"Along the way many re-designs were necessary to either allow the strength of the structure not to be compromised, or to get the correct visual effect we were looking for. As you can see the overall visual effect of the helmet incorporates a strong 'square-back' look, which exudes strength and speed. All the small external components - like the mouthpiece and side/top vents - went through many, many renditions to come up with a 'feel' that made you want to wear the helmet."
"The main FUNCTIONAL improvements we wanted to incorporate were: neck/collarbone protection above and beyond what's available now, airflow superior to current offerings, and weight that would be competitive with current helmets. The resulting neck and collarbone protection feature that's built in is especially unique, and functionally unparalleled in any other helmet. The airflow system, with its internal channels and elaborate group of external vents, isn't totally new, of course, but our execution is certainly innovative and very functional. Then we came up with the idea of rubber-tipping the visor, which always seems to get beaten up in gear bags and in between motos or rides. Not all of these are Einstein-level inventions, but they are a whole lot more than just a new paint job on the same boring lid."
"The main VISUAL improvements include allowing a wearer to fully INDIVIDUALIZE their helmet, not just by choosing their own size and color scheme, but by having several styles of VISORS and LINERS available to switch out and make that helmet a one-off personal statement."
"Then we got to the name game. We had quite a bit of fun coming up with a name for the new beast, and we actually had a couple of really wacky brainstorming sessions. About half of the suggestions weren't appropriate for the general public, but did keep our busy team with smiles on their faces. After we picked the name TakT, which was basically derived from the words 'tactical' and 'attack,' we wanted to identify the different paint schemes further. The resulting identifiers '981' and '985' have a very distinct meaning, which we hope to use in a promotion later in the launch. You can test your moto knowledge now and see if you can decipher what they mean."
"For testing, a lot of riders rode with the helmet, and we really worked hard on getting the inner lining to be comfortable, breathe well, and generally stay nice-looking even after several rides. Cheek pad fittings were pretty interesting too, since we discovered that making it very customizable would be a great benefit. The end result is that we've got exchangeable liners and cheek pads so that even a blockhead can ride around in comfort in an EVS TakT lid."