Arai
Over 50 years devoted solely to the art and science of designing and building the best helmets humanly possible. An Arai helmet is not the product of compromise, of a "profit" point, or a board of directors. An Arai helmet is the product of obsession, an ongoing obsession. One small result of this is that Arai helmets have actually been exhibited in art museums as examples of design innovations - innovations that have been copied by other manufacturers for years.
Mr. Hirotake Arai, a hat maker by trade, started his company over 65 years ago. He was an artisan, a craftsman - and a motorcycle rider. Today, Michio "Mitch" Arai, another lifelong rider, runs the company. And his son, Akihito, is now the third generation. If your family name was on your product, how well would you make it?
Every Arai helmet is virtually 100% handmade. Each craftsman signs the helmet shell along the way. And every helmet is hand inspected at least three times during construction. Not every hundredth helmet, or every tenth one — every single helmet.
Arai's quality reaches the world's highest level of motorsports competition. In 2008 alone, Arai is the helmet of choice more than half the drivers on the F1 grid including Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Bourdais. The top drivers in the IRL have choose Arai for protection including Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Jay Howard. In NASCAR®, there's Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, AJ Almendinger, and Jamie McMurray. All in all, not bad for such a small helmet company, is it? But maybe not so surprising when you know everything that goes into the design and creation of a single Arai helmet. Including yours.
Click here to see all of our Arai products.
