What’s Next? The Future of Helmet Design

On our last podcast, we talked to Ståle Møller, the co-founder and lead designer of Sweet Protection, about the critically important issue of head injuries, and how helmets can mitigate the risks we take outside. Today's episode can be viewed as Part II of that conversation, and we focus a bit more on The Future and What's Next? To that end, we recruited the senior director of R&D at Giro, Rob Wesson, to further flesh out some of the fundamental issues surrounding head injuries, what sorts of new safety standards we can expect to see in the near future, and how helmet designs will evolve in the coming years.

Rob and I cover a lot of important ground in this conversation, and you will find a detailed breakdown of the topics and the specific times at which we cover them in the Show Notes below.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Rob’s background & what his work at Giro’s R&D Center involves (2:40)
• What most customers regard as the #1 factor when selecting a helmet (12:18)
• Which helmet type (road bike, mtn bike, ski, etc) is the most labor-intensive and most difficult to design? (14:40)
• Where are we headed in terms of helmet design? (18:14)
• Why MIPS matters, but why Giro wasn’t an early adopter (20:15)
• What's the Difference between “MIPS” and “Rotational Energy Management Systems” (22:38)
• Helmet Standards & Certifications: Who sets them & How does it all Work? (25:10)
• Setting the record straight on the term “Multi-Impact” (30:10)
• Why Rob doesn’t think I should start skiing in a hockey helmet (43:37)
• CTE: How does our growing understanding of head injuries and CTE affect your work? (36:30)
• Why people who are against the use of helmets—and the evidence they tend to cite—are off base. (42:28)
• 4-5 years from now, what will be the biggest differences in the helmets from what is available today? (45:38)
• What is Giro doing different or better than other helmet companies out there? (50:19)
• A dirty little secret about over 80% of the companies that sell helmets (52:35)
• What’s the real difference between a $60 helmet and a $250 helmet? (59:15)
• Why Giro is coming out with a $600 ski helmet, and why it was a huge project (1:02:22)
• How does Giro determine what sort of shape and fit their helmets will have? (1:04:40)

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