About
Howard Head Sports Medicine is a service of Vail Health. Howard Head Sports Medicine helps people of all abilities rebuild their body and spirit. Working with the world’s top orthopaedic doctors and researchers, our progressive sports medicine treatments help people get back to the activities they love.
History
After a (not so successful) ski trip to Stowe, Vermont in 1946, Howard Head had an idea that would revolutionize the sport of skiing for years to come- metal skis that could be used by everyone, instead of the heavy, ‘clumsy’ hickory skis that existed at the time.
While he wasn’t the best skier or athlete, Head was an engineer for Glenn L. Martin Company, (now Lockheed Martin) and was determined to make a lighter, more efficient ski using metal and aircraft engineering techniques.
Unlike many who tried and failed to make a “metal ski,” Head looked to the metal-sandwich construction method of the aircraft industry, popular during WWII, when chemists created flexible and waterproof glues to hold aluminum and plywood.
In 1947, Howard Head launched his “honeycomb” ski project- two layers of aluminum bonded to plywood sidewalls that encased a core of honeycomb plastic- and by 1950, after producing 40 unsuccessful versions, the HEAD ski was introduced commercially.
In 1964, a pair of HEAD skis were worn by United States Skier & Olympian, Jean Saubert, as she went on to win three Olympic Medals. Howard Head Sports Medicine was founded in conjunction with the late Dr. Richard Steadman in 1990, introducing Steadman’s pioneering idea of moving an injured joint post-surgery, rather than stabilizing it. With a generous grant from Howard Head himself, Howard Head Sports Medicine, now with 10 locations and over 150 incredible staff members, came to be the world-renowned clinic known today.