Fast Company – May 2019

16 FASTCOMPANY.COM MAY 2019 PHOTOGRAPH BY JONATHON KAMBOURIS

For decades, bike helmets have been primarily designed to prevent one thing: skull fractures.

Most products are made with EPS foam, the same material used in beer coolers, which simply cushions

the head upon impact. But with increasing attention being paid to concussions and other traumatic

brain injuries (due, in part, to pro football), finding ways to protect what’s within the skull is becom-

ing top of mind. The new Wavecel Bontrager helmet from Trek Bikes, a leading cycling-gear company

based in Waterloo, Wisconsin, is composed of a hard plastic shell lined with a weblike layer of mold-

able plastic. In the event of a crash, the collapsible lining flexes and then crumples, in a similar way

to the crumple zone of a car, to absorb and redirect energy away from the rider’s head and theoreti-

cally prevent a concussion. “This is a drastic change in the way helmets are constructed,” says Trek

Bikes engineering supervisor Tony White. The technology was originally developed by an orthopedic

surgeon, Dr. Steve Madey, and a biomechanical engineer, Michael Bottlang, with funding from the

National Institutes of Health; they worked with Trek Bikes to bring it to market.

HEAD

FIRST

THE WAVECEL

BONTRAGER

HELMET OFFERS A

NOVEL WAY TO

STOP CONCUSSIONS.

BY YASMIN GAGNE

A Closer

Look

Here’s how the

Wavecel Bontrager

helmet works to

prevent a concussion.

FLEX

The cells, structured

like honeycomb,

flex to minimize the

force of the impact.

FOLD

The cells buckle

and crumple.

GLIDE

The cells slide, moving

energy away from the

head and redirecting it.

N

NEXT

Prototype