Source: press release
Smith Optics, a market leader in ski goggles, helmets and a pioneer in eyewear lens interchangeability technology, today announced its entry into the bike helmet market.
The brand will unveil its complete new collection of bike helmets at the Interbike 2013 fair in Las Vegas, while a preview will be shown during the Eurobike 2013 fair in Friedrichshafen.
“For many years our customers have asked us to create a bike helmet but we have always been reluctant to the idea due to the barriers to entry in this sector. Most of the bike helmets on the market are produced by a few brands that dominate the market, all of which use a common material as the foundation of the helmet design for impact absorption: EPS (Expanded Polystyrene). Thanks to our dedication to innovation and research to be a leader in the winter helmet market, we discovered Koroyd®, a patented tubular material. Koroyd not only has a better ability to absorb impacts than EPS, but it is also a material that promotes ventilation without compromising safety and performance, ideal for the bike market. What our product development team has accomplished will disrupt the industry in the same way that EPS replaced leather in 70s bike helmets. If you think about it, there hasn't been any technological innovation on bike helmets since the first EPS helmets were created. This is all about to change with the Smith “FOREFRONT” helmet declares Blair Clark Sr. VP Sales & Marketing.
Smith Optics Launches a New Bike Helmet on the Market.
Created to provide all-mountain protection with the weight of a road helmet, the FOREFRONT helmet thanks to the Aerocore ™ tubular construction guarantees ventilation and protection never seen in a bike helmet. With up to 30% improvement in impact absorption over EPS, this patented tubular structure from Koroyd® combined with EPS creates a unique system of materials designed to surpass current safety standards at both low and high speeds. . The Aerocore construction guarantees “ventilated” protection, weight and volume reduction.
The FOREFRONT weighs 285 grams, is equipped with the new VaporFit ™ system, is provided with a threaded hole to mount the camera or the light on the upper part of the shell and finally it is also equipped with a clip to block the elastic of the mask.
Unique and perfect fit thanks to metric studies that over the years have allowed us to build our “Head form”, a helmet available in 3 different sizes and 10 color variants created to be perfectly integrated with our glasses and goggles.
“Since Smith is a product-oriented brand, our goal is to create innovations that improve the experience for our consumers. Our Aerocore structure allowed us to reduce volume, weight and at the same time allowed us to increase ventilation and impact protection.
We believe the new FOREFRONT all-mountain helmet exhibits exactly Smith Optics values: redefining what consumers should expect from their products, ”says Eric Carlson, VP of Product and Design.
“The FOREFRONT helmet is the lightest and most comfortable helmet I've ever worn, it was great to work with Smith on developing this product to make sure it meets the needs of all MTB riders,” says professional mountain biker Lars Sternberg.
