‘Break-Apart’ Bike Helmet Claims to Dramatically Reduce Concussion Risk: RLS Tech

For Tony White, the Chief Technology Officer of nascent helmet brand RLS, the snow globe on his desk isn’t for nostalgia. It’s a prop to explain the different forces that impact our brains in an accident.

A simple up-and-down motion certainly creates a flurry of snow, but a quick rotation causes a miniature blizzard. It’s a fitting analogy for the brand’s research into the two primary forces — linear and rotational — that can damage our brains. By reducing the impact of rotational motion, rather than just linear, the minds behind RLS say they’ve discovered a dramatic improvement in helmet technology.

Short for Release Layer System, RLS is a new patent that claims to reduce concussion risk. It involves exterior helmet panels that actually “break off” during a heavy impact. If your head crashes into something while wearing these helmets, tiny ball bearings roll and release the outer panels, dissipating the rotational force that can cause concussions.

Independent research has shown the technology to reduce concussion risk by four times compared to conventional helmets.

“That sort of result is completely unprecedented,” Jamey Cook, the founder and CEO of RLS Tech, told GearJunkie in a lengthy interview last week.

The widely respected helmet testers at Virginia Tech seem to agree: RLS’s first two helmets — a commuter model and an MTB model — have rocketed to the top two slots of the university’s top-rated helmets.

The HEXR Miden RLS helmet, a commuter model, is already available for $150, while the Canyon Deflectr RLS helmet for MTB will hit the market next month for $160.

Rotational Motion Prevention: From MIPS to RLS

Focusing on rotational motion for helmet safety is not exactly novel. Most cyclists will be familiar with MIPS, or Multi-directional Impact Protection System. GearJunkie founder Stephen Regenold first wrote about MIPS back in 2012, just a few years after it was first introduced to the cycling industry.

MIPS also aims to prevent rotational motion. Essentially, it’s a thin plastic liner that’s designed to work like a slip plane between the helmet and your head. Allowing the helmet to shift slightly on impact reduces the rotational forces transmitted to the brain, which may, in turn, decrease the chance of concussion.

These days, MIPS has become common on many modern commuter, gravel, mountain, and road bike helmets.

With RLS, however, concussion prevention will take another big leap forward, according to Cook. And his discovery of RLS happened “almost by accident.”

The lightbulb moment came during his development of 3D-printed bike helmets for another company he founded called HEXR. Cook developed the helmets with an external removable shell that was able to release upon impact.

“All the technology before was based on interior solutions,” Cook said. “So we were excited about discovering this external solution that could save lives.”

RLS: Looking Inside the Helmet

Both White and Cook understand that their technology is a bit difficult to explain. That’s why their website includes slow-motion comparison videos to show how the brand’s invention protects your noggin.

According to them, conventional bike helmets still do very little to prevent rotational motion, while the RLS-equipped helmets vastly reduce those forces.

“When I saw the results, I thought ‘This is magic,’” Cook told GearJunkie. “It turns the ground into a frictionless surface and reduces the rotational motion. The bearings roll so your head doesn’t …This all happens in 15 milliseconds.”

Within the layers of a helmet with RLS technology, RLS panels are connected to a lightweight polycarbonate bearing layer. It’s designed to activate only when a significant impact force has been detected. (So, dropping an RLS helmet on the ground won’t activate the panels, they said.)

When there is a strong impact, the technology works in milliseconds. The bearings are free to roll in any direction, allowing the RLS panel to release, and redirecting concussive forces away from the brain. According to RLS, the quick sequence of events occurs like this:

• React: The RLS adhesive layer is engineered to react instantaneously to specific impact force, releasing its grip and allowing bearings to roll.
• Roll: The RLS Panel is free to roll on lightweight polycarbonate bearings in any direction, redirecting rotational energy.
• Release: The RLS Panel releases to further dissipate rotational energy, which can help better protect helmet wearers.

So far, Virginia Tech isn’t the only independent tester to find that RLS could offer a big safety improvement to cyclists. Tests conducted at the University of Strasbourg (a leading research center in biomechanics) found that helmets with the Release Layer System offered a minimum 68% reduction of brain injuries.

The Future of RLS

Cook, White, and the other dozen or so employees of RLS have been developing the technology for the last 4 years. They think the technology could have applications across a wide variety of helmeted outdoor pursuits — not just cycling.

In addition to the Canyon Deflectr and HEXR Miden releases this fall, they have many more releases planned for 2026, they said. More importantly, they hope RLS Tech can help save more lives amid a rise in concussion-related injuries. Head trauma injuries caused by e-bikes, for example, were 49 times higher in 2022 than in 2017, according to a 2024 study from the University of California.

That’s reason enough to find new ways to protect cyclists from the many dangers they face each time they get on the road.

“There’s a big opportunity to drive change and hopefully see people being safer,” Cook said.