WHAT IS MIPS?
Your brain is everything you are, and it is very sensitive. That’s why it is so important to protect it. Giro helmets with the Mips Brain Protection System offer more comprehensive protection that can help to reduce the energy transmitted to your brain in the event of an impact. Less energy transferred to your brain during a crash equals more protection for you.
MIPS IS AN ADDITIONAL
MEASURE OF PROTECTION
Mips is a patented Brain Protection System (BPS) available in almost every Giro helmet model. It adds a measure of protective capability in certain impacts beyond the helmet’s outer shell and impact-absorbing foam liner and helps to reduce rotational motion transferred to the brain—especially during those first critical milliseconds. That’s why we encourage you to look for the yellow dot on Giro helmets.
TWO MILLISECONDS COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE
Two milliseconds. That’s 100 times faster than the blink of an eye! And yet during an impact, this fraction of a second could be the most important moment of your life, because that is all the time it takes to suffer a brain injury.
HOW DOES THE MIPS BRAIN PROTECTION SYSTEM WORK?
When a helmet with the Mips Brain Protection System is subjected to an angled impact, the low friction layer inside the helmet (identified in this image in yellow) allows the helmet to move. That movement during those crucial first .0002 seconds can reduce the amount of rotational motion (a combination of rotational energy and rotational forces) transferred to the brain and reduce the risk for minor and severe brain injuries. It’s important to acknowledge that no helmet, including Mips-equipped helmets, can prevent all potential injuries. But by reducing energy transmitted to the brain, the potential for and the severity of a brain injury can be reduced and you likely won’t even notice Mips, but your brain will when it needs it the most.
SAFETY
Is a Mips-equipped helmet safer than a helmet without Mips? Does Mips provide protection for multiple impacts?
No. The MIPS® BPS is not a multi-impact technology, and currently there is no cycling helmet that can guarantee to be truly “multi-impact”.
Do I have to crash hard to be at risk of a brain injury?
No, because every impact is a unique event and every rider is different. Nobody can say when, where or how a crash will occur, or how severe the impact might be. But we do know that brain injuries often happen in an instant and without excess speed or force.
Do Mips-equipped helmets prevent concussions?
We wish it was possible to claim that helmets could be 100% effective. But the truth is that NO HELMET CAN PREVENT ALL INJURIES, and there is no standard threshold for defining a concussion. Every impact is a unique event involving many factors that cannot be predicted, and every rider is a unique being. While helmets are proven to be up to 85% effective according to valid studies, it is not possible to claim that a helmet can prevent a brain injury in every case.
TECHNOLOGY
What is Integrated Mips?
Integrated MIPS® seamlessly combines the essential MIPS BPS components with the helmet’s Roc Loc® fit and stability system in a single unit, reducing weight, excess plastic and additional elements that can compromise comfort.
What is Spherical Technology?
Developed at the Bell+Giro Dome in partnership with MIPS®, Spherical Technology’s unique Ball-and-Socket design, powered by MIPS, redirects impact forces, bringing market leading design, performance and brain protection together without compromising comfort, ventilation, weight or style. It’s available in our most premium helmets road, mountain, ski and snowboard helmets.
Is Mips technology exclusive to Giro helmets, or does Giro own Mips?
MIPS® Technology is a step forward in helmet design, and a market-leading technology. We do not have any ownership in MIPS. But unlike other brands, we don’t simply add this “off the shelf technology” to our existing helmets. Giro™ helmets equipped with the MIPS BPS are designed specifically with MIPS from the start, and many models incorporate unique features and benefits, including what we call Integrated MIPS® and Spherical Technology™, that are only possible because we’ve spent years collaborating with the designers behind MIPS and we have our own a world-class test lab (the DOME).