The helmet that we believe in
was born from a reality that
testing alone cannot know.
When taken out on the road or track, even a
helmet as highly regarded as an Arai may be
faced with situations where it can be over-
whelmed.
No helmet can protect against all possible
impacts. Acknowledging this harsh reality
is tough. But this reality motivates Arai to
always pursue advancements, even if small,
to improve rider protection.
It is that constant pursuit of gains in protec-
tion that spurs us to make helmet the way
we do. Arai itself is the accumulation of all
things that may lead to strengthening our
helmets.
We believe a rounded surface can better soften an impact, and so the
cannon-ball shaped form that originated when our full face helmets entered
the market has continued to evolve into the egg-shaped form of today.
In an era when helmets and other safety gear did
not exist, Hirotake Arai, founder and first president
of Arai Helmet, invented the first motorcycle pro-
tective gear in Japan to protect the rider's head.
Arai's founder had a personal love for motorcycles
and, using his experience making industrial helmets
as a basis, created the first motorcycle helmet in
Japan in the early 1950s. He developed this helmet
to protect his own head.
When confronted with a riding impact on a
motorcycle, he realized that a liner for the helmet
was necessary to reduce the transfer of impact
energy to the rider's brain. In an age where helmet
standards did not exist, he conducted his own
independent testing to develop what is known as
an EPS liner. The EPS Liner was state of the art at
the time and based on data collected from racing.
Yet, the founder recognized that while lab testing
helped in development, the differences in actual
riding impacts warranted focused attention.
