Safe not stylish

Safe, Not Stylish is my concept for a helmet that technically and systemically improves the most critical issues I identified in the life cycle of traditional helmets. The concept is designed for Malmö Stad and its bike-sharing system, Malmö ByBike. The target audience consists of cyclists who use rental bikes.

After three weeks of analyzing the life cycle of existing helmets together with my team, we identified four key problem areas to address:

1. Despite efforts to improve aesthetics and comfort, many people still find helmets unattractive to wear.

2. Helmets are composed of multiple materials and components, which are typically incinerated rather than recycled at the end of their life cycle.

3. Short lifespan—typically five years or less if damaged.

4. Helmets serve only a single function in people’s daily lives: protecting the head while cycling, which often accounts for just a short period of time.

5. They are bulky and inconvenient to carry.

Addressing Problems 1, 2, and 3

Safe, Not Stylish adheres to the safety standards of conventional cycling helmets while significantly reducing material use. The helmet features openings and recesses to minimize material consumption. Additionally, the design eliminates outer shells, linings, adhesives, and plastic components entirely. This, along with a modular design that allows for easy disassembly, makes end-of-life processing and recycling much more efficient. By using a higher-quality, impact-resistant material such as EPP, the helmet's lifespan can be extended to at least ten years, and it can absorb shocks and impacts without compromising structural integrity.

Addressing Problems 4 and 5

By integrating the helmet into a shared system where multiple users can access it throughout the day, its environmental impact is significantly reduced. Furthermore, Safe, Not Stylish contributes to a safer urban environment. Most users of Malmö ByBike do not have a helmet. If they were offered one at the time of rental—at no additional cost—it is likely that more people would choose to cycle with a helmet.

Not with a stylish helmet, but most importantly, a safe one.