After buying her first bicycle in college, Danielle Baskin quickly realized that most bike helmets are pretty dorky looking. (Functional, yes.) So she decided to start creating her own... Her Belle Helmets are hand-painted and vinyl-printed designs for cyclists. We're all for entrepreneurship (and we like the helmets) ... so we asked the East Village resident, an illustrator by trade, about her burgeoning Belle Helmets business.
How long have you been creating the helmets? What inspired you to do the first one?
I've had a business painting helmets for four years. My first "Belle Helmet" was actually made six years ago, when I was a sophomore in college, right after I purchased my first bicycle in New York. I didn't really want to wear a helmet, but riding a bike in Manhattan warrants one. I'm a painter and I wanted to do something with it.
My idea was to buy a helmet and make it "invisible" by making it look like a sky. I painted it shades of blue with fluffy white clouds and varnished it with a glossy finish that would reflect the actual sun. While I didn't really camouflage the helmet, I ended up making a cool, surreal object. I was excited to wear it. I painted a few for friends, then over a few years developed a small collection of ideas that would work well on a curved surface. The business turned real my last year of college when I set up a website. Which worked as the Internet does! People all over the world found me and emailed me. In my first year I was psyched to ship a few helmets to Australia, Spain and Norway.
However functional, bike helmets can be rather hideous looking. Do you think this is a reason why some people decide not to wear one?
Definitely! It's an accessory that should be modified to personal taste. The worldwide helmet market is rather small, and so the same exact designs end up appearing in every bike store, often in a limited color pallet that's been picked over. It makes sense; there's the issue of production. Small batches of varying designs are nearly impossible to create in a factory. And certain designs would be too intricate to print on a helmet's surface by a machine or the image could get warped.
There are a few helmet companies creating interesting colors and whimsical designs, but some turn out too quirky or are missing a personal touch. My goal is to get more people to wear helmets by having options that are subtle, that could be seen as a fashion accessory, or options that are just plain cool and good conversation pieces, like homunculus diagrams and phrenology charts, or options that are tailored specific to a cyclist's personality, which is why I have the choice of customizability. It's like I'm making art for your head.
Is Belle Helmets a full-time job for you now?
It's a full-time project that's also a company. A roundabout way of saying: I'll be painting and designing helmets for a long time to come, but I have a few other things that I hope to do simultaneously.
And it's just a one-person operation?
Yep. For now. I typically always have around 40 helmets in my apartment at various stages of completion. While I'm currently handling all aspects of the operation, even non-painting projects like selling helmets out of a tricycle, or making my website cooler, I'd like to one day have a small Belle Helmets team and a studio space, so more work can be made.
And we can't let you go without asking for your thoughts on Citi Bike. Three-plus months in, what do you think of the bike-share program?
Bike share is progress for humanity! It's incredible that Citi Bike has made biking as mode-of-transportation much more inclusive and popular in New York than it was pre-bike share. It has invited a lot of folks to start cycling who wouldn't have otherwise ridden a bike due to the commitments that come with owning one. Once glitches are worked out with the software, and dock distribution matches commuting patterns, Citi Bike has a promising future.
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Because someone may ask: The helmets are CPSC-certified, ASTM-compliant (which means they're totally safe to wear). The designs are created with acrylics, archival ink, and vinyl then treated with a non-toxic, non-corrosive, water-resistant polyurethane sealer to prevent chipping and scratching. More details here.
