Safety store has Impact

A new shop for skiing headgear and eyewear at Canada Olympic Park hopes to become a leader in sport safety while offering the look and feel of a trendy Apple store.

WinSport Canada unveiled its Impact Lab on Friday. It’s a retail facility that offers expertise in proper fitting helmets and goggles.

Like Apple stores, it is interactive. Visitors, most of whom are coming off the park’s adjacent ski hill, can test themselves in the store to see if they have been concussed.

Win Sport Canada will also be opening a similar lab for hockey and teeth as part of its new 80,000-squarefoot high performance facility that is scheduled to open in Calgary in the spring. The complex will be home to Hockey Canada.

“You’ll see a very similar design for this and very similar principles behind it in our hockey arenas come April or May,” said WinSport president and chief executive Dan O’Neill.

O’Neill came up with the idea for the lab and specifically wanted the Apple store look.

Once the high performance facility is open, skiers/boarders who are suspected of suffering a concussion will be directed to a medical clinic that will be staffed by six doctors.

O’Neill is urging parents to have their children take a baseline test before heading to the hill to have a comparison chart in case they suffer a fall.

“In three or four months we will have a whole concussion testing area,” O’Neill said. “This is Step 1.”