Giro

Sutton MIPS Helmet

The Giro Sutton MIPS helmet features low-profile skate styling and eight vents to keep your dome cool in the heat of summer. The Sutton has the styling that urban freeriders and dirt jumpers have come to love, but, unlike its low-tech competitors, it features serious high-tech brain protection.

Though the Sutton looks like a traditional skate helmet, it is a bit different. It has an expanded polystyrene liner like POC's other road and mountain helmets and uses an in-molded polycarbonate shell to add toughness and abrasion resistance without adding significant weight. The limited number of vents (it has eight) lends strength, so it is a great helmet even if your urban riding is geared more toward seeking out the best wall rides and stair gaps on your way to the dirt jumps just outside of town. For all-mountain riders, the Sutton works great for all-day adventures, because it's lighter than a standard ABS-shelled helmet of this style. It's designed to be used with Giro's line of goggles, so they'll always fit great in dusty conditions. Other smart features include a removable soft visor, an integrated light clip at the back to make you more visible in traffic, and a reinforced vent port that allows you to lock the helmet to your bike.

The MIPS (Multi-directional Impact Protection System) structure integrates easily into the Sutton's bones without altering its look. MIPS is essentially the separation of the EPS foam shell from the retention system (the part that grabs your head) via a semi-floating suspension system, so that when the shell absorbs an impact, or two, or four, in a crash, it doesn't transfer that energy directly into the skull. Instead, forces are isolated, saving your head and neck from undo impacts. Developed in Scandinavia more than 10 years ago, the MIPS system has been continually revised and applied to an ever-growing number of helmets in different sports, and it's been credited with saving countless noggins from more serious injury.