Victor Wiacek grips a sharpened machete, its blade glinting under the lights, and drags it repeatedly across a thin layer of stretchy fabric stretched taut over his forearm. No mark appears. He switches to a kitchen knife, then a filleting blade, sawing with force. Still nothing. This dramatic demonstration, captured in a Reuters report published January 22, 2026, underscores the mission of the 27-year-old entrepreneur’s company, VIX Protection: to eradicate lacerations from skiing, the sport’s fourth most common injury after broken bones, head trauma, and torn ligaments.
Wiacek’s creation—cut-resistant undergarments worn from the waist down—has become essential gear as the International Ski Federation (FIS) mandates such protection for World Cup and Olympic events this season. ‘This is the only injury we can virtually eliminate from the sport,’ Wiacek told Reuters. His thin, stretchy leggings, made from advanced materials like ultra high molecular weight polyethylene, provide a barrier against razor-sharp ski edges that can sever arteries in crashes, even at low speeds.
Trusted by 72% of World Cup racers and serving as official cut protection for the U.S. Ski Team and Ski Austria, VIX holds the distinction of the world’s first FIS 5-star certified base layer, as detailed on the company’s site at vixprotection.com. The FIS rating system, which Wiacek helped shape through shared testing data, measures force resistance in Newtons across three angles: 5 stars requires withstanding 500N before cut-through.
From College Slope to Near-Death Ordeal
The spark ignited in 2019 during a routine college race for Babson College in upstate New York. Wiacek, a skier since age two, lost control on a flat slope at low speed. His binding released, and he fell onto the loose ski’s edge. The blade sliced deep into his thigh, severing muscle, nerves, the IT band, and nicking the femoral artery. He lost half his blood volume, his vision blurred by blood on his goggles. ‘The only reason I survived, frankly, was because there was someone on the side of the hill within 30 feet of me who had medical training as well as a tourniquet on them,’ Wiacek recounted in a Ski Racing profile from October 2025. Rescuers applied a military-grade tourniquet; he received an initial transfusion before a helicopter airlift to a hospital.
Wheelchair-bound for two months, Wiacek recovered fully but fixated on prevention. From his hospital bed, he researched materials on his laptop. Back home in Brooklyn, he worked in his father’s roofing shop, teaching himself to weld and building test rigs to simulate ski-edge cuts—varying speed, angle, force, friction, and temperature. He tested over 300 fabrics, acquiring 200 samples worldwide, seeking comfort, warmth, and cut resistance, as noted in a 2022 Babson Thought & Action article.
‘I genuinely think the only reason I survived that day was because I had a purpose to fulfil,’ Wiacek said in the Reuters piece. That purpose birthed VIX Protection in his garage, starting with small batches for family and friends.
Forging Standards in Fire and Steel
Wiacek’s rigs influenced FIS protocols. He shared designs early in discussions, leading to a ‘more polished, more German version,’ he joked in the Ski Racing article. The FIS-DITF 2021 test stretches fabric over a silicone-covered steel cylinder with foil and tape, applying force across 0°, 45°, and 90° angles. Four of five samples must pass the threshold: 100N for 1 star, scaling to 500N for 5 stars. VIX exceeds this, testing to 700N internally.
For the 2025-26 season, FIS mandates 3-star minimum full-length pants (iliac crest to boot top) with a visible conformity label for Level 0 (World Cup, Olympics) and Level 1 (Continental Cups) events, per VIX’s blog at vixprotection.com/blogs/articles/fis-cut-resistant-mandate-2025-26. Non-compliance bars racers. FIS strongly recommends it for all levels, citing 1-in-7 career laceration risk.
FIS director Mike Kertesz likened unprotected skiing to skipping helmets: ‘When a superstar injures themselves like Kilde did, it’s another kind of eye-opener.’ He referenced Aleksander Aamodt Kilde’s 2024 Wengen crash and Aksel Lund Svindal’s 2007 groin laceration.
Elite Adoption and Real-World Saves
U.S. skier Breezy Johnson credits VIX after a 2025 incident: a ski sliced her race suit but stopped at the undergarment, leaving bruises. Atle Lie McGrath of Norway said, ‘My ski cut through everything, except for my VIX leggings. If I hadn’t worn VIX I would’ve had a deep cut in my thigh and probably missed several races,’ per vixprotection.com testimonials. Kyleena Latham, a cut survivor, recalled fingering her thigh wound to stem bleeding.
Wiacek consulted Bode Miller, who suffered a 2015 leg cut, and collaborates with FIS and teams. VIX partners with X-Bionic for Swiss Ski Team base layers. AJ Ginnis of Greece noted, ‘VIX gives me peace of mind—I’m protected without feeling weighed down.’
Sasha Rearick, head coach at Apex2100, praised: ‘VIX leggings are by far the most cut-resistant and comfortable product out there.’ Wiacek markets with his leg scar photo: ‘Frankly, just a photo of my gruesome leg gash was all the marketing that I needed.’
Expansion Beyond Legs
VIX eyes full-body coverage: neck guards and long-sleeve shirts for helmet-to-boot protection. Kertesz advocates total coverage: ‘In my opinion, we need to cover all parts of the body… It can cut you in the upper body or lower body.’
Unlike helmets that mitigate but don’t eliminate head trauma, or stretches for ACL tears, VIX targets preventable slices. ‘We can’t do a whole lot about head trauma… but by wearing this garment, we can essentially eliminate an entire category of injury,’ Wiacek said. With FIS rules expanding potentially, VIX positions as leader among handful of compliant makers.
Recent X posts from Reuters amplified the story, with videos of Wiacek’s demo garnering views amid the mandate’s rollout. As racers don the gear worldwide, Wiacek’s blade-proof fabric turns tragedy into a shield, ensuring slopes stay for skiing, not survival.
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