Protect Yo Neck
When I heard about a bike helmet that won the 2016 International James Dyson Award in class yesterday I was pretty intrigued. Since then I continued to see mentions of it online and in the news. I couldn’t contain my curiosity, and decided to look further into this product. After reading a quick article in business insider, I went straight to ecohelmet’s website. I needed a better understand of the concept as a whole.
The first thought I had when I saw it was: what is it made out of? Followed immediately by: is that really going to protect your head? Luckily for me, I was able to get answers to both of these questions by watching the video on their website.
The ecohelmet is made out of coated paper, and it’s designed in a honeycomb pattern. The pattern doesn’t just help strengthen the helmet, it also allows for the helmet to be folded up into a compact shape. In the video their CEO, Isis likens it to the shape and size of a banana. They also show the material being weight tested, but at an unknown force sensitivity.
On an irrelevant aside, I want to note how sorry I am for this poor woman who was named Isis by her parents 28 years ago. They had no idea what the future had in store for the repeating “i” and “s”. But how could they have known? To make a short aside less relevant to this blog post, just name your kids, Bob. All of them, no matter what gender they choose. Until a terrorist group decided on the acronym b.o.b., in which case we are all screwed.
Anyway, back to the ecohelmet. While I thought the idea was brilliant and the execution was well done. There were a few things that threw me off.
The first being that they said it was designed for spontaneous cyclists. They mention in it big bold lettering with the hero on the top of their site. But I don’t understand why they would want to limit themselves to the presumably tiny percentage of the cycling market that consists of spontaneous cyclists.
Do they think that most cyclists like carrying their helmets around with them everywhere they go? Don’t they see the inherent value for anyone in the ability to quickly compact a helmet down in size?
If the price point is low enough people will begin to look at it as more of a utilitarian product that they purchase, use, and then repurchase. The ecohelmet could behave like a pack of band-aids in regard to their cheap disposable nature. It wouldn’t need to cost hundreds of dollars because it wouldn’t need to be guaranteed for life.
Another issue I had a problem with was the actual design of it. I think the honeycomb pattern is genius and really resourceful, but I don’t understand why it needs to be exposed. If you want to introduce people to a new product you need to blend it into their preconceived notions of how something is supposed to be.
I also think that they could have taken the opportunity to beautify the helmet as well. Most helmets are pretty hideous, and this one isn’t an exception. I don’t bike very often, but when I do, I don’t wear a helmet because I don’t like the way they look; and I don’t want to carry a helmet around with me.
Ecohelmet solved one of these problems, but I think they missed a big opportunity to beautify the helmet in general, and maybe even help us conceive a new notion of what the helmet should be. Ultimately time will tell us how this tale ends, but I wish them all the luck.
