“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” - Benjamin Franklin
CrossGuard BV is a
YesDelft! start-up with a fundamentally different view on hand protection. With an engineer’s approach to design, we create safety gloves which offer the best protection against physical impact without limiting motoric freedom. We have generated first revenue through small-scale paid test series and a production consultancy assignment for the Ministry of Defence (DMO) Please take a look at our
product demo for an impression of our work.
Our motto is: “protection without compromise” and with our first product, the
ProGauntlet, we’re well on our way to become the standard brand in Armed Martial Arts and to become a promising new player in other sports markets, such as Field Hockey. Our developments have even caught the eye of the Ministry of Defence, with whom we are exploring the long-term potential of our technology.
The Problem
In many professional and leisure environments, hand injuries are one of the major causes of both personal and financial loss. Annually there are
250.000 reported hand or finger injuries in the Netherlands alone (source: Veiligheid.nl). A substantial amount of those injuries are caused by impact damage. Current safety gloves on the market are often part of the problem. Users need to choose between
safety (thick and rigid models) and
freedom of movement (light gloves which often offer no protection at all). Currently, even the best glove designs on the market are fundamentally limited in the protection they can offer. This is a big problem among practitioners of Armed Martial Arts and high-risk sports such as Field Hockey, and there’s a growing demand for a better solution.
Our Solution
CrossGuard’s answer to this demand is to start from scratch, rather than trying to improve what’s already out there. Our design is based on extensive study of
biomechanics of the hand,
material science, and
impact physics. The result is a robust, lightweight and highly mobile exoskeleton, we call the
ProGauntlet
Marketing Strategy
Easy access to users and market influencers are the key to CrossGuard’s marketing strategy. The ProGauntlet project started with a crowdfunding campaign within the Armed Martial Arts community and was met with overwhelming support. Since then, the team has made world-wide appearances at clubs and events to showcase our latest developments. Meanwhile, users and influencers are involved in the testing and improvement of our product, in order to stay in touch with the market’s demand and to create ambassadors to help spread the word. Within our niche market, CrossGuard has become known as a high-end pioneering company with roots in the community and we can say without a doubt that the ProGauntlet has become a highly anticipated product in all the corners of the world.
This same approach to marketing will be exported to hockey and other sports markets.
Beta tests
In the spring of 2017, we produced our first ProGauntlet Beta series to be tested with a select group of our Dutch users. This gave invaluable feedback, which served as the foundation of our current development cycle.
Though many areas, such as durability and thrust resistance, needed considerable improvement, protective qualities scored high and our Beta users were astounded by the lightness and the freedom they experienced while wearing our gloves. For the first time, they could perform fast and complex motions, while wearing high-end protection.
Production Technology
Manufacturing the ProGauntlet (with more than 22 plastic hard-shell parts per glove) in different sizes cannot be done with conventional production methods. This is why CrossGuard is developing its own versatile plastic moulding and casting system, which allows us to cost-effectively manufacture a great variety of complex parts. The system is easily scalable and has the potential to serve the needs of external parties. CrossGuard has already been approached for low volume B2B manufacturing orders by other companies. The revenue generated from such specialized small volume orders will enable CrossGuard to speed up the development of its manufacturing capabilities, while generating a foundational cashflow. These orders form excellent paid test cases for our production technology.
Achieved Milestones
Patent application (currently in PCT phase with a positive opinion)
2015 - 2018
Finding and establishing partnerships with key production partners
2016 - 2017
Successful ProGauntlet Beta1 series tested by users, validating core functionality
2017
Successful Proof of concept for production systems
2017
Team expansion (1 production developer 2 product engineers and multiple assistants)
2017 - 2018
Preliminary feasibility studies and partnerships in expansion market (Field-Hockey)
2017 - 2018
First Department of Defence contract (pilot)
2017 - 2018
Financing Goal
CrossGuard previously raised €215K in convertible notes in two previous Leapfunder rounds and was granted a subsidized loan of €250K by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) in 2017. The goal of this
3rd Leapfunder round is to assemble up to
€250K in convertible notes. Together with
an upcoming private investment, this will allow us to:
Secure the development and production of the ProGauntlet Beta2 series, which is aimed to be our MVP.
Q1&2 2018
External testing of Beta2 Series and validation of the MVP.
Q3 2018
Provide a financial buffer to allow for an extra, full development cycle of 3 months if MVP is not validated by the end of Beta2 testing.
Scale up our sales and production capacity to manufacture and launch our Mark 1 1st batch and open presales.
Q4 2018
Fund a preliminary Phase 1 hockey design program with a 15K budget.
Q2 2018
Expansion Strategy
The ProGauntlet is a pioneering project, which drives CrossGuards innovative product and production development. Once our technology has been tested and validated in a small niche market with a high demand (Armed Martial Arts), CrossGuard will have a platform to fully launch programs into other, bigger opportunities, such as Hockey and Defence/Law Enforcement.
Partners & Network
CrossGuard has entered partnerships with multiple production parties: plastics production expert
Polarttech, with whom the production method of major plastic parts of the
ProGauntlet are being developed and
Masters of Gloves, who develop and provide the textile inner glove. Recently, CrossGuard joined forces with
MTB3D to create a 3D printing farm, a key component of our development and production facilities.
For our venture into Field Hockey, CrossGuard is joined by Hockey aficionado and partner at Monolith Investment Management
Guus Drijver and Goalie for the Dutch National Hockey team at the Barcelona Olympics and trainer for the Beijing Olympics
Bart Looije.
CrossGuard is part of
YES!Delft and has access to a wide network of potential partners, customers and advisors. Through Yes!Delft we were able to partner with the Ministry of Defence’s
Innovatiecentrum FRONT.
CrossGuard also holds active ties to the
TUDelft Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. We successfully applied for an NWO Feasibility Grant and a “Vroege Fase” Loan together with Professor of Advanced Manufacturing
Charlie Wang and Associate Professor
Erik Tempelman. Tempelman is on board as technical production advisor.