TOOLING UP: The Future of Head Protection | PIP Global Safety & MIPS Helmets

Discover how advanced head protection is reshaping workplace safety in this episode of MSC’s Tooling Up. Host Toni Neary sits down with John Britt, Product Sales Manager at PIP Global Safety, to explore the evolution of hard hats and helmets, and why more companies are moving from Type 1 helmets to Type 2 helmets for enhanced top and lateral impact protection.

Watch time: 9:22 minutes

Supplier: PIP

Posted date: Sep 11, 2025

Video series: Tooling Up , Season 5

Looking for full transcript of video? Read now

John shares his personal journey into the safety industry, from managing PPE and hazard assessments in chemical transportation to becoming part of PIP’s leadership team. Along the way, he reveals PIP’s incredible growth story — from selling cotton inspection gloves in 1984 to becoming one of the world’s largest personal protective equipment (PPE) providers through innovation, global acquisitions, and trusted brand partnerships.

The conversation dives deep into how technology is driving the next generation of construction helmets and industrial safety gear. John explains the groundbreaking role of MIPS (Multi-directional Impact Protection System), which reduces rotational forces on the brain during angled impacts — the type of accident that makes up the majority of workplace head injuries. From slips, trips, and falls to object strikes, this innovation marks a major leap forward in protecting workers across construction, manufacturing, utilities, and other high-risk industries.

But technology alone isn’t enough. John and Toni highlight why comfort, fit, and adoption are critical to effective safety. Viewers will see how features like chin straps ensure helmets stay in place, while integrated safety accessories — including eyewear, face shields, earmuffs, and sun protection — transform a hard hat into a complete safety system.

If you want to understand where workplace safety, PPE innovation, and industrial head protection are heading, you won’t want to miss this episode. Whether you’re a safety manager, construction professional, or simply passionate about worker well-being, this discussion shows how PIP is helping ensure every worker goes home safe at the end of the day.

To learn more about advanced head protection solutions from PIP, visit mscdirect.com.

For even more safety insights and expertise, check out MSC's Knowledge Center.

For more Tooling Up videos, check out our MSC Tooling Up playlist.

And subscribe to our channel.

Video Transcript

JOHN BRITT: A lot of your major GCs out there went and said, look, we're going to go from Type 1 protection to Type 2 protection because it gives us better protection out there, right? So this whole lateral impact protection thing is, we talk about lateral impact. So that's that kind of that straight on hit like this. Right? But one of the things that lateral protection may or may not help with is angle of impact.

So when you think about an impact you know, 85% of all impacts happen laterally.

Narrator: This video is brought to you by PIP, Global Safety leader in Personal Protective Equipment. If you're looking for real-world insights, tips from leading industry experts, and the latest trends in products and technology, you've come to the right place from MSC Industrial Supply, this is Tooling Up.

TONI NEARY: Hello and welcome to Tooling Up. I'm your host, Tony Neary, and I'm so glad that you've joined us today. Before we get to today's guest, let's take care of a little bit of business. Go ahead and click those like and subscribe buttons. And that way you'll never miss an amazing episode like the one you're about to see. All right, everybody subscribed?

Great. Today I'm excited to be talking about advanced head protection with John Britt. He's the product sales manager at PIP Global Safety. John, thanks so much for joining us. And welcome to Tooling Up.

JOHN BRITT: Thanks, Toni.

TONI NEARY: And John, I love to hear how our guests found their way into the industry and how they became the experts that they are. So can you tell us a little bit more about how you got into the safety business?

JOHN BRITT: Sure. Be glad to. So, originally I was in the chemical transportation business, where we cleaned tank cars and rail cars, things like that. And I was responsible for environmental health and safety, amongst a million other things. So, I used a lot of PPE, did a lot of hazard assessments and what have you. So it gave me a really good background.

That was in the Midwest, so when I decided I wanted to leave the snow and the cold and move to Florida, I said, “oh, I gotta find something to do”, right? So all that I’d learned being an industrial end user, I put to use and got into safety distribution. So I spent a number of years in safety distribution, down here in Florida.

And then, there was an opportunity for me to join at the time which was North Safety, who had just been acquired by Honeywell Safety Products, part of Honeywell. And so I joined their organization as a Territory Manager there, and was selling the full complement of products there. During that time, we acquired other companies like Sperian, which gave us UVEX, Miller, Howard Leight, Fibre Metal, brands like that came into the portfolio as well.

Spent about 10 years with Honeywell. And then, there was an opportunity for me to move over to PIP which was a competitor of Honeywell at the time. So I went over to PIP and was a regional sales manager to start with at PIP and for the last four years I've been Product Sales Manager for above-the-neck protection.

TONI NEARY: I love it, and obviously you have a lot of experience and passion about keeping people safe and as some of our viewers may already know, Honeywell's PPE business was recently acquired and is now part of the PIP family. Can you tell us a little bit about PIP and that journey to where the organization is now?

