HeroWear Wins Third Annual Safety Innovation Challenge

ORLANDO, Florida – Continuing its emphasis on safety innovation, the National Safety Council convened nine leading technology providers from around the globe to showcase their cutting-edge safety solutions during the third annual Safety Innovation Challenge. Building on the tremendous progress made by the Council’s MSD Solutions Lab – a groundbreaking program established in 2021 with funding from Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) – the challenge aims to help organizations of all sizes prevent musculoskeletal disorders, or MSDs. This year, HeroWear was selected as the challenge winner. 

“MSDs are both pervasive and complex, and no industry is immune to these costly injuries. That’s why a key part of the MSD Solutions Lab mission is uncovering technology solutions to prevent risks before they occur,” said Katherine Mendoza, senior director of workplace programs at NSC. “I want to congratulate all of this year’s participants and especially HeroWear for being this year’s challenge winner. We know employers will stand to greatly benefit from these proven, scalable solutions, which will improve safety outcomes for workers.”

MSDs are the most common workplace injury and represent the leading cause of worker disability, involuntary retirement and limitations to gainful employment, according to the World Health Organization. Unlike in previous years when the Safety Innovation Challenge focused on one specific aspect of MSD prevention, this year’s challenge took a more holistic approach toward mitigating these injuries by addressing several risk factors, including reducing repetitive motion, awkward or static postures and forceful exertions. After initially identifying dozens of technology providers, NSC, with the assistance of the MSD Solutions Lab advisory council, selected nine semi-finalists to present their cutting-edge products to more than 5,000 business leaders and safety experts at the 2024 NSC Safety Congress & Expo in Orlando.

The 2024 Safety Innovation Challenge semi-finalists include:

• DORN Companies:  DORN Companies showcased predictive safety technology with AI Risk Detect (ARD) motion capture technology that uncovers hidden hazards, enabling proactive MSD prevention to stop injuries in their tracks. 
• HAPO: With a mission to design and manufacture innovative, tailor-made ergonomic solutions to help keep workers safe and prevent the risk of MSDs, HAPO presented exoskeletons designed to support the shoulders during long term “arms in front” postures. 
• HeroWear: HeroWear is a wearable technology company that provides exosuit solutions to reduce MSD injury risks for those who bend and lift in their jobs—improving quality of life and boosting productivity for workers in physically demanding jobs across the globe. Based on technology born in a Vanderbilt University lab in 2018, HeroWear’s Apex 2 exosuit reduces strain on workers’ backs with a customizable, modular design, made to comfortably fit men and women of all shapes and sizes. 
• IntelliSafe Analytics: IntelliSafe’s artificial intelligence wearable technology is designed to collect physiological and behavioral information from workers to automate the safety data needed to respond to, predict and prevent accidents. Further, it can notify safety personnel of the location of incidents for a quick response. 
• LifeBooster: The Canada-based company integrates Internet-of-Things technology into wearable sensors with a corresponding data analytics platform that work together to detect environmental and MSD risks. LifeBooster’s technology helps employers quantify the impacts of safety interventions on workers’ wellbeing and organizations’ bottom line. 
• MākuSafe: MākuSafe provides a wearable technology and safety data analytics solution that gathers real-time data about individual environmental exposures and ergonomic motions to better understand risk in the workplace.
• Santoku: Santoku’s RiMM virtual reality technology is a multisensory training simulator designed to help organizations eliminate workplace accidents. The simulator immerses employees in lifelike scenarios to develop and practice life-saving safety skills.
• Stroma: Stroma WorkSafe leverages computer vision models and real-time data processing to monitor and analyze worker behaviors and movements, identify ergonomic risks and provide actionable insights to prevent MSDs with real-time alerts and detailed reporting. 
• TuMeke Ergonomics: This company offers an omnichannel platform that leverages computer vision and artificial intelligence to evaluate workers’ posture and joint positions while tracking their ergonomic risk factors over time, providing employers with a more organized, comprehensive risk assessment. 

“HeroWear is proud to be selected as this year’s winner of the Safety Innovation Challenge. We see this award as more recognition in the market that our innovative approach is ready to impact millions of hardworking people around the world,” said Mark Harris, CEO of HeroWear. “We also want to thank NSC and the MSD Solutions Lab for providing such an important forum for providers from all over the world to help broadcast the most effective, impactful and practical MSD solutions.”

During the 2024 NSC Safety Congress & Expo, each semi-finalist had an opportunity to showcase their unique products to reduce MSDs at the Safety Technology Pavilion. At the pavilion, special guests of the MSD Solutions Lab voted on their favorite technology and the top three, which included Hapo, HeroWear and MākuSafe, were selected as finalists to present live during the conference’s closing keynote session in front of a panel of judges comprised of safety and ergonomics experts. For the first time ever during the challenge, audience members at the closing session were able to vote on a singular winner, which will receive a complimentary year-long membership to the TechHub Marketplace and have the opportunity to be piloted by the nation’s leading employers as part of the 2025-2026 MSD Solutions Pilot grant program. 

“At Amazon, one of our guiding principles is a passion for invention, which is exactly what the Safety Innovation Challenge represents,” said Sarah Rhoads, vice president of global workplace health and safety at Amazon. “We applaud this year’s participants for continuing to uncover new safety solutions that can have a meaningful impact on the industry.”

The Safety Innovation Challenge is one of several initiatives led by NSC to achieve its goal of preventing MSDs before they start. To learn more about these efforts, visit www.nsc.org/msd.

About the National Safety Council
The National Safety Council is America’s leading nonprofit safety advocate – and has been for 110 years. As a mission-based organization, we work to eliminate the leading causes of preventable death and injury, focusing our efforts on the workplace and roadways. We create a culture of safety to not only keep people safer at work, but also beyond the workplace so they can live their fullest lives.