Back in 1995, Troy Lee Designs’ Daytona downhill helmet helped usher in a new era of aggressively-styled full-face lids, baggy moto kit and an attitude to match, changing the face of the sport forever. Two decades on, its gear remains at the top of many riders’ ‘most wanted’ lists.
Whether you wait with bated breath for next year’s lines to drop or find its kit a bit garish, there’s no denying that TLD is one of the most influential helmet and clothing brands in mountain biking. We sat down with Mr Troy Lee himself during a rare visit to the UK to find out what he’s working on now and where he sees the sport going. Here's what he had to say...
Mild and wild designs
“I focus quite a bit on helmets, a little bit less on the clothing. Graphics are probably what I’m best at. I’ve hired another guy to work on the clothing and he’s super-talented. I’ve also hired two new people on helmets and I’m working with them to see if there’s any new technology we can do. We’ve been perfecting two-tone gloss and matt finishes recently.
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“We’re working on, like, five helmets right now, but it’s always like that. I’ll sketch something, we’ll go away and work on something else, then we’ll come back to it. If we think something’s cool we’ll give it to an athlete and see how the public react and how cool it really is. We do 15 custom-painted helmets a week too. I don’t paint them too often but I do draw them up.
“I definitely feel there’s a TLD look. It’s inspired a lot by going to the races. I love working with the IndyCar and NASCAR guys, alongside MX and bikes, and we’ve done ski helmets too. I always try to keep things looking racy and fast. It’s hard because customers vary in what they want. Sometimes we’ll go wild on the graphics and other times we’ll do block colours, so really we do everything from mild to wild.
"Sometimes we’ll do something and the employees will say we’re pushing it, but then we'll put it on someone like [Brendan] Fairclough or [Aaron] Gwin and that endorses that it’s cool. If we don’t keep surprising people then we’re going backwards.”
Embracing e-bikes
Shaking up the race scene
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