Dainese - Inspired by Humans

Providing active people with protection from head to toe. This is the mission of Dainese, the Italian company, that is a leader in the world of protective clothing and gear for motorcycle riders and dynamic sports in general.

Motorcycle riders race, dare, and push adherence to the limit. That's all they like to do - nothing else. Somebody has to provide them with protection, someone who knows them and their special needs. Study begins with the movements people make, and then takes off down the road of innovation off the beaten track, before returning back to people with the products that improve their ergonomics and protection.

For Dainese, working with champions has always gone above and beyond mere sponsoring operations ad assumed deeper meaning linked to research and development for innovative solutions that protect pilots and athletes under even the most difficult circumstances as those that arise during professional competition.

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Heritage

Giacomo Agostini’s suit

Agostini is Number 1, an unquestioned talent of the highest order, the best of all. No other motorcycle rider ever won as much. When Lino Dainese first contacted him in 1975, Ago was in the process of winning his 15th world title, his second in the saddle of a Yamaha.

Giacomo Agostini is the first, and was also the first to accept the idea that the suit is not a second skin but a safety shield onto which Dainese literally stitches protection, wearability, and elegance in movement.

Ago is a demanding man, accustomed to getting only the best; working with him isn’t easy. His first suit, white and red, with streaks of the colours of the rainbow forming an arrow on his chest, was made by Lino Dainese himself. Agostini was also capable of going against the current: up ‘til then, riders were obsessed with light weight. The great Tarquinio Provini even used to perforate the running boards in order to eliminate 20 grams or less from his Morini. Provini was a leader and this was the approach in vogue at the time. Giacomo was the first racer to accept the principle that you can’t get more safety with less weight so his suit necessarily weighed a little more, but it was also more ergonomic. Giacomo was famous for his clean riding style and elegant position in the saddle and had no intention of changing this. He insisted on getting a suit that was even tighter fitting without losing any freedom of movement. Thirty years later, Giacomo Agostini is still wearing the Dainese suit that he helped improve.

Knee Slider

Another innovation introduced by Dainese between the '70s and '80s was the knee slider, the pad now featured by every professional suit on the market. Also this product was born on the racetrack, thanks to the relationship that Dainese has always succeeded in establishing with its racers. These were the days of the first Imola 200 Mile races. The idea came to Imola agronomist Checco Costa, a man who’d been organizing big races for more than 20 years, when he flew to the USA to watch the 200 mile race in Daytona. The formula seemed to guarantee success in Italy as well because it offered all the right ingredients: extremely powerful 750 cc motorcycles, spectacular settings, and gifted, combative riders. Following the growing success that greeted the first editions, Californian Kenny Roberts was signed on, and motorcycle racing changed forever. With those enormous, powerful two-stroke 750 cc bikes, you had to angle closer to the ground, and Kenny, the "Goodyear Man", angled closer than anyone. That was one of the reasons they called him the "Martian". If the occasional rider had grazed the asphalt with his knee, Kenny literally scraped the ground, and even applied a carefully calibrated weight, to the point of detaching layers of the suit's leather below.

It was Kenny Roberts' idea: protect my knees with something like a sled that also keeps the suit from moving around too much. Chunks of full-face polycarbonate helmet visor were cut for the purpose first, then plastic lubricant bottles. Silver canvas-backed adhesive tape was used to fasten the pad to the knee. This was the birth of the slider, affectionately also known as the racing suit's "soap pads". Dainese signed the first industrial design: the Istrice knee slider (named in honor of the "porcupine" spikes that emerged when the leg was flexed) that featured a set of soft cylinders that came out of a special base (applied to the suit's knee) when the leg was bent.

The first Back Protector

You'd never thought of it before. Then someone proposes a shell that protects your back and says it's going to save you. That's not really easy to believe, right off the bat.

Yet Lino Dainese succeeded in convincing first MotoGP racers and then World Cup skiers to wear his Back Protector. That made it the red devil company's symbol: a product that cuts across lines and exports Lino's original concept of safety and protection from the world from the race track to the ski slope by way of snowboards, kite-surf, and mountain bikes.

Once again, the story of the birth of the first back protector for motorcycle riders is a result of the technical sponsorship of MotoGP racers.

Lino listened to the racers, especially those like Barry Sheene who were looking more to the future. He had a hunch, and discussed it with Marc Sadler, the most significant designer in Dainese history. Marc thought of the armadillo, flying insects that fall to ground and get up without a wince. A spinal shell: that was the idea.

Barry Sheene was interested and believed in Lino Dainese right from the start. He'd already broken enough bones as it was, risking his life at 250 km/hour on the Daytona track when a tire burst. He also knew the fine line between life and death was almost invisible because it lies hidden just beneath the surface. The back protector immediately seemed like the right solution.

Mother Nature inspired the shape of this remarkable innovation with the armadillo's jointed corazza more than the lobster's shell a masterpiece of biomechanical engineering. Human protection developed through Medieval and Renaissance armor that offered protection, ergonomics and safety to the privileged few. Created by ingenious craftsmen, they were extremely expensive, and reserved to only the most wealthy.

This is the challenge today: transform concepts inspired by nature and the most brilliant ideas in history in order to create protectors to be offered to the widest number of users possible.

