For years drummers have been stuffing pillows, blankets, foam and other materials to provide dampening with the objective of achieving better definition and punch. In doing so, the natural resonance of the drum is sacrificed in two ways: One, anything coming in contact with the shell chokes the tone, and two, the internal dampening materials reduce the resonant space.
The Kickport is designed to enhance the sound by porting the bass drum in the same way as a bass reflex tube on a speaker cabinet boosts the low frequencies, but it also adds damping directly to the resonant head which allows you to remove internal materials and focuses the air to exit the bass drum and this focus increases the punch.