Yolk ski and snowboard helmet

Yolk is a soft helmet designed to overcome the unfashionable image that helmets seem to have with the young-at-heart on the ski slopes of the world. ‘Yolk’ under regular use is flexible and conformable to the user’s head but when subjected to an impact it instantaneously forms a rigid shell dispersing and absorbing the energy . This is achieved utilising a semi- rigid liner and a Kevlar skin which is impregnated with a shear thickening fluid. ‘Yolk’ allows the user to plug in a two way radio, music player, or mobile phone to the integrated headphones and controls thereby creating a convenient and seamless transition. ‘Yolk’ can be fitted with of a choice of skins which can be stretched over the liner to match the user’s personal style. With similar safety standards across bike riding, inline skating, skateboarding, there are vast opportunities to develop different skins for these sports using the same liner.

One of the winners in the 2005 Australian Design Awards Student section was Gregory Scott from the University of New South Wales for ‘Yoik’ a fashionable helmet for extreme sports. Greg scored a special Highly Commended prize from the judges for what they deemed “a good attempt to encourage safety amongst a rebellious target audience, with a great aesthetic appeal”.

“Its pretty simple really”, Greg told Gizmag.

“Yolk is head protection for snowboarding and skiing and it’s designed to break down the barriers that prevent people from wearing protection for their head when they are skiing.

“A helmet would overcome untold needless damage – the lack of a helmet is the greatest cause of serious injury and death on the slopes everywhere and despite that, not many people are wearing them. So it’s really breaking down the barriers between fashion and protection to try to make it more appealing product for the target market.

“Research has shown that young adults reject the use of helmets due to comfort, inconvenience and negative image associations.”

So the Yolk is a solution in a soft shell

‘Yolk’ under regular use is flexible and conformable to the user’s head but when subjected to an impact it instantaneously forms a rigid shell dispersing and absorbing the energy . This is achieved utilising a semi- rigid liner and a Kevlar skin which is impregnated with a shear thickening fluid. ‘Yolk’ allows the user to plug in a two way radio, music player, or mobile phone to the integrated headphones and controls thereby creating a convenient and seamless transition.

‘Yolk’ can be fitted with of a choice of skins which can be stretched over the liner to match the user’s personal style. With similar safety standards across bike riding, inline skating, skateboarding, there are vast opportunities to develop different skins for these sports using the same liner.

Greg's Yolk was a finalist in the 2005 Braunprize for Technical Design, further stimulating interest in Greg's design and he is currently seeking expressions of interest in his design with a view to developing and manufacturing the concept.

Greg can be contact via email

Further details of Greg's concept can be found in our coverage of the BraunPrize.