LSU Football helmet cooling technology being adopted by Auburn, Clemson, A&M, and more

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College football powers sign on to Tigeraire’s helmet-cooling technology



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In the eight months since Jack Karavich, in partnership with LSU, created a helmet-cooling technology for use in sports helmets and other protective headwear, Karavich’s startup company, Tigeraire, has taken off.

In December, after practicing with the cooling devices throughout the fall season, LSU signed a deal with the company to purchase enough devices for the entire LSU Tigers’ football team. Since then, Tigeraire has inked deals with Auburn, Clemson, Texas A&M, Tulane, and the Universities of Alabama, Maryland and Virginia, and more are expected soon.

The company is also working with Catholic High School locally and is developing a version of the product for youth batting helmets for softball and baseball.

“It’s really been phenomenal,” says Karavich, who shares the patent for the technology with three others at LSU, which has exclusivity on the product for the life of the patent. “I wasn’t looking to start a company but it’s just taken off.”

The cooling device, which is currently modular for football helmets and can be used in combination with any off-the-shelf helmet, is designed to keep the user’s head cooler for increased comfort and enhanced performance.

It leverages the passive air vents near the back of a helmet by making them active, sucking air into the helmet with small battery-driven fans attached to a set of flexible tubing. The tubes can be customized and mounted to the inside of the helmet to direct air wherever it’s needed, usually forward and downward over the face, toward a visor or plastic face shield.

While the modular devices have proved popular with football players, Tigeraire is currently designing custom helmets for other sports with the technology built in. So far, the company has prototypes for a batting helmet and construction hard hat and is working on a design for military helmets.

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