forward. That will depend on market demand, and the company is also considering building instead in other parts of the world, like the Middle East or Asia.

“We’re evaluating multiple locations around the world for a future chemical manufacturing facility, and one of the sites we’re considering is in Calhoun County, Texas,” the company told the Houston Business Journal in a statement. “The Gulf Coast presents tremendous advantages, including the ability to integrate with our operations in the Permian Basin. While this site has potential, we are very early in our evaluation process.

"Filing for a tax abatement before a final decision is required by law and is part of our due diligence to gain greater clarity for our shareholders and the community. As we look to meet global demand for our products, we’ll continue to evaluate the market conditions before we make a decision.”

If it happens, then construction would start in 2026 and the plant would start production in 2031.

New resin capacity would also likely face some opposition, although it would be unusual for the state of Texas to turn down that sort of investment. But Grist magazine already has a story quoting Diane Wilson, who has generated a lot of headlines opposing Formosa’s project in Point Comfort, Texas, calling the ExxonMobil project a “nightmare.”