The Tatoo (French for ‘armadillo’) folding bicycle helmet is the design concept of Julien Bergignat and Patrice Mouille. The idea was to create an easily stored bike helmet that offered protection and was easily recyclable.
When not in use, the Tatoo unsnaps and can easily be folded or left flat to stuff in a purse, messenger bag or backpack. When needed, simply snap the segments into place with the tension clips and voila, helmet. While Fast Company has deemed it “almost genious” but stating that helmets really work by cracking and distributing the force sideways along the helmet rather than directly into your skull, Wikipedia’s entry on bicycle helmets has an argument that current testing and certification methods result in foam that’s too stiff and does, in fact, send the shock straight to ya dome, letting skull deformation absorb the impact.
Regardless of where you stand on that debate, let’s just agree that this is a novel approach to helmet design.
Make the jump for more pics and video…
Thanks to BicycleDesign for the tip.
