D3O is my go-to armor, whether it's a back protector, elbow or knee armor, or basically any other piece of protective riding gear you can imagine. Whether it's the brand's CE Level 2 armor or CE Level 1 Ghost armor featured in my Aether jackets, it's industry-leading. The only place I've never associated riding gear and D3O armor is motorcycle helmets.
But that looks set to change.
The London-based company is hoping to start producing motorcycle-specific helmet systems, although this won't be D3O's first foray into head protection. It'll be building upon a concept design known as Amp that was first shown in 2022. This project added a thin layer of soft, flexible protection to a helmet's comfort liner to help absorb minimal impacts, like a branch striking your helmet while riding off-road.
D30 armor is also found in US military helmets and American football headgear. But, of course, you can't take a design made for frontline soldiers or athletes and shoehorn it into a motorcycle helmet. Fortunately, designing the armor for these helmets has given D3O plenty of data to work from.
“It’s the missing part in our impact protection story within motorcycle equipment,” said Mostyn Thomas, Chief Marketing Officer, who continued, “Whenever we approach a new development, we develop for that specific market and with that end use in mind,” Thomas continued. “A helmet liner system is the missing piece, and it’s in R&D as we speak. But it’s important that we don’t just take what we have from another sector and apply it, although we will take learnings from those areas."
But the company doesn't just want to add motorcycle helmet protection for the sake of having it in its product lineup, it wants to disrupt the market in at least one area.
“We want to disrupt the market standard – whether that’s weight, comfort, or performance – but we also need to consider how the product integrates with the main shell of the helmet – it’s very difficult to ask a brand to throw away 40 years of supply chain and operation.”
Considering the R&D involved in creating a material that'll make a significant impact in helmet weight, comfort, or performance, and getting a helmet brand to implement the product in its manufacturing process, the earliest we can hope to see D3O in a helmet will probably be 2027.
Based on all the other D3O products I've used, I'll be waiting with baited breath for the next two years to see how D3O can improve motorcycle helmets, and what manufacturer will be the first to adopt the liner.
