Bike helmet technology has remained almost the same since the 1970s. Kids today still wear the similarly designed, bulky, plastic bicycle helmets worn by their parents. But, after a family incident in 2016, engineering students David Hall and Jordan Klein were driven to innovate.
Earlier that year, Hall’s sister was involved in a hit and run bicycle accident while riding through the intersection of Park and Diamond streets in Blacksburg, Virginia. Unfortunately, she wasn’t wearing a helmet and as a result spent four months in a coma (she’s since made a full recovery).
Hall attributes his sister’s reluctance to wear a helmet to the inconvenience of carrying around the bulky piece of safety equipment before and after rides.
Determined there was a better option, Hall and Klein set out to create a bicycle helmet that was compact and stylish, yet provided the protection expected from a helmet. The two Virginia Tech students started their company, Park & Diamond, and subsequently created the world’s first bike helmet made of composite material.
The beauty of Hall and Klein’s helmet is that it can be collapsed, folded, stuffed, and even rolled into any water bottle holder or pocket, thus making it the most accessible bike helmet ever created. Their new bike helmet is as thin as a baseball cap, yet actually exceeds current safety standards.
“We thought, ‘What does every bike and bag have?’” Klein said. “There’s always a place to store a water bottle. So, if the helmet fits in that space, the rider can always be covered.”
But how many people would really be interested in an untested, composite helmet prototype? One company actually was: Red Bull.
Hall and Klein entered their helmet prototype into Red Bull’s Launchpad program, a college startup competition designed to “give wings to college entrepreneurs,” and eventually won the grand prize. As a result, Red Bull helped Park & Diamond showcase their collapsible helmet at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York City. The conference, designed to debut revolutionary startups, further propelled the duo to success. (The Red Bull Launchpad competition returns later this year, and the winner will earn the opportunity to participate in TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco.)
As extreme athletes continuously push the envelope, the need for safety is paramount. Red Bull athlete Austin Horse, one of the fastest street bike racers in the world, believes the Park & Diamond helmet has the chance to be the next big innovation in bike safety, specifically among the new bike-sharing programs seen in cities such as New York, Paris, and Beijing. He says people are more likely to grab a bike if it’s easier to bring a helmet along with them.
Park & Diamond has been able to raise about $175,000 to test their technology and build more prototypes. They hope to raise $1 million in the near future to fund further testing and production costs to help bring their helmet to market in early 2018.
