Newsletter

April 2010	d3o products	d3o website	Forward to a friend
	Hello! Welcome to the d3o newsletter! We've been really busy this year so far with trade shows, product launches and loads of design & development, so we thought it was about time we told you what we've been up to...

	New product launches: 2010 saw the first of many future launches into the motorcycle market with Klim in the US and Held in Germany (products available globally). Both products are beautiful in their construction, especially the Klim Adventure Rally Gear which has spent 2 years in development and is possibly one of the most technically advanced products on the market - containing all the latest technology including Gore-Tex® and SuperFabric® to name just a couple. Check out the Klim Adventure Rally catalogue here.

	We have been working with new brands in the mountainbike market in the US & Canada, namely Mace (US) & Race Face (Canada) who both came to d3o™ looking for a way to create a kneepad that was much more comfortable than the traditional hard shell pad, enabling much more flexibility, and therefore fun, when you are on your bike. With each brand we tailored our suggested offering, so each solution is actually different in the way it uses d3o™. Both the Race Face Ambush pads and the Mace Renegade kneepads and shinpads are really flexible and contain no hard shell, so massively increase your range of motion whilst pedallingwhilst still passing the EN1621-1 standard - brief achieved. Find out more about the products and retailers on the d3o products page or on the Race Face Website.

	Our partner in the electronics protection market, Tech 21 (maker of the iBand as seen on Dragon’s Den and other d3o™ cases that provide up to 277% more protection than other cases) has been pumping out the products on the High Street too, not only can you get the hugely popular iBand, you an also now get your hands on a new neoprene sleeve to protect your laptop that contains d3o™ in the vital areas (you can find these in PC World, Curry’s and Comet). The iBand is available from the Apple Store online, click here for the whole product line.

	New markets: d3o™ has also made an appearance in some North American Sports for the first time with the launch of the Nfinity women’s volleyball kneepad and a whole range of Lacrosse equipment from STX. The team in the lab at d3o™ worked really hard with both brands on creating a solution for their product problems. Again flexibility was key to the functionality of all these products, so d3o carried out a whole range of test scenarios to decide what the best combination of materials was to achieve the brief. The Nfinity pad is actually a custom designed pad which fits perfectly and Discreetly inside the super thin pads. Have a look at the STX site for more info on the product, and for all the budding lady volleyball players out there take a look at the streamlined Nfinity kneepads in detail here.

	d3o™ in the Olympics We have been working with Spyder over the last 12 months to develop a new protective system for the Olympic race suits that were used in Vancouver last month. The new “slippery suit” contains 3 innovations that improve the suit’s aerodynamics and result in significant time gains for the Athletes using the suits, including a new kind of d3o™ that is performance enhanced and lighter weight. The US team won no less than 9 gold, 15 silver and 13 bronze medals in Vancouver wearing the d3o™ enabled suits in the Slalom and Giant Slalom. If you want to read more about the suit click here to download the press release.

	ISPO 2010 In February, d3o™ were once again exhibiting at the biggest winter trade show in Europe, and possibly the world! We had a great time meeting all of our customers as well as a lot of new people interested in making new d3o™ products for the 2011 season. Some new products launched at the show included 3 soft back protectors from Scott which use our new back protector product, some new apparel products integrating d3o™ into the knees & elbows of outerwear by Chanex and Envy as well as the HEAD ski jacket and pants launched last year which are in the shops now. All these new products will be in retail for next season (Sept 2010) so you’ll have to wait a bit to get your hands on them! Download our snow season press release here.

	New d3o™ developments We have been working with the UK MoD over the past year developing new product solutions for the troops. We won 3 development contracts for a new integrated knee and elbow pad for the combat uniforms, a new helmet liner solution, and to develop a product for ballistics. The kneepad project is almost finished and has produced some amazing products as a result of the work we have done combining a flexible hard shell with d3o™. These new products will be making an appearance in our other markets like motorcycle and mountainbiking too with a whole new collection of possibilities combining the amazing softness and flexibility of d3o™ with penetration resistance and flexibility of DuPont® Hytrel® providing a truly revolutionary flexible protective pad for combat. The next military show you can find us at is SOFEX in Jordan, click here for more info: http://www.sofexjordan.com/

	Back protector: After numerous requests for a back protector as soft, flexible and thin as our limb protectors, d3o™ has produced our first ever back protector, that is amazingly only 11mm thick. The back protector is designed to integrate into jackets (as with Klim) or a separate strap on back protector design (as with Scott’s products) and is fully certified to EN1621-2. The product has gone down a storm in snowsports so far and will also be used by some of the brands you know in motorcycle next season - Click here for more info.

	d3o™ team Many of the d3o™ team also managed to get to the mountains in amongst all this action for some product testing, we covered Chamonix, Verbier, Cormayeur, Tignes, Laax, Clavier, Montgenevre, Sauze d’oux, Sansicario, St. Anton, Utah (Brighton - 28 inches of powder overnight! the Canyons & Solitude) AND Niseco in Japan, not bad! We’re now looking forward to the sun coming out, the beach is calling and the volleyball season is about to begin! Hey, where are those kneepads...?? Signing off for now!

d3o lab
Microscape House, Hove Park Villas, Hove, East Sussex, BN 3 6HX, UK
info@d3olab.com.com
www.d3o.com