Mips: Evolution and Culture

When I landed in Stockholm, I was fresh off of a trip from sampling another Swedish company's (by way of Austria these days) offerings high in the mountains of Portugal. Going from sweat-drenched trailside stops to recoup energy after spicy trail sections to the crisp, calm autumnal vibe of Södermalm just south of the old city center of Gamla Stan, the overall contrast was just as jarring as the frigid air blowing in off of the Baltic sea.

After spending a day with the folks in the Mips office which ranged from engineers, to marketing representatives and even CEO, Max Strandwitz, taking in the culture was nearly as impactful as our time in the lab watching live testing. As is often the case, seeing a brand in its home environment reveals how deeply local culture influences the final product. Functional, minimal, understated, innovative, and human-centered — qualities that define Swedish design — were clearly reflected in both the people and the technology they create.

Turns out, you do have to be a neurosurgeon

Founded in 2001 by a Stockholm-based neurosurgeon who repeatedly treated patients with traumatic brain injuries despite helmet use, Mips was born from a simple but unsettling question: why weren’t helmets doing more? The answer lay in rotational motion — how angled impacts cause the brain to rotate inside the skull, producing damaging, shearing forces. Research into the problem began as early as 1996 in collaboration with a technical university in Stockholm, eventually leading to the Multi-directional Impact Protection System inspired by the brain’s own cerebrospinal fluid.

Today, Mips operates as an “ingredient brand,” partnering with approximately 150 helmet manufacturers across more than 1,000 helmet models. More than 50 million Mips-equipped helmets have been sold worldwide, spanning cycling, motorcycling, snow sports, construction, equestrian, and climbing. Cycling remains the company’s largest category, but motorcycling was the first industry to adopt Mips’ finite element modeling (FEM) approach.

That technical depth is where the company quietly separates itself. Mips runs around 1,000 physical tests per month and has conducted nearly 97,000 tests since its inception. Every helmet model and size is tested, with careful control of head positioning, head mass, and impact angles. Oblique impacts — now widely recognized as far more damaging than purely linear ones — are a central focus. In testing, helmets without a slip-plane system often rebound sharply after impact, while Mips-equipped helmets show more controlled motion as energy is redirected.

The company’s research infrastructure includes a virtual test lab powered by LS-DYNA finite element simulations, the same class of modeling used in automotive and aerospace engineering. With these virtual labs, Mips can provide services to manufacturers, before a prototype is even physically created. Each simulation requires detailed material data about materials such as EPS foam, plastics, carbon fiber, etc. — and precise modeling of how those materials interact under load and with each other. Using this data, Mips can help manufacturers evaluate a helmet’s theoretical performance before a physical prototype exists, significantly reducing development time. Traditional testing cycles can take three to six months; FEM-based modeling can compress that to a matter of weeks.

More than 20 partner brands now use Mips’ FEM services, including several in the motorcycle sector. While the company began internal FEM work around 2010, it formally offered the service to partners in 2019. The result is faster iteration, better-informed design decisions, and helmets that are optimized for real-world impact scenarios — particularly rotational ones, which research has flagged as problematic since at least the 1940s.

Despite its technical focus, the culture inside the Stockholm headquarters is impossible to miss. Twice a day, the office pauses for Fika — Sweden’s ritualized coffee break. Group lunches are the norm. In a time known for relentless schedules regardless of the industry, watching an entire office step away from their desks — collectively and nearly without exception — is refreshing.

That people-first mindset carries into how Mips operates commercially. Our conversations repeatedly returned to long-term partnerships, shared values, and engineering solutions that meaningfully reduce injury risk. Announced in December, for example, Mips AB acquired Koroyd, “a multi-dimensional energy management platform that spans head protection, body and hand protection in verticals that include sport, motorsport, defence, industrial safety and child restraint systems.” As a proponent of the tech, I believe this will prove to be a substantial partnership between the brands. Mips continues to expand globally — about 40,000 retail locations now sell Mips-equipped helmets.

The company didn’t become profitable until 2015, more than a decade after its founding. Today, it holds a leading position across multiple helmet categories, backed by an extensive patent portfolio and one of the world’s largest datasets on energy-absorbing materials. Yet its stated mission remains unchanged: reduce head injuries and save lives.

With the recent acquisition of Koroyd alongside the ever-growing portfolio of partners and digital counter ticking off tests world-wide daily, it’ll be exciting to see what’s next for Mips in the coming years. Given how long helmets have been lined with styrofoam (EPS) and how recently the discussion around rotational injury solutions have arisen, it’s about time helmet technology sees an accelerated advancement in safety — and Mips appears to be poised to make that change.