On Track Off Road No. 191

we have taken serious market
share away from the big
players. We’re really proud of
what we have done. There is
a concertina study made in
the U.S. which shows what
riders are wearing and what
they will buy next so we follow
that and look at our market
share. We’re really happy and
of course we are in bicycle
as well and that is growing
quicker than the motorcycle
market. In terms of helmets:
that is an enormous project.
They say it takes at least five
years to develop a helmet and
we’d have never done it before.
It’s been three and a half
years and it’s a busy time. We
have learned a lot and you can
produce the best helmet technically
and if the fit isn’t quite
right then you get hammered.
You might think your styling is
right and the market doesn’t
think so. When you have a
neck brace and nobody else
makes one and you are known
for being the gold standard
then it’s easier! When you
start making helmets then you
are playing with the big boys.
The irony is that it can be a
headache…
It can be a headache! Hopefully
not with our helmet on!
It seems that the aesthetics
of the helmet and the overall
design is something in which
you have made big gains in
the last year or so…
We had to go from ‘tech’ to
‘cool’. You can have the best
products but if they don’t
look the part then people just
won’t wear them. So we had
to make a conscious decision
and we are growing up. We
are still a young company and
we were wet behind the ears.
Growing up means you have
to take market, industry and
fashion trends seriously and
get in that matrix. Hopefully
we can still push boundaries
but within the scope of what
the industry expects. The
other challenge for us is that
we are used to innovating a
product and releasing it when
it was finished. You cannot do
that with helmets and apparel.
You have orientate around the
release dates of the others, or
what the distributors require
or you won’t hit the market at
the right time. You’ll miss the
peak sales periods. If you miss
it by a day then you’ve missed
it by a year.
Are you allowed to be frustrated
by that as a Doctor and
innovator? A product with a
lower safety spec might be
the most popular purely because
of a look…
You have to have your feet
firmly in reality. You have
to play the game in certain
boundaries but also keep trying
to push the envelope. Even
with our apparel we try to put
3D design and choose the
right materials and to make it
the best fitting gear possible
while at the same time still
try to make it cool. It’s never a
dull moment.
The helmet and the knee
brace: it has been interesting
to watch Leatt create an identity
where they have tried to
find holes or flaws with products
on the market and do
something better. It’s a good
selling point.
It is. I think our starting point
is not to necessarily look at
what everyone else is doing.
If we decide to make a helmet
then how do we make the best
one possible: that’s the first
mark. If we want to make a
knee brace then what is one of
the main customer preferences?
In my mind if you are riding
a motocross bike then you
want to be able to be able to
grip the bike as much as possible
so let’s not put a hinge
in the middle. That’s quite an
engineering challenge so how
do we do that? The DNA of
Leatt is to work on the intrinsic
problem and come up with
the best solution possible. We
recently launched our goggles
and for us it was a milestone
moment because it was supported
by the first proper
marketing campaign we ever
did and it bore fruit. So we are
moving and evolving.
Isn’t it tough to keep developing
products that have a
distinct angle or reason-forbeing?
Yes and no. This is a debate
we often have. You go to your
LEATT & MOVING FORWARDS