- Neil, you've brought me to Stockholm,
into a big building such like this
and what are we doing here?
- Blake, look we're here at POC.
Let's take a look around the building.
- No way, POC!
Should we?
Wait, I got this. (beeping)
(sped up voice effect)
- Yeah, hi it's Blake Samson,
I'm here to see Martin Soderstrom
(sped up voice effect)
- (laughs) Signatures?
No, we've come to do stuff here.
(sped up voice effect)
- Yeah, I'm with Neil Donahue.
(sped up voice effect)
- Oh, whoa.
- It's the magic words.
- Big deal, wow.
You are a big deal around here.
(energetic, percussive music)
- As you all know we've been wearing POC helmets,
POC eyewear.
They do a lot of other cycling products as well as
they're quite heavy into the ski and snowboard situation.
- That's it POC is a really important thing.
Their mission statement is this:
To do the best they possibly can to save lives
and to reduce the consequences of accidents
for gravity sports athletes and cyclists.
That's us.
So, let's have a look around HQ.
- Coffee.
- That is pretty cool.
Check out that brand new coffee machine.
- Would you like a coffee?
- Yes please.
Alright Blake I'll leave you to make those coffees,
I'm going to take a look around.
Check out the kitchen it's amazing, really nice.
Got some cycling books down here,
Danny MacAskill book.
He's a POC athlete.
As seen on YouTube, he must be a big deal.
Also this is a bit we've seen throughout the building,
we've got the Atlas of Human Anatomy and Surgery.
Look at the size of that book.
POC spent an awful lot of time and work
on things like their helmets
so they perform as best as possible in crashes.
So, let's take a look around the building
and see where they do all that work.
(mellow, percussive music)
So POC have just celebrated their 10 year anniversary
and it all started with ski helmets,
which they still make now.
There are also road bike helmets
and the mountain bike helmets you see us wear.
This is a Tectal.
I wear it myself actually.
You can see on the back we've got this label
that tells you all the stuff that goes into these helmets.
So the shell is PC, the core is EPS,
it's all sorts of things
to make this helmet really protective.
POC say that they can make
the most protective helmet in the world
but it would just have to be massive,
so it's all about protection and performance.
So I talked to the main man, Oscar
about some of that technology that goes into these helmets.
So what goes into making a Tectal helmet like this?
- So the Tectal is what we call an In-Mold helmet.
So we have this type of shell
which is a very thin, flexible shell,
easy to deform,
quite good when it comes to
yeah, it's simply easy to start deforming the liner.
And the liner in this case is an EPS
which is a fairly normal kind of liner material
which is a single impact type of liner.
- So you have different shells for different helmets.
I recognise this one.
This is the Coron.
I wore this at Andes-Pacifico.
And that's different to say, the Tectal?
- Yeah, so this one is a fibre reinforced shell
and a unique thing about the core in it
is that the normal fibre shell,
whether it's fibreglass or carbon,
they're mostly single impact shells,
so they're brittle basically.
But what we have in this case is that
we have a matrix and resin combination
which is able to withstand multiple impacts.
- And then the liners,
we have two different types of liner as well.
I guess that depends on the different types of helmet.
- Yeah.
- I recognise this one.
It's what most of the helmets are made from?
- Yes, so this is what you'd find I would say
in more than 90% of the helmets of the world.
So EPS, Expanded Polystyrene.
Good liner material.
The drawback of this is that when you deform it,
which is what you do when you fall on it,
you deform it and then it deforms permanently.
So you can see it how I pressed my thumb there
and you have a permanent deformation.
- Yeah.
But we also work a lot with a different liner material,
which is a multi-impact type.
You can see when I deform this, it goes back again.
- Yeah.
- So it's an elastic deformation.
It deforms and then goes back
and this is what we call an EPP liner.
So it's a different polymer.
- And that's the one you'd find in the Coron?
- Exactly, so in this case,
we tried to match the properties of the liner
with the properties of the shell so that they work together.
