By Lars Hundley
Cycling helmets featuring the Mips safety system are becoming increasingly popular among World Tour cycling teams, according to Mips, a Sweden-based company. This season, 71% of men’s teams and an impressive 87% of women’s teams are reported to be using helmets equipped with Mips technology.
Mips CEO Max Strandwitz highlighted this trend, stating, “Over the past few years, we’ve seen more and more cyclists make the shift from conventional helmets to models equipped with the Mips safety system. It’s great to see so many teams at the elite level making the switch and taking the dangers of rotational impact seriously.”
The company reveals that Mips technology is incorporated in over 1,000 helmet models worldwide, produced by over 150 different brands. These span a variety of categories besides just cycling, including snowsports, motorsports, equestrian, and industrial safety.
The Mips safety system is designed to reduce the rotational motion transferred to a cyclist’s head during certain impacts. The system features a low friction layer inside the helmet, which is designed to move slightly during a crash, helping to redirect forces away from the head and potentially reducing the risk of brain injury.
Mips, a company specializing in helmet-based safety and considered a market leader in this field, offers its patented Mips safety system to the global helmet industry. The system is the culmination of 25 years of research, testing, and development in partnership with KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the Karolinska Institute, both based in Stockholm, Sweden.
It is worth noting that of the road helmets chosen as safest by the independent Virginia Tech Bicycle Helmet Ratings, almost all of the top picks were also using Mips technology.
Hi it’s important to note that this article links to old Virginia Tech ratings, not the 2023 one. I just bought a new helmet based on the 2023 Virginia Tech ratings, where wavecell is not in the top 10. https://www.helmet.beam.vt.edu/bicycle-helmet-ratings.html
“Cycling helmets featuring the Mips safety system are becoming increasingly popular among World Tour cycling teams, according to Mips” . . . Is this article a paid sponsor advertisement? World cycling teams don’t pay for their helmets, In return, the pro riders are moving billboards for a plethora of (usually) cycling related products. MIPS is the latest example of the industry doing what industries do: invent demand in order to survive. I use KASK helmets primarily BECAUSE they buck the MIPS trend (scam)…read on:
https://helmets.org/mips.htm