Purpose of the headwear:

The collapsible protective headwear is comprised of helmet, earmuffs, eyewear, and facemask components designed to provide protection from head impacts, loud noises, and shield the eyes, nose and mouth from particulates when deployed. The individual and customizable segments of the headwear overlap with one another in a concentric manner when collapsed due to novel rotation-limiting connectors to resemble the band of headphones or earmuffs to facilitate ease of carrying and rapid deployment.

Description of problems that this headwear solves:

The Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) requirements across many sports (e.g., shooting and biking), fields of employment (e.g., medicine, construction, mining, military), and hobbies (e.g., welding and woodworking), are numerous and varied, with individual pieces of headwear secured around or over the ears (i.e., mask, safety glasses, earmuffs, helmet) and vying for the same real estate across the front, top, and back of the head. This incompatibility can lead to PPE misuse and noncompliance, resulting in injuries and fatalities. The time it takes to don multiple pieces of PPE contributes to the risk of injury, especially in emergency situations (e.g., natural disasters, occupational accidents, or active combat) when rapid placement of PPE is essential to responding promptly and safely. Additionally, carrying multiple pieces of PPE at all times is impractical due to their weight, shape, or appearance, resulting in the individual not having immediate access to the PPE when needed. Lastly, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) restricts the use of helmets in the workplace that have been compromised, requiring helmets to be discarded and replaced even if the damage is minor and restricted to a single part of the helmet. Most collapsible headwear assemblies fold into a flat or irregular format, or deploy in a complicated or non-continuous manner that do not allow for ease of carrying or rapid deployment, and are not integrated into functional headwear such as headphone to incentivize users to keep it on their person.

Description on how the headwear is an improvement over existing technology:

Unlike existing technology, which seeks to resolve the problem of PPE overcrowding by selecting one or two additional pieces of PPE and attaching them to a large and rigid helmet or earmuffs, this headwear will allow the user to customize their protective headwear based on their individual PPE requirements. There are no other products which, in addition to solving the overcrowding problem, address both the problems of slow deployment and ease of carrying. This headwear is intended to be carried on the user’s person, such as atop their heads or around their necks in its collapsed form, resembling headphones, and to be deployed in seconds to protect the head and face. Additionally, the segmented and modular nature of this headwear allows for the replacement of only individual compromised segments, precluding the need for replacing the entire protective apparatus as is required with other headwear.