“I always hated ankle braces, because a lot of the braces I tried before were really stiff and bulky,” Buzelis says. “BetterGuards are totally different. They really feel more like a sock when you’re wearing them … I can cut, jump, move side to side, and do everything I need to do out there without feeling restricted.”
Buzelis says he’s worn the brace for every practice and game since even before entering the NBA. He recommended them to multiple teammates, including Bulls point guard Josh Giddey, who also became a user. The list of notable NBA players using them also includes brothers Franz and Mo Wagner, Austin Reaves, Aaron Nesmith, Jalen Johnson, and TJ McConnell.
The brace is often worn by players recovering from an ankle injury. Again, it replaces the rigidity of previous braces, which Verutti says hurt the recovery process.
“It actually makes the ankle weaker,” he says, claiming that well over half of all people with ankle injuries suffer residual problems within 18 months as a result. “What you need is movement. That’s what’s strengthening all of your ancillary ligaments and tendons.”
Recent research seems to support Verutti’s claim, showing a faster return-to-play timeline for athletes using BetterGuards compared with a control group. In a league like the NBA, results like that have a tangible financial value.
“Ankle sprains are the number one time-loss injury in the NBA every year,” says Eric Waters, director of player health and performance for the Chicago Bulls. Waters says several Bulls players, including Buzelis, are big fans of BetterGuards. “You’re saving, for us, millions and millions of dollars of games lost to injuries.”
Frank and Waters are among several team trainers with multiple players who use the products regularly. Through the incubator program, they’ve entered into a sort of feedback loop with the company, which offers rapid prototyping from a new manufacturing facility in Croatia. When a player requests a tweak, they can test out a revised product within a week or two. Players and trainers get all the benefits of this new approach to ankle protection; BetterGuards gets a population of elite athletes to offer feedback on its products.
