the construction phase. Behind the simplicity however is a lot of shrewd science that acted as an inspiration to corners of the market. From the many sports and disciplines that depend on helmets, MX and off-road was a rich field of research and experimentation, and because the rate of incident is much higher compared to a road motorcyclist. Mips sold their first helmet solution in 2007 and by 2014 Fox had decided to upgrade the spec of their V3 and V4 products. “The truth is that the Mips system
The American firm had begun a union with the HRC factory squad in 2013 with riders Max Nagl and Evgeny Bobryshev and have subsequently had athletes like Gautier Paulin, Todd Waters, Brian Bogers in the full ‘head-to-toe’ arrangement that is still in place today. Interestingly Fox elected to move from licencing Mips for the V3 to another technology called ‘Fluid Inside’ in 2018. “Mips was the logical way to go for us,” Fox Global Category Director Mark Finley explained at the beginning of 2019 “but as we moved forwards, we thought ‘what is the Holy Grail? Is there something else that might give an advantage?’ So we partnered with this laboratory up in Ottawa in Canada that has been study-
ing brain injuries in a lot of stick-and-ball sports as well as cycling. We’d seen it used in hockey helmets and thought it might be something good to bring to motocross. So we started retro-fitting V3s a few years ago. We had to re-certify the helmets so the riders could race with them. We tested them and realised we were getting some nice results for rotational and linear [acceleration].” Mips would complete the acquisition of Fluid Inside in 2019. “It was the for the patents and to expand our portfolio,” said Halldin during a visit to the impressive Mips facility near Stockholm that same year. “We have a range of eight-nine products that we can put into our clients’ helmets and if we can complement our offering by acquiring something then it is interesting.” Fox inserted Mips again for 2020. The change satisfied at least two of their users. “I switched to Fox in 2017 and when they had the V3, and the version we had in the second half of 2020 – so the 2021 model - was one of the most comfortable yet,” says Gajser. “It was much lighter and the padding was really comfortable. You almost don’t feel you have a helmet on. I’m really happy with that work by Fox and the improvement made.”
MIPS, MXGP & HRC
is very well perceived,” said Fox’s now Global Brand Director, Christophe Chavanel, to us in 2017. “At Fox we are also working a lot in mountain bike and we know Mips and the benefits well from that side. We wondered ‘why couldn’t it work also in motocross?’. The intention of protection is to reduce the effects of a crash; you will never remove them completely just as there will always be crashes! Mips made some very interesting studies with different crashes.”