Smith Optics, known for its goggles, ski and snowboard helmets and sunglass lens technology (Gear Institute gave the brand’s new Chroma Pop lens a Best In Show Award at Outdoor Retailer Summer Market two weeks ago), announced it plans to expand into the bicycle helmet market, with consumer models available next spring.
The brand will unveil its debut collection of bicycle helmets at the upcoming Interbike 2013 tradeshow, September 18-20th in Las Vegas. The marquee helmet in the collection will be the new FOREFRONT (MSRP $220), which Smith is touting as the ‘go to’ helmet for all-mountain riders. The “Aerocore” construction of the helmet aims to provide all-mountain protection at a road-race weight.
The helmet weighs in at 285g, and features what Smith says is up to a 30 percent improvement over standard EPS impact properties. That’s all thanks to the patented tubular core structure of the Koroyd material used in the helmet construction, and which Smith first started using in its snowsports helmet line.
“In our effort to reduce volume and weight while increasing ventilation and impact protection for ski and snowboard helmets, we came across Koroyd. Through a little bit of luck and good fortune, we found the Koroyd material met all of our goals,” said Eric Carlson, vice president of Product and Design. “After a full year of testing we were able to gather massive amounts of impact data and design flexibility that made an innovative Smith bike helmet project possible.”
Here at GI, we certainly can’t wait to test the product ourselves.