Democracy has finally come to the world of protection.

Composite Protectors

The development of protectors, starting from the back protector, did not proceed linearly because the behavior codes of the riders tended to reject innovation, even if their suggestions for improvement arrived continuously.

During the '80s, Dainese began anatomically shaping a structure formed by a soft base and a stiff shell to be sewn on top for the part of the body to be protected, with the objective of distributing impact force over the widest area possible. This led to the birth of the first composite protectors.

Reducing impact force through wider distribution over the body and not just absorbing the force also requires the development of lighter, thinner protectors that are also more comfortable. Protectors that are more comfortable are also more likely to be worn. Motorcycle riders understand and appreciate the value of innovation, and today the concept of composite protection is applied in every element of their apparel for the protection of their shoulders-upper arms, elbows-forearms, knees-shins, and even in their gloves and boots.

Kevlar/Carbon gloves

Never insist on always taking the same roads and change direction whenever necessary. That’s the mentality that has been driving Dainese for 35 years and led to the acquisition of unique experience in the field of providing people with comfort and protection during sports activity.

The introduction of Kevlar/Carbon pads in gloves is the result of extensive research and the use of new materials in different contexts. The remarkably light weight and abrasion resistance offered by these two materials meets the urgent need to protect one of the parts of the body most exposed to injury in case of fall. Four-time word 250 cc champ Max Biaggi – who helped Dainese develop and test the product - knows a little something about it.

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Innovation

Neck support - follows your every inclination

The Neck support is built into the collar of a jacket in order to provide the rider's neck with greater support. The Neck support accompanies every movement of the wearer's neck and provides it with support against wind pressure in order to ensure unprecedented protection in any riding position. This lets the neck muscles relax for greater comfort during riding, a quality that is particularly appreciated on long trips on the highway.

Jet Stream Tourer - Protection's in the air

Launched at the start of 2006 with the BetaZone Project, the Jet Stream Tourer helmet revolutionized the jet helmet concept with its elevated performance in terms of aerodynamics and the elimination of heat from inside. The characteristics that make this helmet every rider's inseparable companion during the warmer months undoubtedly include its revolutionary ventilation system. Operated directly from the visor, this mechanism capitalizes on the fresh air that enters the helmet's two front air vents when the bike is moving at high speed and creates a continuous, silent flow that eliminates both body moisture and heat through the extractors at the rear.

The disappearing sun shield is another absolute innovation for Dainese jet helmets: built in polycarbonate with scratchproof treatment, this dark screen retracts inside the shell when the wearer uses the respective anti-slip nut on the helmet's left side.

D-Nect Infinity - Freedom of speech

The prerogative of the D-Nect Infinity system is connectivity. This revolutionary wireless communication system introduced for the first time in the Dainese Performance helmet is the result of interface between Bluetooth 2.0 (capable of INTERCOM dialogue with both cell phones and satellite navigation systems alike) and the new Infinity technology, a miniature radio device that connects different motorcycles together.

The innovation offered by the Infinity system is the possibility for motorcycle riders equipped with the same device within a 400 meter range of one another to communicate. A virtually infinite number of people can be linked in the Infinity system, up to three of whom can talk at the same time as the others listen in.

The possibilities to receive instructions from satellite navigation systems or engage in cell phone conversations are not interrupted during the use of the Infinity System: whenever users receive calls, they are automatically isolated from the system in order to permit private conversation.

Warm D-Light - A life below zero. Leather as the only protection.

In the wake of the success obtained with its Jet Stream Tourer and Neck GORE-TEX® Motorbike Collection products, Dainese has extended the Beta Testing concept also to the winter sports world thanks to the introduction of the Bergen and Oslo jackets with the Warm D-Light Project.

Original thanks to their distinctive technological inspiration, these jackets are revolutionary in the way they present themselves to the public and innovative for their composite materials.

Essential to the D-Light Project is the process of laminating cowhide to the best waterproof and breathable GORE-TEX® membrane. Leather GORE-TEX® Pro Shell is an exclusive Dainese patent born from collaboration with Gore. Perforated leather provided with waterproof treatment is laminated to GORE-TEX® Pro Shell membrane that guarantees the maximum performance in terms of waterproof seal and breathability. The productive process is carried out entirely in Italy and consists in bonding leather and GORE-TEX® membrane through hot lamination onto jackets already partially constructed. This technique requires less stitching and therefore reduces the amount of heat-taping necessary while ensuring the garment with the best waterproof seal possible.

The same procedure has also been transferred to other selected technical items in the Motorbike Collection.

Tattoo - The Art of Motorcycle

The concept behind the Tattoo racing suite is inspired by the art of tattoo that now interprets the style of the modern motorcycle rider as it once adorned the bodies of valorous warriors in centuries past. A sandwich panel laser system between kangaroo hide and Lorica creates sensational visual impact: the figures that recall ancient Samurai patterns and Maori motifs in pale colored design leap right out of the suit's black backgound. The craftsman's skill and technological innovation come together in a combination that D-TEC® has adopted to explore roads not yet taken and create absolutely unique products.

CLICK HERE to visit Dainese's Tatoo website