Moonwalkr Mind

World’s Coolest Cricket Helmet

Moonwalkr was built on the promise to revolutionize Cricket, a sport that brings hearts and nations together. Their mission is to enhance player performance through gear built around the modern cricketer.

The Indian sub-continent is home to almost 2 billion people. 6 nations, united only in the love of the game. A game where the players are hero worshipped like Gods!

A few bad performances and the players’ careers start to hang by a thread. Given the population size of the sub-continent, there are always a dozen ready to take your place!

It’s a well-known fact that good gear can enhance sporting performance by up to 22%. Conversely, bad gear has the potential to scuttle rising careers. And most cricket gear sold in the sub-continent is based upon or imported Western Gear.

Gear made for the White Caucasian males is simply too big for the sub-continent player! And is geared for their temperate climes, not our hot, humid and dusty conditions. A double whammy that affects the player’s performance and in the most severe cases, their careers!

We worked with Moonwalkr to design a helmet- one that is built around the sub-continental cricketers’ body and suited to the hot and humid playing conditions. And with Moonwalkr being a startup, a design that would be distinctive, stand out from the crowd and promote the brand.

Skin in the Game- We knew that Moonwalkr being a startup would need every Rupee they had to get the product to the market. To help them do that, we put our skin in the game. We would take a nominal fee upfront and take royalty on the product sales!

Project Insights

Or a product that would break the mold, it had to,

1. Fit snugly around the cricketers’ heads.

2. Keep heads cool under the hot and humid conditions.

3. Protect against impact yet be lightweight to reduce fatigue.

Put the User First

Unlike our western counterparts, not much data exists about Indian body sizes. We researched deep to find out correlations between the Western and the Indian body sizes. In this, we had the good fortune of having access to current players, both seasoned pros and those entering the game. Their insights helped us narrow down head sizes apt for the professional version of the game.

Understand the Context

Sub-continental playing conditions are typically hot and humid. And turn helmets into sweat buckets! Accumulated sweat irritates the players, causes loss of concentration and drops in performance. We designed the helmet with a 30-point Air Vent system, giving the highest grade of air circulation and sweat management. Result: The World’s Coolest Cricket Helmet!

Lightweight Body, Heavyweight Protection

As mentioned before, sub-continental cricketers are smaller than their White Caucasian counterparts. They need gear that’s smaller, lighter to reduce fatigue, yet uncompromising in terms of protection. Protection from a leather ball coming at 160kmph that is. We designed the helmet to have sloping front and side faces to ensure any blow becomes a glancing blow. And that allowed us to reduce the material needed to deliver best-in-class protection, making it lighter than its contemporaries.

Design for Media

IPL is the world’s most followed tournament. Every part of the cricketer’s body is used to promote the sponsors’ brands. We created dedicated branding hot spots on the helmet where the TV cameras would focus. Doing this allowed us to win over players who had been used to wearing competitor brands till date.

Rolling with the Bouncers

Bouncers are surprise deliveries a bowler bowls to intimidate batsmen. They’re meant to be unexpected and break the batters’ rhythm. One such bouncer was the death of Phil Hughes, an upcoming Australian cricketer while playing the game. He was struck just below the helmet while ducking away from a bouncer. This event led to a massive rethink of lower head/neck protection in the cricket world. We had to pause our production release and redesign the helmet to address the issue.

Result: The world’s first cricket helmet with inbuilt lower head-neck junction protection.

Key Tasks Accomplished

1. Concept Development

2. Helmet Design

3. Prototype Design

4. Materials Selection

5. Design for Manufacturing

6. Prototype Liaison

7. Postproduction support

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