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Leftover Boeing 787 parts are becoming football shoulder pads

Leftover Boeing 787 parts are becoming football shoulder pads

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Russell Athletic

Instead of throwing out the trimmings from the giant sheets of composite material used to make the 787 Dreamliner, Boeing is giving them a decidedly more terrestrial second life. Russell Athletic announced the expansion of a partnership with Boeing this week, in which Russell gets Boeing's carbon fiber seconds to make its CarbonTek football shoulder pads. The company notes that "aerospace-grade" carbon fiber is more durable and has a superior strength-to-weight ratio than the stuff you can get on the street, so everyone wins: Russell makes better pads, and Boeing doesn't let any precious carbon go to waste. Just be prepared to spend several hundred dollars for the pads — or around the same cost as a coach ticket on an actual 787.