Good Morning!
I am taking a crash course in protective sports equipment (shin
guards, knee pads, elbow pads, helmets, etc).
  
Many of these products are currently rigid: a new soft/flexible
material has been invented that is purported to have "low energy
dissipation" and offer comparable protective qualities as rigid pads,
but in soft pads.

I have been asked to speak intelligently (always a challenge) about: 
a) the state of the art today with rigid pads
b) limits/deficiencies of the existing products
c) opportunities and potential applications for this new material
WITHIN SPORTING GOODS ONLY- NOT OTHER POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS.

So, longwindedly, what I'd like help on is:
- size of market for protective equipment, and trends; ideally broken
down by product type (shin guards, knee pads, elbow pads, helmets,
etc) and/or by sport type(hockey, street hockey, soccer, football,
motocross, skateboarding, inline skating, etc).
- major manufacturers in this market (Riddell, Wilson, etc)
- ANY safety data on existing pad technology, deficiencies, areas for improvment
- any commentary on the discomfort of existing pads and how that
affects the wearing of the pads, leading to injuries.  In other words,
the comfort/protection tradeoff in existing pads.
- any data on the efficacy of existing pads

Of course, the talk is tomorrow, so I need all this information TODAY.