JOHN BRITT: Yeah, absolutely. It's one of those really good stories, right? So it's...PIP has been around for 40 plus years now. It was started back in 1984 by Joe Milot and Wellson Tao. They started the company on $2,000 and selling some cotton inspection gloves into the US market. Over the years, they continue to expand their business and continue to grow.

They partner with folks like Dyneema and Kevlar on some of the materials out there. Joined a partnership with ATG, one of the premium glove suppliers for the world and JSP, and really started to expand their offering from just hand protection, arm protection to, you know, head to toe. Rapid growth in the 2000s. I mean, they doubled the size of the company year over year from 2000 to 2017 and the footprint expanded not only in North America, but also Europe and Asia.

To continue that growth, in 2018, they partnered with private equity to give them the recapitalization ability to continue to grow the business. They purchased West Chester Protective Gear in 2019, which kind of gave them a new platform, if you will, and then again, through the different PE partnerships that we have now with obviously investments between the two PE companies, we've got 19 global acquisitions, which really gives us one of the largest PPE portfolios in the industry.

And to bring it back to the comments you made there about the acquisition by Honeywell, again that doubles the size of the company. Again, positioning us to be one of the largest true, pure play PPE companies in the world. And we combine many trusted brands out there to allow our expertise to better protect workers.

TONI NEARY: And I think that truly speaks to that commitment to growth and protecting workers in an ever- evolving industry. Speaking of which, it feels like there's been a major shift in head protection. What's driving some of these transitions?

JOHN BRITT: Yeah. So, I mean, housing head protection's been around since the early 1900s, and it's evolved up to a certain point. But early, you know, 1950s, it kind of got stopped, if you will, on what was, you know, thermoplastic or the plastic type head protection out there. And most of the head protection out there was two types out there. There was an ANSI Type 1 and an ANSI Type 2.

Type 1 is going to be top-impact only. So it's only rated for the top of the helmet here. There's nothing else inside besides the suspension that works in conjunction with that shell. And that's been used primarily in construction and industry and you know a lot of different sectors for a lot of years. Type 2 head protection has been around for a while.

So Type 2 head protection's also going to be that top of head, but also going to give you lateral impacts. So if you see a has got like this foam EPS liner inside there. So that gives you not only top of head protection but also front, back and side.

TONI NEARY: John, can you take a little bit of a deeper dive into just the different industries and the importance of this lateral protection, and how the evolution of technology is really following that trend?

So when you think about an impact, you know 85% of all impacts happen laterally. So now we've got technology out there like MIPS. MIPS is multi-directional impact protection system. It's a brain protection system that we incorporate into some of our helmets here. The purpose of that is this liner and slider that will move about 10 to 15mm. And the purpose of that is for an angle impact either from an object or a slip, trip, or fall, it'll allow the shell to move independent of that system. So by doing that, it allows that rotational force to be dissipated and less of its transfer to the brain.

TONI NEARY: And I have to say, I have a son who's a hockey player, and it's never the hit that you see, it's the hit that gives you the impact. So talk a little bit about the necessity for really starting to create this, creating this complete safety system, and not just the fact that you've got the technology in there, but how are you making sure people are wearing it? Because PPE is great as long as it's worn, right?

JOHN BRITT: We are seeing more adoption out there, right? Because we've got our traverse here, which we're featuring today, is our number one selling product now at PIP. So one of the things that you notice here it comes with a chinstrap, right? So I can put the best head protection on my head there, but it comes off my head it from an angled impact or a slip, trip and fall, I've got no protection whatsoever, right? So chin straps are definitely coming into play right, and also like I said with some of the technologies to adjust that rotational force reduction.

Lots of accessories for them right. So for the ones that need to have eyewear, you can add eyewear to the helmet as well. So it drops down here. We've got face shields for it, we can put earmuffs on for hearing protection. Different type of sun protection here, either from the the neck shades or things like sombreros.

TONI NEARY: Well I think your your passion, the technology, the innovation that we're looking at is just absolutely amazing. We want to keep people safe and get them going home the way that they left in the morning right?

JOHN BRITT: Absolutely.

TONI NEARY: John, thank you so much for your time today and for your passion and expertise in the industry.

JOHN BRITT: Yeah. Glad to be here. Thank you. Appreciate it.

TONI NEARY: It was so great hanging out with John, and if you enjoyed our conversation as much as I did and want to see more discussions like this, please subscribe to our channel. To learn more about advanced head protection solutions from PIP, visit www.mscdirect.com/products/pip-helmets. Thanks and we'll see you next time on Tooling Up.

Narrator: Want more insights and ideas to improve the efficiency and productivity of your operations? Check out the Tooling Up video playlist to hear tips that can take your company to the next level, and subscribe to our channel so you won't miss out.