Dainese Sample Work - Finally It's Done..

[Shez.sheridan]

Design, as always, comes down to personal preference - so I'm not going to pretend that everyone will like what I produced, but constructive criticism is welcomed. The designs are meant to be conceptual & innovative, with a 75% take on feasibility/production..this was afterall sample work to try & show them I have ideas..so I don't expect them to work perfectly without further development (i.e. from a developer)

Basically, the way I see it..

BRIEF INTRODUCTION:

Skateboarding to rollerblading, bmx to biketrials; protective products have not followed the same evolutionary paths as the sports themselves, a major factor why products like protection are not universally adopted within the 'street' based derivatitves - as a result many riders take risks without the use of protection, riding only in casual gear such as hoodies/oversized clothing/t-shirts & baseball caps - otherwise synonymous with street/fashion culture. There is a definite need for the development of protective products that are relevant within the context of ‘street culture’.

In my opinion there are several reasons why protection is not adopted by the majority -

Freedom - Protection usually restrictive/high volume/oversized/weight/borrowed from another discipline

‘Cool’ factor - Protection just doesn’t look ‘cool’

Laziness - Laziness

Application - Equipment/clothing is not useable outside the sport.

High cost - Individual pieces of protection are expensive. - full kit overpriced for non professionals.

- Riders would prefer to invest in their equipment (bike/skates/skateboard etc)

- Especially for children as parents are hesitant to commit to such an investment when the childs commitment is not guaranteed.

OBJECTIVE/BRIEF:

Although instances are virtually unheard of, many riders will account for head protection to prevent serious injury - yet they

disregard spinal/organ protection as a necessity, as they find elbow/knee protection of greater importance.

My collection aims to challenge popular protection misconceptions, to educate riders with each design being priority driven.

PRIMARY PROTECTION:

"As riders, we commonly think head protection is a good idea, as we all smack our head from time to time whilst bailing - I know it happens, but I have never personally seen anyone seriously injured from a head impact (i.e. dead, or seriously disabled); but we still take head protection seriously. Why do we not bother to protect our back/spine in a similar way - we all bang that from time to time, and the risks of serious damage are nearly as great..I know people will disagree, on the surface, knee/elbow protection is more useful in an everyday ride, but if I break my arm, I'll probably live to tell the tale..in terms of real priorities, spinal protection is more important."

SECONDARY PROTECTION:

As the speeds involved in ‘dynamic’ sports are comparatively low, when falling forwards people instinctively use their hands to break the fall - however the back is more vulnerable. Secondary stage protection would be applied to protect internal organs.

THIRD STAGE:

Although they are frequent targets, damage to the areas within the third group is not considered to be life threatening; generally these areas will heal over time.

Each product should aim to:

- offer casual clothing with integrated protection - there's no excuse not to protect yourself/can offer protection when used in other environments i.e. wear it to work etc..

- Offer low volume/flexible/breathable designs with high levels of performance.

- Low comparative cost (i.e. higher cost than standard clothing, but significantly less than clothing + each individual piece of protection)

MATERIALS:

D3O

(dee-three-oh) Made with intelligent molecules - D3O is a specially engineered material where the molecules

flow with you as you move but lock together on shock to absorb the impact energy; immediately after impact, the molecules/material returns to it’s original soft, flexible state; all this happening within less than 100th of a second.

Providing a flexible, breathable, washable, lightweight alternative to the conventional rigid hard shell system; current componentshave been designed/engineered to be directly integrated into products ranging from snowsports trousers, jackets and mountain biking garments, to football gloves/shin-pads & protective snowsport hats.

Considered as ‘head protection’, the current headwear application is not certified, or classified as a ‘helmet’. Taking this into account, individual designs should propose the direct integration/combination with other protective materials/elements, which should enable this - in the search for a casual/flexible form of head protection.

PEBAX

“Pebax bridges the gap between thermo-plastics and rubbers.”

