Local startup wants to supply MLB with mouth guards
Original article | NY Post | March 26, 2016
Mouth guards are standard equipment for football and hockey players, but a startup is persuading even baseball and soccer players to use its pricey mouthpieces.
New York-based GuardLab, which uses 3-D scanning technology to make custom-fit mouthpieces, has already scanned 16 members of the Chicago White Sox organization this week at Spring training and just named Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays to be on its advisory board and serve as a brand ambassador.
Image courtesy of Jose Bautista's instagram
Sold for up to $250 a pop for adults and $150 for kids, the guards require a dentist visit as well.
Up to 50 Major League Baseball players are using the pieces for performance enhancement — the company claims that a bottom jaw piece improves alignment and breathing.
Earlier this month, GuardLab signed a licensing deal with the UFC, whose athletes are required to wear mouth guards.
“The last disruption in the ‘boil and bite’ segment,” said GuardLab CEO, Aidan Butler, “was flavored mouth guards.”
