Giro has released a soft "helmet".
Helmets are uncool, even more uncool are helmets that are big and bulky, I get that. It seems people (read: Hipsters) are forever on a crusade to make helmets smaller and "stylish", often sacrificing function for form. In most instances I would say this is fairly harmless and often happens with design, but the bulky nature and inflexibility of the helmet is essential to it's function, which is to absorb the force rather than it being transferred to your noggin.
I find it hilarious that the flexibility of this helmet is touted as a selling point, because you really want a helmet that deforms and transfers the force to your skull rather than the helmet when your head smacks a tree at 50 kph. The liner would have to absorb a lot of force, to perform it's function.
Ok so I'm not a snowboarder, and maybe in this environment in most instances it could work as snow is softer than concrete. The problem is though that a lot of people will buy this and want to use it on the road with their longboard or bike. It's probably ok for light skating, but you wouldn't want to do any downhill or go much faster than 25 kph.
I'm skeptical, I'd really want to see this tested against an EPS foam hard shell helmet and see how much force is transferred to the skull, and more specifically the concentration of force in specific areas. I don't think it would pass most helmet certifications.
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