CBR Rides Right into the 2018 Road to Cheyenne Tour
Strategic Partnership – Ride Right
WEATHERFORD, Texas – (August 18, 2017) – When Cody Jesus won the CBR World Finals event championship in Cheyenne last month he was wearing a Ride Right Protective vest – thanks to the CBR’s recent collaboration with Ride Right Gear that provided each CBR World Finals qualifier with a new top of the line protective vest – courtesy of Ride Right and CBR.
CBR is pleased to announce a strategic corporate partnership with Ride Right Gear for the 2018 Road to Cheyenne tour and CBR season. Ride Right Gear has been a leader in the bull riding industry since 1994 when Rex Thain founded the company out of a need for quality body protection for bull riders.
“We are excited to partner with CBR as it will provide us with a great opportunity to reach the grass roots of bull riding and expose bull riders we have not been in touch with yet with our superior products,” said Ride Right founder and CEO Rex Thain.
Leading the industry as the new standard is Thain’s IDS Technology TM; Impact Dispersing Shield. IDS is simply a protective shield made from fourth generations’ ballistic material which is mechanically fastened to either an ultra-thin, high-density sports foam or Air Gel. Rex is also the inventor of the Thermoformed Shock Absorber, created by heating and pressing a solid, protective foam sheet into strategically arranged units, which allows for maximum protection and freedom of movement.
With 9 different styles including vest for saddle bronc and bareback riders, Ride Right makes protective vest for even the youngest of rough stock riders – Mutton Busters.
Saddle bronc rider Bob Blackwood’s son George was the original model. As development began Thain needed to test the functionality, fit and form and worked with bull rider Scott Mendes who won his PRCA World title in a Ride Right.
Ride Right is the only manufacturer of protective vests that use ballistic materials on ALL of their adult protective vests.
“When we started 25 years ago – several of the other manufacturers had the ballistic material option, but it is a very expensive component and once the bull riding vest became a standard piece of equipment, cost cutting measures began to be examined,” continued owner and operator Rex Thain.
From Ride Right’s perspective – studies by the manufactures show that when an energy wave travels thru the ballistic material, it changes the frequency of the wave – reducing a lot of damage that would happen to the internal organs when they get hit – the rupturing of the organs – which happens because the energy wave travels thru the body and membrane, in addition to the direct impact so the vest needs to be developed to withstand and spread the impact in addition to direct velocity like from a bullet.
“The best example is from the old Ella Fitzgerald TV commercial, is it live or is it Memorex? In that commercial the glass broke due to sound waves, similar shock waves happen in bull riding and that is one reason we keep the high cost materials in our products, it provides a level of protection you can’t get from just foam.”
Thain continued saying that “more than 80 percent of the all-time money earners in bull riding either wear or wore Ride Right vest when they retired.
Ride Right’s proprietary IDS technology TM, there isn’t another rodeo vest on the market that takes rider safety more seriously. We use only the best materials, so that every vest delivers active comfort and solid protection.
What is IDS?
The difference is IDS which stands for Impact Dispersion Shield. This material utilizes the highest quality generation ballistic material, same thing that is in bullet proof vests. Bullet proof vest used by law enforcement and military, are dealing with a high velocity projectile that rips through the material before the energy is taken away – thus stopping the bullet.
Ride Right uses the unilateral ballistic material which is superior to the older ballistic materials that was woven, these cross hatch laid materials fibers are ten times stronger than steel by weight but will be light enough to float on water. They are laid in cross hatch pattern and then sandwiched in a bed of resin to keep them in place.
The final product feels similar to a document protector which makes it light and flexible and we just need one layer to accomplish the shock spread in bull riding. The bull as opposed to a bullet, is high mass impact at low velocity vs a bullet which is high velocity. A 2000 pound bull is traveling at less than 50 miles an hour,” chuckled Thain.
“The energy from the impact travels along the fibers, for example the end of a horn impact will spread to a larger area depending on the angle and speed the rider is hit, by spreading out the impact area more of the shock absorbing foam on the inside is utilized to absorb that energy.”
“We couple with a silicone gel which can’t be completely compacted which has been “air-frothed” to make it preform more like foam (thin lightweight). The air gel plus the ballistic creates the IDS technology that is exclusive to Ride Right.
In addition Thain explains that the foam inside the vest that has a mesh cover is manufactured by thermal heat press that follows the anatomy of the rib cage and is flexible and bendable. We developed it with a rider so he can bend and provide the flexibility needed in the sport.
“When you wear a Ride Right vest, you’re protected by an unwavering 25 year legacy for quality, style and durability. Go ahead, enjoy the ride. We’ll take the hits for you.”
History
Nearly twenty-five years ago Rex Thain and his wife, Sherry, began working part time with some friends who owned a rodeo-gear supply company. The timing couldn’t have been better, as the first protective rodeo vests began to appear on the market shortly thereafter. Disappointed to see that customers were forced to decide between vests that were either prohibitively expensive or unattractive, he launching his own product – vests that were more appealing with a top flight performance based design.
He quickly developed a prototype of the protective framework for a vest that would provide rodeo athletes with a new level of safety in the arena. But things finally came together when a friend pulled a western cut vest out of her closet and said “if you can make the stuff inside your vest fit inside this vest, then I think you might really have something.”
As Ride Right’s brand became synonymous with quality bull riding gear, it began to offer a wider range of products. Today, Rex and his team are proud to offer a full line of hand-crafted custom chaps, gear bags, comfort collars and more. Ride Right has also successfully brought their core product offering to the world of Motocross racing.
Rex and the Ride Right team have been improving their designs and expanding their catalog for over two decades, but their mission has remained the same: use the highest quality materials to create protective vests that keep riders safe, and looking great.
For more information on Right Right see rideright.com. Follow CBR on Championship Bull Riding on Facebook CBRbull.com, and @cbrbull on Instagram and Twitter.
Courtesy of CBR