The Latest in Head Gear

Choosing headgear for the slopes can be a very personal matter. For those of you who can’t stand wearing a helmet, but are growing more anxious about your tuque’s limited protective capabilities… or those of you who want a helmet, but can’t stand the blandness of 95% them out there… may well find the solution you’ve been searching for in these two new products.

o1 ) The Ribcap

The Ribcap is made from a “specially engineered material” with “intelligent molecules” which “lock together to absorb impact energy”. In layman’s terms, this particular fancy tuque from Switzerland changes from soft and flexible during regular use to a rigid, protective shell when your head suffers the misfortune of meeting a building, a tree, a fellow skiier or boarder, or even an ice patch at speed.*

Although some of the styles and fabric choices they offer may appear to be suspect from an aesthetic viewpoint, the fact that each is named for a famous dead singer assures their hipness. You know, naming safety products after a bunch of dead people is rather clever strategy, and I suppose it’s only a matter of time before a Cobain-style is developed, with a nice big hole in the back in the head to accommodate ponytails.

Ribcaps sell for roughly $80 Cdn., but are only available from European retailers at this time. You can learn more about the Ribcap at the company’s website.

* It should be noted that the Ribcap is not a helmet substitute, but rather, a substantial improvement over a woolen hat.

o2 ) Happy New Ears!

You want a ski helmet but find that 95% of those available through stores are horrifically boring; so what can you do? Well, you can either wait for the ski helmet industry to wake up and realize that solid colours + zero design effort was only barely acceptable  back in the 1990s, or you can find yourself a set of these Happy New Ears, install them on your existing helmet, and instantly become the envy of every child and nostalgic adult you encounter.

A quick perusal of the StudioID website reveals that their collection draws from creatures both real (cats, rabbits, lions, tigers, but unfortunately no bears, oh my) and mythological (angels and devils), and that the individual ears and tail pieces attach through an ingenious system of suction cups. Be sure to turn your speakers up since the company decided to include soundclips for each creature (aww) just in case you felt that those cat ears were somewhat ambiguous.

Your chances of purchasing these items successfully from the manufacturer will likely depend on your ability to communicate in Korean, so if that fails — and it likely will — similar (yet inferior) products can be found on eBay for about $15/set.