Pret Helmets and MIPS Integration
So you’re browsing through the ski shop, or maybe spending the night with a glass of wine fueling your online shopping habits, and you keep seeing this little yellow dot that says “MIPS” keep showing up. What is this little dot? It’s so small, why should I care?
“MIPS” is actually something much larger than that wee little dot. It is a large, integrated chassis system, sandwiched within the layers of your helmet to dramatically improve your safety. It actually stands for “Multi-directional Impact Protection System”. The term “Multi-directional” is what really separates this system from action sports and snow helmets of the past. Up until recently, helmets were typically tested by a linear drop test. However, when you take a fall skiing, biking, or snowboarding, you most likely move both forward and down at the same time. This causes a rotational motion that is directly transferred to your brain, sometimes resulting in a concussion.
The MIPS Brain Protection System that Pret uses is a low-friction barrier that allows your head to rotate relative to the helmet in all directions, thus reducing the rotational energy transferred to your brain.
The result? A significant reduction in brain damage. Checking in with one of our freeride athletes, Giray Dadali ( @ahmetsbrother ), says “I’ve hit my head a lot of times.. And you reach a point where you know you won’t get too many hits left. I’m a professional athlete, and underneath my helmet is a mechanical engineering degree and a person as well [he laughs]. When wearing my helmet equipped with MIPS, it’s just one more layer that I can put between myself and waking up potentially not knowing who I am.”
For more on MIPS you can visit: https://mipsprotection.com/how-it-works/
Pret implements the MIPS system in the following helmets
