D3O On The Past, Present, and Future of MTB Armor

Bikes & Big Ideas

D3O’s non-Newtonian materials are used extensively in mountain bike protective equipment from a lot of different brands, and David Golay recently sat down with their Senior Vice President of Marketing, Kevin Franks, and their Head of Product, Kevin Fleer, to talk about the state of the mountain bike armor market; the ways it’s changed in recent years; where D3O sees it going in the future; the tradeoffs inherent in designing armor; testing standards for armor and how D3O thinks about them; armor for kids + the challenges in designing it; and much more. Along the way, Kevin and Kevin talk about D3O’s use in everything from consumer electronics to Formula One, and tease some upcoming new bike products, too.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Introducing Kevin Franks and Kevin Fleer (2:09)

What is D3O? (3:13)

Differing formulations and applications of D3O (6:50)

Tradeoffs in armor design (11:08)

Testing standards for bike armor (15:26)

Limb protection standards vs. helmet ones (17:57)

D3O versions and their tradeoffs (23:06)

Areas for improvement in MTB armor (27:31)

Evolution of the MTB protection market (30:35)

Working with partner brands to design armor (32:52)

Fitting armor and army data (34:12)

Designing armor for kids (35:45)

The future of MTB protection (39:09)

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