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In the News: Sizing up the sports helmet market
From the article:
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Toronto designer's team creates series of moulds to, at last, fit the heads of Asian sports buffs Jul 26, 2008 04:30 AM Kenneth Kidd Feature Writer Ten years ago, Roger Ball was called to a pivotal meeting in Vermont, or what has since turned out to be one. The Toronto designer had created one of the first helmets made specifically for snowboarders. It sold amazingly well in North America and Europe, but in Japan, the world's third-largest snowboarding market, it was a dud. Burton Snowboards, the Vermont-based manufacturer of the helmet, wanted to know why, so they contacted a handful of Japanese snowboarders and flew them to New England. Was it the helmet's style, the colours? "They said, 'No, no, we love all that stuff,' " recalls Ball. " 'We just can't wear it because it's so tight on the sides of our heads. Even if we squeeze it on there, we get a splitting headache.' " Then came the party trick. One of the Japanese leaned forward in his chair and rested a coffee cup on the relatively flat surface at the back of his head. "We have," he summed up, "a different shaped head than you." Ball, who now teaches at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, admits that what might seem obvious in hindsight came as a revelation. "It's just the sort of chauvinism in the West. It had never occurred to me that (other) people were a different shape." He wasn't alone. For decades, manufacturers in the West have been producing headgear based on the slightly oval heads of Caucasians, mostly using an industry-standard set of size and shape templates originally taken from U.S. air force pilots. That was fine for European customers, but it blithely ignored four-fifths of the world's population, not least Asians, whose heads are generally rounder in shape. The discrepancy is especially problematic with protective headgear such as bicycle helmets, where a proper fit is crucial. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Read it at http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/467818 J. Spaceman |
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In the News: Sizing up the sports helmet market
I'm at the other end of the graph with a size 7 3/4, airship shaped
melon. It makes the selection of bicycle helmets rather limited. I can just manage to squeeze into a Giro Atlas II, with no front pad, not the nicest helmet, but with the visor pulled off it is tolerable for road use. Marcus |
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In the News: Sizing up the sports helmet market
how many asian cars dont fit Americans? Who needs a helmet
snowbaording or skiing? On Jul 26, 12:53*pm, Jason Spaceman wrote: From the article: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Toronto designer's team creates series of moulds to, at last, fit the heads of Asian sports buffs Jul 26, 2008 04:30 AM Kenneth Kidd Feature Writer Ten years ago, Roger Ball was called to a pivotal meeting in Vermont, or what has since turned out to be one. The Toronto designer had created one of the first helmets made specifically for snowboarders. It sold amazingly well in North America and Europe, but in Japan, the world's third-largest snowboarding market, it was a dud. Burton Snowboards, the Vermont-based manufacturer of the helmet, wanted to know why, so they contacted a handful of Japanese snowboarders and flew them to New England. Was it the helmet's style, the colours? "They said, 'No, no, we love all that stuff,' " recalls Ball. " 'We just can't wear it because it's so tight on the sides of our heads. Even if we squeeze it on there, we get a splitting headache.' " Then came the party trick. One of the Japanese leaned forward in his chair and rested a coffee cup on the relatively flat surface at the back of his head. "We have," he summed up, "a different shaped head than you." Ball, who now teaches at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, admits that what might seem obvious in hindsight came as a revelation. "It's just the sort of chauvinism in the West. It had never occurred to me that (other) people were a different shape." He wasn't alone. For decades, manufacturers in the West have been producing headgear based on the slightly oval heads of Caucasians, mostly using an industry-standard set of size and shape templates originally taken from U.S. air force pilots. That was fine for European customers, but it blithely ignored four-fifths of the world's population, not least Asians, whose heads are generally rounder in shape. The discrepancy is especially problematic with protective headgear such as bicycle helmets, where a proper fit is crucial. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------*--- Read it athttp://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/467818 J. Spaceman |
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In the News: Sizing up the sports helmet market
Jason Spaceman wrote:
From the article: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Toronto designer's team creates series of moulds to, at last, fit the heads of Asian sports buffs Jul 26, 2008 04:30 AM Kenneth Kidd, Feature Writer Ten years ago, Roger Ball was called to a pivotal meeting in Vermont, or what has since turned out to be one. The Toronto designer had created one of the first helmets made specifically for snowboarders. It sold amazingly well in North America and Europe, but in Japan, the world's third-largest snowboarding market, it was a dud. Burton Snowboards, the Vermont-based manufacturer of the helmet, wanted to know why, so they contacted a handful of Japanese snowboarders and flew them to New England. Was it the helmet's style, the colours? "They said, 'No, no, we love all that stuff,' " recalls Ball. " 'We just can't wear it because it's so tight on the sides of our heads. Even if we squeeze it on there, we get a splitting headache.' " Then came the party trick. One of the Japanese leaned forward in his chair and rested a coffee cup on the relatively flat surface at the back of his head. "We have," he summed up, "a different shaped head than you." Ball, who now teaches at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, admits that what might seem obvious in hindsight came as a revelation. "It's just the sort of chauvinism in the West. It had never occurred to me that (other) people were a different shape." He wasn't alone. For decades, manufacturers in the West have been producing headgear based on the slightly oval heads of Caucasians, mostly using an industry-standard set of size and shape templates originally taken from U.S. air force pilots. That was fine for European customers, but it blithely ignored four-fifths of the world's population, not least Asians, whose heads are generally rounder in shape. The discrepancy is especially problematic with protective headgear such as bicycle helmets, where a proper fit is crucial wrote: how many asian cars dont fit Americans? Who needs a helmet snowbaording or skiing? Sonny Bono? -- Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org/ Open every day since 1 April, 1971 ** Posted from http://www.teranews.com ** |
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