Spy Guy here, and I just interrogated Guido Rietdijk, one of the owners of EVS Sports, and he sang like a canary. Actually, he has a very unpleasant speaking voice when he's in pain. But I got the scoop on what it takes to design, test and manufacture an all new, well, I don't want to say "ground-breaking," so I'll just say an all new, innovative helmet. Here's what he had to say abut the EVS TakT helmet. If you read closely you can tell when I hit him with the electrical charge to get him to reveal all...
"Our decision to include a helmet in the EVS product line was a long overdue decision, really, since it's the number one piece of protective gear bought by each and every rider. This was an especially interesting project because helmet protection and technology have not really moved forward much, and most brands basically limit their 'INNOVATION' to a different color scheme each year, with no regard or apparent interest in raising the level of protection for the wearer. With the interest EVS has always had in raising the bar on protective features, we set out to increase protection without changing the wearing experience, and still make the helmet look like the hippest lid on the globe."
"We set out to find a quality partner and reviewed several potential factories with proven track records. Only one potential manufacturing partner actually seemed to understand our desire to improve the quality and features on a new helmet. They were truly excited to push the limit with us. We used a premium complex composite material using Aramid-Kevlar-Carbon-Fiber, giving us the opportunity to attain the absolute best level of protection."
"There are many crutial steps to the development process, including sketch-to-handmade-prototyping, 3D rendering, first shell development, testing, final shell development, fit testing, liner development, graphics development, DOT/SNELL testing, packing development, international testing requirements, and the many rounds of sampling the details, of which there were many."
"We went through all those steps with our in-house team of designers, supported by the development team of the factory, which had a wealth of knowledge in terms of technology. Kevin Hinyub (A co-owner of EVS Sports) and I were involved in every step and every decision."
"We visited the factory and inspected the production and R&D facilities, and came away positively impressed and confident we could pull this off with good results."