MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota company is drawing national attention to an often-overlooked issue in youth and competitive sports: head injuries in aquatic sports. Hammer Head Swim Caps, creator of the world's first patented protective swim cap, was featured on CBS Minnesota's WCCO Sunday Morning on July 5, 2026, in a segment that explored how one company's mission is helping change the conversation around swimmer safety.
The interview follows more than a decade of work by Hammer Head founder Theresa Finn, who was inspired to act after two children suffered head injuries during swim practice. Those experiences led her to ask a simple question: "Why do so many sports protect the head, while swimming does not?" That question sparked a five-year journey to develop the world's first patented protective swim cap, designed to reduce head impact while maintaining the comfort, fit, and hydrodynamic performance swimmers expect.
During the WCCO interview, Finn discussed the broader issue of head injuries across aquatic sports—including competitive swimming, open water swimming, triathlon, water polo, artistic swimming, and diving—and why concussion awareness has transformed many sports while head protection in swimming has remained largely unchanged. The segment also highlighted Hammer Head's long-term vision of making head protection an expected part of aquatic sports, much like bicycle helmets have become for cycling.
"Hammer Head isn't about replacing one swim cap with another," said Theresa Finn, Founder and CEO of Hammer Head Swim Caps. "It's about changing expectations. We hope to create a future where protecting your brain in the water becomes as natural as wearing a helmet on a bicycle—not because someone is forced to, but because it's simply the obvious thing to do."
Hammer Head's patented Honeycomb Impact Technology was developed to help absorb and disperse impact forces while preserving a sleek, competition-ready design. Independent laboratory testing has shown the cap reduces impact forces to the top of the head by more than 50% compared with traditional swim caps. Additional testing by Olympian Dr. Gary Hall Sr. found improved speed because of its smooth dome design, which reduces frontal drag compared with conventional silicone caps.
The company believes awareness is the next step. "Swimming has advanced tremendously in training, nutrition, goggles, race suits, and technology," Finn said. "Now it's time for the conversation about protecting the one thing every athlete only gets once—their brain."
The WCCO feature is part of growing national interest in swimmer head safety and follows recent podcast interviews and national parenting publication coverage discussing concussion awareness, innovation, and injury prevention in aquatic sports. For more information about Hammer Head Swim Caps, visit their website at https://hammerheadswimcaps.com.
