Geelong innovation to revolutionise

A coffee catch-up with a friend at the beginning of Australian Rules football’s women’s revolution sparked a new Geelong business aimed at removing a key barrier for female participation.

Sportstech company Zena Sport has developed what it calls the world’s most advanced breast and rib protection vest for women and girls who play contact sports, such as various football codes.

Donna Johnson and her husband – former Western Bulldogs captain Brad – launched Zena in Geelong in 2018 to meet need for inclusive protective gear for female players in contact sports.

Donna said a chat with a friend around the start of the AFLW competition and the resulting boom in female participation in the sport sparked the idea.

“It was at the time when AFL had opened up to girls of all ages.

“My friend’s three daughters had started playing football and they ranged from 8 to 17 years of age.

“We were talking about how these girls were so keen to be playing football having watched from the sidelines for so long, and tough and fierce they went into the competition.

“It was just a flippant comment from me; that I can’t believe they don’t wear some form of chest protection.”

“That night I was chatting with Brad and we were discussing the AFLW… and he encouraged me to sort of look into it a bit further, so it didn’t start out as a business idea.”

Donna’s research found research studies from the United Stated that found breast injury was a significant but under-discussed issue facing women playing contact sport.

That lack of awareness also meant there were no suitable products to protect players of popular ball sports.

“At the time there was only a hard plastic chest plate that was used in martial arts, and I knew that that wasn’t going to be able to be worn for a sport like football.”

Further studies, and more than two years of testing and sampling led to launch of the Zena Z1 vest, which includes a liquid polyurethane foam injected into its fabric then moulded to create a single, seamless barrier.

The equipment is designed in collaboration with Deakin University to absorb impacts of contact from players or a ball and spreads it across a larger area to reduce the likliehood of injury.

Zena’s product development coincided with a stratospheric rise in female sport participation.

The AFL says about 600,000 women and girls are involved in its sport, which has almost doubled since the launch of AFLW in 2016. There are now about 2,500 community teams across Australia – four times the number of 2016.

Zena’s first product range arrived in early 2020 – just before COVID-19 put sports of all levels at a standstill.

As sport resumed, Zena began reaching out to AFLW clubs to speak to their players about the injury-saving equipment.

“That’s where we had the contracts,” Donna said.

“I went around to the majority of the Melbourne clubs and presented the samples, spoke to the girls briefly about breast injury and gave them the opportunity to test it out.

“At the moment we’ve got around 80 girls in the AFLW who wear the products.”

Zena has since started educating community sport participants about potential risks and taking stock for players to try out.

“We’ll take stock with us, we’ll fit the girls, we’ll have a chat to them about the importance of breast injury and also try and normalise that conversation,” Donna said.

“We’ve done a huge amount of work, particularly in the Geelong area at that grassroots level, not only in football but basketball as well.”

It has now had its products taken up in a range of sports internationally including soccer, gridiron-style flag football, lacrosse and softball.

The state government has invested $148,000 in the business through its Breakthrough Victoria agency.

The cash injection is aimed at helping Zena reach more Australian retailers and expand to United States and European markets.

“Investing into Zena Sport is another way that we are backing bold ideas that improve the lives of people – in this case women and girls who play contact sport – boosting our economy, while creating jobs,” Industry and Innovation Minister Ben Carroll said.