Zero to 8 Seconds
37 years ago, founder, Jim Gentes came up with the logo for Giro. He also had a head full of design ideas. Following his first aero helmet design called Advantage in 1985, Jim came up with a prototype road helmet called the Prolight. He showed the Prolight at the Long Beach Bike Show in 1986 and returned home with $100000 of orders. In July 1989, Giro would supply Greg Lemond with his aero time trial helmet for the 1989 Tour De France, and in doing so became a part of Lemond’s historical 8 second Tour De France victory over Laurent Fignon.
Road to Popularity
Following on from the ’89 Tour De France success, Giro then set about creating a helmet for road riders. The 1990 Giro Air Attack featured fibreglass reinforcement to help manage impacts, big air vents and a smooth finish. At a time when many parts of the world were legislating hard shell helmets for bike racing, Giro had a smart design ready to protect the peloton. Later in the 1990’s the first Giro drink bottles were released as well as the Roc-Loc helmet cradle system provided more stability for the helmet particularly over rougher terrain.
MTB Developments
The late 1990’s saw Giro bring out some innovative designs for off road riding helmets. The Switchblade was a modular design, featuring full face adaptability to meet the needs of ‘Freeriders’ as well as more traditional mountain bike riders. A move into Ski helmets and then other apparel such as cycling gloves and, in 2010, cycling road shoes, signalled that Giro were creating a much broader brand with stylish well-designed products that were both feature packed and practical.
MIPS Era
The 2012 Air Attack road helmet was a popular design at the time, as more riders focussed on aerodynamics to maximise their riding. Design classics, such as the Empire shoes range followed. They featured lace-up closure at the time every other brand was coming up with ever more complicated closure systems, stylish design and funky colour options made the empire and it’s variants a popular footwear option.. 2016 and MIPS made it first appearance in Giro Ski helmets before transferring over to their bike helmets in 2018 with the Aether MIPS. The MIPS spherical technology would advance head protection for cyclists.
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