Protective Equipment (PPE) Development

Regardless of market, environment, or person, the purpose of any personal protective equipment (PPE) is to protect the user. And we’ve learned that people work effectively when they feel safe. The nuance comes when you introduce different use cases – PPE for the soldier is quite different than PPE for the ICU nurse.

Safety Designed for Protection,
Comfort and Context

For over 20 years, our team has helped clients develop protective gear across industries, enabling Priority Designs to design and develop products based on the particular needs of the project, while utilizing a depth of knowledge gained from cross-industry experience. This unique experience not only helps speed up time to market, but you can be confident that our team will provide a protective solution from design through production that appropriately meets the needs of the end user, and helps our clients succeed.

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MEDICAL PPE DEVELOPMENT

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MILITARY PPE DEVELOPMENT

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INDUSTRIAL PPE DEVELOPMENT

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SPORTING GOODS PPE DEVELOPMENT

Seamless Integration Under One Roof

With development teams from research through prototyping, Priority Designs helps clients through phases of development with close collaboration between disciplines. Having these services under one roof helps projects move forward quickly, ensures clear handoffs, and eliminates coordination between multiple organizations.

HUMAN FACTORS & ERGONOMICS

Our human factors research specialists study and understand the interface between people of different sizes and abilities, and how they use the technology and products around them. These requirements help guide the design process, and are followed-up with usability testing to confirm proficient use of the device.

APPAREL & FIT SPECIALISTS

The fit of a product significantly impacts the user’s compliance of wear. With an on-staff fashion design specialist, our soft goods team develops patterns and size grading that is optimized to fit the variance of user for each product. Enhanced fit and comfort translate to improved user safety, and iterations of tested prototypes help ensure we arrive at an appropriate solution.

APPAREL & FIT SPECIALISTS

The fit of a product significantly impacts the user’s compliance of wear. With an on-staff fashion design specialist, our soft goods team develops patterns and size grading that is optimized to fit the variance of user for each product. Enhanced fit and comfort translate to improved user safety.

HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPING

With a 50,000 sq. ft. shop and over 10 dedicated prototype specialists, our team is highly experienced at developing complex prototypes that operate as fully functional PPE systems. Limited production runs of high-fidelity prototypes of our designs have successfully passed government testing procedures for military PPE.

TEST LAB PARTNERSHIPS

Over the years, we’ve developed strong partnerships with test labs for government sponsored programs that submit our PPE designs to all levels of penetration testing. This expedites the PPE design process, and assures our designs provide the utmost protection to the user. If we don’t have the test equipment in-house, we have partners who do.

TEST LAB PARTNERSHIPS

Over the years, we’ve developed strong partnerships with test labs for government sponsored programs that submit our PPE designs to all levels of penetration testing. This expedites the PPE design process, and assures our designs provide the utmost protection to the user. If we don’t have the test equipment in-house, we have partners who do.

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MEDICAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

In a healthcare setting, seconds can mean the difference between life and death. Faced with the choice of spending 30 seconds donning PPE, or rushing into a patient’s room in an emergency, nurses often choose the latter. Priority Designs’ research and design teams have spent countless hours studying healthcare workers across the globe to understand the choices they face. This has not only armed our clients with the data they need to make informed business decisions, it has ultimately resulted in PPE solutions that offer better protection for both healthcare workers and their patients.
Protective Equipment
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MEDICAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

In a healthcare setting, seconds can mean the difference between life and death. Faced with the choice of spending 30 seconds donning PPE, or rushing into a patient’s room in an emergency, nurses often choose the latter. Priority Designs’ research and design teams have spent countless hours studying healthcare workers across the globe to understand the choices they face. This has enabled us to help develop PPE solutions that offer better protection for the healthcare worker while keeping patients safe.

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MILITARY PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

Chem-Bio protective ensembles for head-to-shoulder protection, hand protection, footwear, riot gear and more have been developed to reduce fatigue, decrease don/doff times, improve comfort, and other criteria. These projects have helped our clients pass Man-in-Simulant, Fluorescent Trace, and other forms of testing while successfully integrating with established  helmets, respirators, garments, and accessories for military use. Our reputation as a valuable design resource among government contractors continues to grow as we provide deliverables that are innovative, but also tested to work.

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MILITARY PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

Chem-Bio protective ensembles for head-to-shoulder protection, hand protection, footwear, riot gear and more have been developed to reduce fatigue, decrease don/doff times, improve comfort, and other criteria. These projects have helped our clients pass Man-in-Simulant, Fluorescent Trace, and other forms of testing while successfully integrating with established  helmets, respirators, garments, and accessories for military use. Our reputation as a valuable design resource among government contractors continues to grow as we provide deliverables that are innovative but also tested to work.

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INDUSTRIAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

Work environments can be hazardous, while experience teaches us that people become more vulnerable as they tire over the duration of a shift. Priority Designs has spent many hours observing and interviewing workers to understand their challenges first hand. This helps us to empathize with their needs and builds respect for their physical safety when designing solutions. Safer employees contribute more effectively to the bottom line while ensuring business continuity for our clients.

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INDUSTRIAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

Work environments can be hazardous, while experience teaches us that people become more vulnerable as they tire over the duration of a shift. Priority Designs has spent many hours observing and interviewing workers to understand their challenges first hand. This helps us to empathize with their needs and builds respect for their physical safety when designing solutions. Safer employees contribute more effectively to the bottom line while ensuring business continuity for our clients.

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SPORTING GOODS PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

Priority Designs has been designing and developing protective equipment for the sporting goods industry for over 20 years across lacrosse, hockey, football, baseball, and soccer. This equipment has covered nearly every part of the body, from helmets to padding to gloves. Over the years, we’ve developed relationships with manufacturers, and conduct ongoing research with materials, fabrics, foams and hardware.

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SPORTING GOODS PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

Priority Designs has been designing and developing protective equipment for the sporting goods industry for over 20 years across lacrosse, hockey, football, baseball, and soccer. This equipment has covered nearly every part of the body, from helmets to padding to gloves. Over the years, we’ve developed relationships with manufacturers, and conduct ongoing research with materials, fabrics, foams and hardware.

Meet the Team

The combination of our people’s unique skillsets is what makes these projects successful. Meet some of our talented staff that often collaborates on personal protective equipment products.

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Jeff Burger

SR. INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER

With 15+ years leveraging anthropometry to accommodate a wide range of people, Jeff helps enhance products’ usability across industrial and medical applications, including gloves, eyewear & soft wearable robotics.

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Mike Lorenz

SR. INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER

Mike Lorenz has over 25 years’ experience working with numerous clients in categories across protective equipment for medical devices, sporting goods, laser metrology, and consumables packaging.

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Tom Africa

SR. SOFT GOODS DESIGNER

25 years in cut-and-sew design & development enables Tom to see the critical relationship between materials, construction methods and assembly details to define successful solutions.

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Kevin Vititoe

SR. INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER

Kevin’s work in sporting goods has developed better-performing products that are lighter, stronger, faster and safer. His experience in protective gear includes diverse materials, manufacturing processes & products.

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Chris Cicenas

SR. MECHANICAL ENGINEER

With over 30 years of experience, Chris is one of our talented engineers who tackles tough problem solving and engineering challenges. He handles FEA for masks and other products that require a tight seal over complex parts.

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Chad Cook

SR. DESIGNER/PROTOTYPE SPECIALIST

Chad is one of our excellent craftsman, who works on high quality prototypes. With extreme precision, he works with a variety of fabrication methods and helps ensure many of our military prototypes are ready for testing.

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