A recent segment on CBS Minnesota’s WCCO Sunday Morning has drawn renewed attention to head safety in aquatic sports, featuring Hammer Head Swim Caps, the creator of the world’s first patented protective swim cap. The July 5, 2026 segment examined how the Minnesota-based company is changing the conversation around swimmer safety and highlighting an issue that is often overlooked in youth and competitive sports.

Founder Theresa Finn said she was motivated to act after two children suffered head injuries during swim practice. That experience led her to ask: “Why do so many sports protect the head, while swimming does not?” The question became the starting point for a five-year effort to develop a protective swim cap designed to reduce head impact while preserving comfort, fit and hydrodynamic performance.

The WCCO feature also examined head injuries across a range of aquatic sports, including competitive swimming, open water swimming, triathlon, water polo, artistic swimming and diving. It noted that concussion awareness has changed safety practices in many sports, while head protection in swimming has remained largely unchanged, underscoring why the topic is drawing more attention now from parents, coaches and athletes across multiple disciplines.

Hammer Head’s patented Honeycomb Impact Technology is designed to absorb and disperse impact forces while maintaining a sleek, competition-ready profile. Independent laboratory testing showed that the cap reduces impact forces to the top of the head by more than 50% compared with traditional swim caps. Additional testing by Olympian Dr. Gary Hall Sr. found improved speed from the cap’s smooth dome design, which reduces frontal drag compared with conventional silicone caps.

The company says its long-term goal is to make head protection a standard part of aquatic sports, similar to how bicycle helmets are now considered routine for cycling. “Hammer Head isn’t about replacing one swim cap with another,” said Theresa Finn, Founder and CEO. “It’s about changing expectations. We hope to create a future where protecting your brain in the water becomes as natural as wearing a helmet on a bicycle—not because someone is forced to, but because it’s simply the obvious thing to do.”

The WCCO segment comes amid growing national interest in swimmer head safety and follows recent podcast interviews and coverage in a national parenting publication focused on concussion awareness, innovation and injury prevention in aquatic sports. For more information, visit the company’s website at

As Finn said, “Swimming has advanced tremendously in training, nutrition, goggles, race suits, and technology. Now it’s time for the conversation about protecting the one thing every athlete only gets once—their brain.”

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