Mips - Enhanced Motorcycle Helmet Safety through Innovation

Mips aims to reduce head injuries and save more lives through its patented safety systems, driven by research, testing, and innovation. The Mips® safety system is meticulously designed to provide extra protection in many common motorcycle accidents by mitigating the dangers of rotational forces. It features a low-friction layer engineered to redirect rotational movements away from the head during certain angled impacts.

The employee turnover rate at Mips is very low, which speaks volumes about the company and is largely attributed to the safety systems developed by Mips. For Mips employees, it's all about the vision of saving lives. This noble idea alone ensures that everyone I met and spoke with at Mips in Sweden is engaged and enthusiastic about their work. It's no surprise that after nearly 30 years of persistent research and development in helmet safety, Mips now offers an extensive portfolio of safety systems for helmets across all applications. Although motorcycle helmets currently represent only a small portion compared to the main players, bicycle and ski helmets, Mips CEO Max Strandwitz explains in the following interview that this is expected to change in the near future.

Max Strandwitz: Mips is the name of the company, and we are the inventors of the original system designed to account for rotational movements in helmets, the Mips® safety system. This system comes into play at angled impact points of the helmet. The primary goal is to compensate for the rotational motion that occurs in almost all impacts, so the initial impact movement is "absorbed." This happens within 5 to 10 milliseconds—consider that a blink takes about 100 milliseconds. The Mips® system is designed to allow for a movement of 10 to 15 millimeters. Through this movement, the rotational force is redirected away from the head during those few milliseconds of impact. Not all helmet manufacturers take this rotational movement into account, and the current ECE 22.06 standard doesn't consider it to the extent we desire, at least not yet.

Mips was founded by neurosurgeon Hans von Holst along with researchers Peter Halldin and Svein Kleiven after von Holst repeatedly observed brain injuries in accidents despite helmet use. The lengthy process began in 1995, culminating in the establishment of Mips AB in 2001. In 2015, Mips turned a profit for the first time and has fortunately been on a steep upward trend ever since, which I believe is well-deserved. The work on computer models, simulating brain functionality, is becoming increasingly important, and by using the finite element method, we can derive plausible insights from computer simulations even before physical crash tests. This saves a tremendous amount of time and effort. Mips currently employs around 110 people, including 60 engineers. We have 24 employees permanently stationed in China, collaborating with helmet manufacturers there.

The share of motorcycle helmets equipped with the Mips® system in the overall market is rapidly increasing, and we are already collaborating with more than 20 helmet manufacturers. This indicates that customers are increasingly recognizing the importance of our system. However, within the Mips® range, it currently accounts for only about 5 percent, primarily consisting of motocross and adventure/enduro helmets. This initially makes sense, as the likelihood of crashes is higher when riding off-road—anyone who has ridden off-road has likely experienced at least one, if not several, falls. Therefore, off-road riders typically wear extensive protective gear and pay attention to potential safety features. In contrast, road motorcyclists are, to a large extent, a completely different breed—here, it's all about freedom and speed. The only common points are, to exaggerate, the two wheels and the engine.

Mips is suitable for every rider! Any impact with even a hint of rotation can have serious consequences. It’s illogical to think you need less protection on the road. On the street, you can just as easily crash or be involved in an accident—you need to be prepared for that. The likelihood of colliding with other road users is much higher on the road than in open terrain. The highest chance of colliding with other objects is in urban areas—I don't accept the argument that speeds aren't that high there. We conduct impact tests mostly at speeds below 30 km/h and can observe significant effects that could lead to brain injuries despite wearing a helmet.

Yes, absolutely. Developing a helmet takes an average of three years, and we are already collaborating with other racers. In the future, there will be an even wider selection of motorcycle helmets with integrated Mips® systems for every helmet buyer. By the way, Aleix rides with the Kabuto F17 Racing featuring the Mips Integra TX System, which is a highly integrated system built into the actual padding. The helmet meets the particularly strict requirements of the FIM. Moreover, Mips technology is available not only for expensive helmets but also for models in the lower price range.

That varies depending on the helmet. Currently, you can expect an additional cost of about 20 to 60 euros.

In bicycle helmets, we install systems that weigh just 7 grams, so they hardly affect the weight. Even the heaviest version for ski and equestrian helmets weighs barely more than 50 grams. The systems for motorcycle helmets fall somewhere in between.

Well, I can't go into too much detail, but we are currently building another test lab at our headquarters in Sweden. In this lab, we will conduct further tests and continue to develop our Mips® safety system. We have also developed some of our own helmets, which we are currently using for research and development purposes. So far, we've found that it's better to collaborate with renowned helmet brands, where we integrate our product into other products to make them even better. More than 12 new motorcycle helmet models will be launched this year.

Many thanks to Max Strandwitz for this insightful interview!

Due to the varying requirements of motorcycle helmets (for example, full-face helmets differ significantly from motocross helmets), Mips aims to offer solutions that are so integrated they do not impact the overall experience and feel of the helmet. Therefore, Mips has developed three highly integrated systems for motorcycle helmets: Mips Integra Fuse, Mips Integra Split, and Mips Integra TX.

Through integration into the helmet's manufacturing process, the specific Mips technology system is not always visible to the naked eye. To ensure a helmet is equipped with the Mips® safety system, look for the yellow Mips logo on the back of the helmet.