Edinburgh Napier University

HIT is a small wearable device that allows the user to track G-Force data to provide an early indication of a head impact and its severity. It removes the grey area of when an athlete should be checked for concussive symptoms or seek further medical analysis.

How did Euan Bowen come up with this ground-breaking idea? It all started when he was in the third year of the BDes (Hons) Product Design course. 

Rugby is a big passion of Euan’s and he played for a local amateur rugby team throughout his studies, and still plays to this day. The sport is well known for its hard tackles and Euan has faced his share of injuries; however, it shocked him when his friend and teammate experienced three concussions in a single season. The first presented obvious symptoms and resulted in loss of consciousness on the field of play. However, in the second and third incidents, Euan’s friend didn’t realise that he had suffered any consequences and continued playing. It wasn’t until later that night that he felt strange, and tests later showed that he was suffering from a concussion. Euan’s friend missed considerable time at university because of this, and it prompted Euan to ask himself the question: ‘is there some way to identify this type of injury earlier to aid recovery?’.

Euan worked to answer this question throughout fourth year and exhibited HIT at the 2018 Edinburgh Napier Degree Show – an annual showcase of creative talent from the School of Arts and Creative Industries. Stewart’s Melville RFC is Euan’s rugby club and Euan worked with the youth team to produce a prototype.

“The aim of HIT isn’t to ruin sport, but to keep the emotion out of it. If you tear your hamstring, you will be taken off the field immediately. The brain is the only organ in your body that has to self-diagnose itself with an injury. Everything else speaks to your brain through pain receptors. Are you really expecting the organ that is injured to tell you that it’s injured? Rather than asking the player or the coach to decide if someone has an injury, the data will make the decision.”

Hailing from East Lothian, Euan lived at home throughout his studies and worked part time at a local golf club. One of the members had read an article about Euan’s Degree Show project in The Scotsman and approached Euan to find out what’s next for HIT. At this point Euan already had a graduate job lined up in Cardiff and hadn’t planned to take the project any further. The golfer asked to meet Euan for a coffee to discuss more. This resulted in Euan securing  his first investor and a cofounder! Nine months later HIT attracted an additional investor and cofounder. 

Euan and his team began working to turn HIT into a commercial product. This included Euan joining a 24-month incubator programme. A patent was filed, the design of the sensor evolved, and they developed an app. This would allow the coach on the sidelines to receive a notification of impact and pull the player off to have further tests. Rugby, particularly the youth programme, was still the team’s focus and they set out a testing roadmap. However, Covid hit, and team sports were cancelled. 

Unsure of how to proceed and how long Covid would last, the HIT team paused their development for a couple of months. Euan used this time to expand his knowledge by making connections on LinkedIn and chatting with people working in different fields. After speaking with a marketing professional, he was advised that focusing on rugby was limiting his potential and HIT would have more success if the product was universal. 

That’s where stage two began. The team began reaching out to sports companies to let them know about HIT and Euan messaged sports professionals on Instagram. One of these people was Reece Wilson, the 2020 Downhill Mountain Bike World Cup Champion. He was really interested in what HIT was doing and became their first Ambassador.

Reece’s involvement generated more and more attention from the industry and other pro riders. HIT was still in the development stage and wasn’t the all-singing-all-dancing product that Euan had envisioned. This forced the HIT team to make a choice: launch a slimmed down version now while there was a real buzz, or wait until the final product is ready? 

HIT Impact was released in early 2022. In January 2023 the next version, HIT+, will be available to purchase. This offers GPS tracking with live performance metrics, time, distance, speed and performance analytics in addition to the features included in the initial release. After this the HIT team are looking to go back to their roots and develop a monitoring device tailored for team sports.