Working late nights in his garage, designer/bike racer Jim Gentes creates the first lightweight adult cycling helmet. Friends at NASA help tune the final helmet shape and vent placement. The result is the Giro Prolight, a helmet that's better-looking than traditional designs, offers superior fit and still meets the industry's toughest safety standards at half the weight of traditional helmets. Business booms. Jim expands production to his neighbor's garage.
In 1989 America's top cyclist wears a Giro Aerohead helmet while he races to make up a 50-second deficit in the final stage of the Tour the France. He takes the overall win by a heart-stopping 8 seconds.
In 1992, having conquered wind resistance, Giro engineers embark on a mission to design a helmet that actually puts the wind to work for cyclists, not against them. The goal is to build a super cool helmet that's even cooler than no helmet at all, and we invest $150,000 in our exclusive Therminator ventilation testing technology to guide their work. Final research takes place in the heat of international competition, as Giro-equipped riders capture the Men's and Women's World Cup mountain bike titles and the coveted Tour de France King of the Mountains jersey.
In 1999, a few short years after doctors gave him only a 30% chance of surviving cancer, Lance Armstrong shocks the world by winning the tour de France. His Helmet? A Giro, of course. Other giro - equipped athletes dominate international competition too, including the mountain bike World Championships, cyclo-cross World Championships, and triathlon's Iron Man World Championships. All over the world, new school "freeriders" are challenging the definition of mountain biking - blazing lines that mix imaginative trail building with heaps of courage and suspension. Many of the best choose our uniquely inspired Switchblade helmet. And after 2 years of research, Giro delivers on our promise to create something special for skiers and snowboarders that hated helmets with the introduction of the Nine, the world's first truly lightweight, high-performance freestyle helmet. the Nine is revolutionary because it uses In-mold technology and forward-thinking design to reduce weight and improve ventilation to unheard-of levels.
In 2003, Giro helmets like the E2, the Pneumo and the Audio Series Nine.9 have set the standards for styling, function and innovation for progressive, performance-oriented riders on dirt, pavement and snow. But we press on, driven by the best riders in the world to create the Xen, a new style of mountain bike helmet for the evolution of freeriding. And even as Lance wins a 5th consecutive Tour de France, we're developing the first carbon fiber Rib Cage reinforcement system into the Atmos, the helmet he'll need to conquer the heated competition during his quest for a 6th win in 2004. On the snow, giro athletes like Tanner Hall are destroying boundaries with moves that go bigger than anyone thought possible just 2-3 years ago, and the helmet he inspired, the Bad Lieutenant is radically redefining the meaning of athlete-driven product design.
Extract taken from http://www.giro.com/main.html