It doesn't really make sense to make a multi-impact liner
if you don't have a multi-impact shell.
- Great.
Thanks, Oscar.
- Thanks.
- Let's take a look around the rest
and see what else goes into making a kit here.
(mellow music)
- Even before any design work goes on,
POC worked with some specialist units
on medicine and performance.
So that's POC Labs and POC WATTS.
POC Labs is all about trying to prevent
spinal and head injuries.
They work with some really well-respected experts
who are specialists in those fields.
And WATTS Lab is all about performance.
So some really high-tech stuff.
So aero-dynamics and wind tunnels and also CFD,
which stands for Computer Fluid Dynamics.
One really cool department in POC is POC Aid,
and they work on concepts and ideas for future products.
So here's Johan to talk me through it.
So what sorts of things are you working on?
- So, POC Aid is all about integrating and finding
electronic solutions and applications
to support our mission.
Not only work with effective protection,
but also proactive and then also post-active.
It's everything from more advanced technologies like
Aerobag technologies that we actually have
in our production line right now,
but also have as a research object
to see how we can use that kind of technology.
- So commonly this is just skiing technology, is it?
- So this specific product is for race skiers.
So it's for high-speed athletes
going really fast down a mountain
and need an extra protection when they, you know,
have the rotation and the crash.
RECCO is one example of a really simple integration.
We integrate a small radar reflector
and the back end system at RECCO is really, really cool.
With the Star One system,
they can scan huge areas to find people.
It's all about being searchable.
- So you've seen this for avalanche safety in ski helmets,
but also this is now a mountain bike helmet.
- Also for mountain bikes,
because they have the new technology with the Star One,
the zone that can reach big areas in short time.
So it makes sense to integrate the cycling stuff.
(upbeat music)
- Now this is another cool piece of tech in the office.
This is a ski helmet that POC has been working on
with this HI system in it,
so that's Helmet Integrity.
They've won loads of design awards for this.
Just a concept at the moment,
but it's all sorts of things in here,
so electronic gizmos I don't really understand,
that basically tell you the integrity of this helmet
after a crash.
So it's really going to help us in the future work out
how often and when you do need to replace that helmet.
So POC also make a lot of apparel.
For 2018 they've got a new Resistance Collection.
It goes back to that mission statement
of trying to protect and perform in everything they make.
So, Amanda, talk me through some of the cool features
about the Resistance Collection.
- Yeah.
So in the Resistance Collection we focus on
the fabrics and the function of the fabrics.
And this is our Resistance Pro DH pants,
which has a panel on the side and the knee
with ceramic printing.
So it's a low-friction fabric
and really durable.
- So when you crash, you slide rather than stick.
- Exactly, exactly.
- Also you have cross-country stuff,
so you've got cross-country, downhill, and enduro kit?
- Exactly, yeah.
This is a cross-country tee
that is designed to look like a T-shirt,
but it has an internal
gaiter, we call it,
to hold your pockets in place.
So the pockets will not flap around your back,
it will stick to your back.
And the same goes with the sleeves,
so we have a sleeve gripper inside,
like for a tight-fitted jersey.
- So that is POC HQ, it's very cool I must say.
But I hear there's some really good mountain bike trails
just five minutes from here
where they test out all their equipment.
So, where's Blake?
Let's go for a ride.
- Neil?
(sighs)
- I'm going to be real fast on the trail, though.
- Alright.
What are you doing?
- Well, you know,
I thought I'd put this on because it's cool.
(energetic, percussive music)
- So that's a full POC run, walk-through.
- Yeah, what a place.
And look at these trails five minutes, literally,
from the office.
And there's Oscar, Frederic, Damian,
part of the crew, design or kit,
and this is why they also test it out on the trails.
Nice job.
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- Click here at the left for
another fact-filled tour of Continental
and down here for an Andes-Pacifico video
where I put the Coron full-faced helmet to good use.
- Thumbs up if you like meatballs.
- Yes!
(laughter)