..offering the ability to create components that offer both exceptional strength, whilstretaining high levels of flexibility. This variable strength/density controlled by the ratio of polyamide:polyurethane.

Pebax (standard):

- light weight

- extensive range of flexibilities

- high resiliency/strength/impact

resistance (even at low temps)

- high energy return

- exceptional shape recovery

- ease of processing/bonding

- injections under 1mm (0.8mm)

- good UV resistance

Process-

- (co/over/normally) injected

Pebax Foam:

- available in three thicknesses

(0.8mm, 2.5mm, 4.5mm)

- softness, low hardness, low

compressive modulus

- high energy return

- good flexural/dynamic response

- high abrasion resistance

- water vapour transmission

- good wash resistance (at least

to 60°C, incl. tumbler)

Process -

- excellent ultrasonic and HF weld

- press-formed/vacuum-formed

- can be adhesive coated

- can be cut or die-cut

WORK:

[Todge]

Ohhhh. This looks interesting.

Ill have a browse through it later

[adamtrials]

Very cool. Is there a chance of this stuff being made?

[munkee]

So this is all that stuff you asked about ages ago? jesus christ.. very professional and you've aimed at exactly the right things that are needed... i want one of those shirts so badly! the ones that cover your elbows a bit too i buggered mine on rocks other day.

Edited August 29, 2006 by Spacemunkee

[Mark W]

No f**kin' around there! Cool to see the finished product of your earlier research 'n' stuff. Good job

[Matt_Tupman]

WOW someones been working hard!!

Hope it all goes well for you, i'm a big fan of Dainese their MX gear is indestuctable

All looks very pro

[Backgren]

Looks very pro Well done. The shirt and tee seem to be spot on. I dont really like the head protective bits on the hoodie, I'd never ride without a helmet anyway so that would only be in the way and feel weird on the shoulders when the hood is hanging down. I wouldn't trust that head protection, and i doubt that you see it as a substitute for a helmet, more as something better than nothing, if you get me. Once again, it all looks very professional

[isah]

Very impressive! But i would work on the description, sounds a bit stagnant (i hope that's the right word..)

[durkie]

one thing...there's at least one grammatical error in this brochure, so you might want to go over it more carefully before you submit it. the one i saw is "whether your bailing..." at the beginning of the second page. should be "whether you're bailing..."

the gear does look f**king awesome though. and cool that you're using d3o....have you seen they're sponsoring a design contest? might be worth entering these things in to it.

Edited August 30, 2006 by durkie

[Ducko]

very very good!

good ideas there lad! good luck

[Shez.sheridan]

...i doubt that you see it as a substitute for a helmet, more as something better than nothing, if you get me.

That was my original thought/goal, but after I had researched the D30 material & based upon my recent experience with Pebax material in work, I think that in a layered format it should offer a competitive rival to the conventional helmet...afterall, measure your helmet, mines as low as 10mm thickness in some places - as the project developed, my goal became a soft/flexible helmet, that solidifies/becomes rigid momentarily upon impact...although I could be wrong - I think D3O & combined layering of other high performance materials could allow for low volume protection..it's just a thought anyhow.

Very impressive! But i would work on the description, sounds a bit stagnant (i hope that's the right word..)

Me too sometimes, within the work I tried to write in a very factual way most of the time as it was primarily wrote for people who are uneducated/unfamiliar with this current problem - I felt it was best to keep it fairly straight forward - afterall, the guy who's gonna look at it speaks only Italian, therefore a lot will be mis-translated by his assistant I am sure

...and cool that you're using d3o....have you seen they're sponsoring a design contest? might be worth entering these things in to it.

I've thought about it, & I'm still in debate...I think they require prototypes - it's frustrating as I have thousands of materials & an entire workshop to use here in work, but I can't use any as it's a personal project & not for my employer's company as such

Cheers for the feedback guys, it's really appreciated, afterall you are in manyways my peers..just keep it coming

Grazie Mille

Derv