Giro Redefines Head Protection and Returns to The World Cup of Ski Racing
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Company Signs U.S. Ski Team Members Travis Ganong and Andrew Weibrecht and Debuts Avance MIPS Helmet in the World Cup
November 16, 2016 (Santa Cruz, California) Giro Sport Design, the global leader in head protection for snow sports, proudly welcomes Travis Ganong and Andrew Weibrecht to their athlete roster in conjunction with the debut of pioneering new ski racing helmet called the Avance MIPS (French for ‘go forward’). Both World Cup level ski racers and Olympic contenders will be wearing Giro’s newly launched Avance MIPS helmet which will debut on the World Cup circuit at the FIS World Cup Downhill Race November 26th in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada.
“At Giro we’ve spent the past 30 years creating new paradigms for performance and safety,” said Giro Snow Senior Brand Manager Brendan Murphey. “Working in Giro’s in-house test lab, our designers and engineers leveraged all of the tools at their disposal to create our most advanced alpine ski racing helmet. The Avance is a testament to a company that invests heavily in the best people and leading edge facilities and continually seeks advancement of head protection.”
“Giro is an ideal member of the U.S. Ski Team Partner and Supplier pool and with the signing of two of our best alpine speed athletes, Travis and Andrew, we are looking forward to seeing some great results right out of the gate,” said Michael Jaquet, Chief Marketing Officer at USSA. “Giro has a great history with the U.S. Ski Team and we are happy to have them back, protecting not only our U.S. Ski Team athletes but also the entire grass roots racing community.”
Giro’s Avance MIPS helmet utilizes four new and game-changing technologies: Hammerhead Design, Textreme® Shell, EP-Premium Liner and MIPS Spherical. These new features address four key hazards experienced by alpine racers: gate impacts, high energy impacts, multi-impact crashes and rotational energy.
The Avance MIPS helmet will be available Fall 2016 in six sizes and three colors. It will be available for purchase at select snow sports retailers and giro.com for $600.
Learn more at giro.com/avancemips (page live 11/22) and see information below:
Travis Ganong & Andrew Weibrecht x Giro Video (Coming Soon: 11/22 live)
Media Photo Assets: Credit Adam Moran
Product Media Photo Assets: Credit Giro
About Giro Sport Design: Founded in Santa Cruz, California in 1985, Giro Sport Design develops new ideas to enhance the Ride. From the first lightweight, high-performance helmets for cycling and snowsports, to apparel that reimagines what sportswear can be, Giro maintains a strong focus on creating products that enhance the feeling of freedom and independence that are at the core of a rider’s experience. As a leader in the design, fit and engineering of products that complement the body, Giro is the first choice of riders worldwide. Learn more at giro.com/thegirostory
2017 Giro Avance MIPS Helmet Features:
MSRP: $600
Ship Date: Fall 2016
Colorways: Matte Black/ Carbon; Matte White/ Carbon; Matte Red/ Carbon
Designed For: Alpine ski racing (downhill, giant slalom and super giant slalom)
Developed By: Giro’s in house design and engineering team. The team has over 85 years of experience in creating head protection including over 55 granted patents.
Impact Protection Technologies:
Hammerhead Design – Highly Evolved Shape
Recent research shows that gate impacts can transfer up to 70 G’s to an athlete’s brain. This fact led to the creation of the Avance’s unique ‘Hammerhead’ exterior shape. The Hammerhead Design strategically adds material to the areas where gate impacts commonly occur. Additionally, Giro has used an unconventional combination of materials to address these impacts.
TeXtreme—A lighter, stiffer & stronger shell
The Avance MIPS’s outer shell is constructed from TeXtreme® carbon. TeXtreme’s wide and flat fibers fit closer together than conventional round carbon fibers and require less of the resin used to bind fibers together. In the case of the Avance MIPS, TeXtreme enabled us to create an ultralight shell that’s tougher, stiffer and stronger than Giro’s offered before. Most importantly, TeXtreme offers impressive high-energy impact management.
EP-Premium – A leading-edge liner
In alpine racing, a single crash is rarely a single crash. Your head may actually hit the slope several times before it’s all said and done. Our engineers recognized this and responded by finding the highest-quality, low-density crushable resilient helmet liner available. Working with experts in expanded polypropylene (EPP) we formulated a foam liner made from a material that we call EP-Premium. This liner is specifically designed to reduce energy transferred during successive high-energy impacts as well as everyday lower-energy gate impacts.
MIPS Spherical – MIPS Slip Plane technology advanced
Giro has spent years collaborating with the creators of MIPS, or Multi-directional Impact Protection System. Our goal? To reduce as much energy as possible during a crash.
The Avance helmet features MIPS Spherical—the next generation of MIPS and a design exclusive to Giro.
With MIPS Spherical, the two layers of EP-Premium foam become the essential components of the MIPS low-friction layer. The result is a reduction in rotational forces and the elimination of the plastic slip plane of the current MIPS design. Much like a ball and socket, MIPS Spherical redirects rotational energy from impacts at any angle. The system allows the exterior liner and helmet shell to rotate independently around your head during an angled impact. The simple and sophisticated design also allows the opportunity for a custom fit. Using 3D scans of our athletes’ heads, we can custom map and sculpt the interior of the Avance MIPS to fit the racer’s head precisely without pressure points.
