With two recent announcements, Wilmington-based SportGait aims to expand its product to a larger consumer base through a partnership and an app launch.

This week, the company announced it had formed a partnership with N.C. Youth Soccer Association, bringing its concussion-decision support technology to the state-wide organization.

SportGait is a startup that has developed a platform for managing concussion symptoms and recovery that can be used by medical providers, coaches and parents.

"SportGait is a way for us to keep our children safe and healthy and keep our parents and coaches educated,” NCYSA executive director Kathy Robinson said in the release.

This new partnership will provide free baseline testing for all NCYSA athletes through the end of 2021, a press release stated. NCYSA currently has about 44,000 youth athletes, a number lower than its usual 62,000 thousand members per season due to the pandemic, SportGait public relations representative Bethany Vietmeier said in an email.

According to the press release, baseline testing is a tool for measuring athletes' physical and mental skills at the beginning of the sports season and aid in diagnosing concussions later on. It measures gait, memory, concentration, problem-solving ability and attention.

"I look back at my sons playing soccer and the head injuries that occurred, and I think with SportGait we are giving parents and coaches a safety net for their children, but also we are giving them confidence that they know what is going on with their child's brain," Robinson said.

In addition to this partnership, SportGait also announced it had launched its mobile app on the App Store and Google Play. The app allows users including athletes, parents, coaches, athletic trainers and medical providers to share care information in real-time.

“Clear visuals and sophisticated algorithms give users a clear, comprehensive visual of their condition, and high precision means that even acute incidents are recorded,” a release for the app launch stated.

The app also has a parent/athlete dashboard with a concussion education section that must be read and signed, baseline testing and it assists in measuring behaviors, monitoring progress and treating concussion impact.

SportGait is under the parent company LifeGait, which develops health and safety-related products. The company is housed at the University of North Carolina Wilmington Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

SportGait has received investment from Seawhawk Innovation, a funding organization that has a public-private partnership with UNCW, making the university a part-owner of the startup.

"Every seven seconds there is a sports-related concussion. At SportGait, we wanted to tackle the epidemic of concussion and provide a best-in-class and researched-back app to help assist athletes, parents, caretakers, coaches, athletic trainers and medical providers with concussion support and recovery tools," SportGait president and CEO Chris Newton said in the release.