How did you hear about S1 Helmets and how did you start working with them?
After 3 years as Marketing for District Freestyle Scooter, one of the biggest brand in the game, and with a strong confidence in the growth of the emerging scooter scene, I set up to contact brands in the action sports realm to get them involved in this new sport.
I come from the skate and surf world, I do not ride scooter and of course I was fully aware of the “board racism” in our culture.
Active youth, pushing their limit, passionate, having tons of fun, I don’t see any reason for segregation!
Yes scooters still have a bad image because of young kids not knowing the park rules and being just annoying little brats without parents supervision, but as the sport is growing so are its audience. If you happen to see any top riders at your local park doing back flips and flairs on concrete, I doubts anyone would fell not be impressed by the level and commitment.
However, most companies still are not seeing the business potential of this market, blinded by their core skate views - plain “board racism”, no doubts.
So, finding the right brand to partner with was not an easy task, lot of doors just close shut at the word “scooter”.
Then, while camping in Joshua Tree, I stumble upon a @S1Helmets Insta video. The clip about the added protection of certified helmets resonated right away! This was a message the scoot industry was ready for.
Immediately, I knew S1 had the potential to make huge heads way in the scooter scene. Like all actions sports, scootering is adrenaline filled and testosterone boosted…helmets have never been cool. However, with added brain exposure with flips and flairs, scootering did need certified helmets. Lot of top riders who have been accumulating contusions over the years, knew they needed better protection but only soft shells were distributed in scoot shops, so only a few guys were wearing certified helmets.
A few informed parents went to skate shops to get certified helmets for their kids.
The crew at S1 embraced my view to take over the scooter market in an instant. Dominated by the desire to make action sports safer, Chris Terins and Dan McCashin, founders of S1 jumped into the opportunity to bring the right product to this burgeoning scene!
The S1 Scoot Division was started! And scooter heads are safer since!
What do you do for S1?
I’m the Sales and Brand Manager for S1 Helmets Scooter Division.
If the main goal is of course to sell S1 helmets, the underlaying objective is to stop the proliferation of soft shell helmets. The S1 certified helmets provide up to 5 times more protection than soft shell, making the helmet actually “useful”.
My duties include both boosting the demand through marketing and educational efforts and open up a distribution network within scoot shops.
Before S1 arrival on the market, scooter shops only carried the soft shell helmets who have dominated the market for decades. We needed to create a huge buzz to reverse the trend and change mentality about helmets.
My job is to keep this trend going, keep explaining shops and riders the need for real protection.
Upon starting the scoot division, we faced a market situation were almost no-one on the scene new the brand and only a few concerned parents and top pros understood the need for certified helmets. It was Ground Zero.
While my experience is in marketing and events organization, I never had to sell the products I was promoting! I’m glad that with S1, I connect both, sales & promotion, providing a full service to S1 but also to the retailers who were quick to notice the marketing efforts and the increase demand.
Daily work consist in talking to existing or future clients, chase orders and providing consumer services needed, the “Sales part”.
The other part of the job is to maintain the Instagram page @S1scoot and manage our elite team of “Certified” ambassadors and continually growing team of #S1Lifer. So, “chasing” assets is also part of the daily work, asking riders for pics and clips, setting up giveaway for riders YouTube channel and such, the usual Team manager duties.
How many “can I be sponsored” DM have I replied to? Too Many to count!
How many riders did we choose to hook up? Lot! About 60 on my list! From top pros competing in the Nitro Circus Games to the cool kid always smiling!
More were hooked up with YouTube giveaway and such.
The scooter scene in a few months is now well aware of S1 Helmets and many more now know the difference in between soft shell and certified helmets.
Undialed video “Saving your life” has now over 160,000 views https://youtu.be/HEsbeb9yqdk and made a huge impact getting the S1 name out there.
Working with young athletes is always a blast, with S1 we get to protect their brains too and that’s a better feeling that any sales numbers!
Which Scoot accounts are carrying S1 Helmets in the USA?
This number is growing as our marketing efforts expand.
It was an uphill battle to open those first shops. Traditionally, certified helmets have been bulky, but not the s1 which fits just right on your head and doesn't look much different than a soft shell.
S1 was the first company to step up the safety and make a great fitting certified helmet.
Many shops response was “we do not carry certified helmets”.. for 2 reasons, One, the look, kids don’t like to wear those bulky helmets and do want to look like the skaters guys… Two, you can find certified helmets on discount websites for lower than the MSRP, with such a concurrence, scoot shop had no incentive to carry certified helmets even though it was what the scene needed.
With top riders immediately approving of the fit and look of the S1 helmets, the first hurdle was quickly behind us, it was obvious that the S1 fits just right and bulkiness and look couldn’t be brought up as a reason not to buy.
S1 strong MAP policy (Minimum Advertise Price) gives a strong support to Mom & Pop stores as online discounters do not provide unfair competition. That was perfect the scoot retailers and a huge incentive for carrying the right product into their stores.
Not surprisingly, it was the shops owns by concerns parents who came first on board. Suzie Harris owner of Ronka Underground park and pro shop, with the insta handle @crazyscootermum didn’t need much convincing. Neither were Nicole and Kevin at the Scooter Warehouse, another pro shop in The ATown skatepark. No surprise there, if your shop is within a park, how often do you see kids getting injured? How often concern parents talk to you about safety concern?
From there we grew. Of course first to the shops I could pay a personal visit too, giving a personal touch to the safety speech. Big thanks to many shop managers/riders who knew the need for certified helmets and provided a valuable help to “get in”. Then, cold calling! Not the most fun thing to do particularly when you have still a strong French accent but at least I do not have to introduce myself anymore my accent give me away at “Hello”.
Shop like Dynamic Scooters in Colorado, which first dryly hang up on the “spam” cold but quickly warmed up after a follow up Email “Im sure you can understand!” of course I did, I hate sales calls!
Big or small each retailer is really important as they impact their local scene. Being a safety brand, our success doesn’t only measure by the $ amount of our sales but also by the number of riders we help be safer, by the brains we are saving. For this reason, huge thanks to all the retailers who have embraced S1 Helmets.
A dozen more retailers have expressed strong interest to carry S1 but as all veteran sales man know, it takes time to open accounts and seal those deals!
As S1 presence grows in the skatepark and riders testimonials are flowing social media, each new shop is easier to open than the previous!
Also, S1 helmets will now be available in Europe through distribution by AJ Scoot and work is on the way to have a strong presence on the scoot scene in Australia.
Who is on the scoot team?
We adopted a loose definition of “team”. With the need to "show” S1 and build its presence in the scooter world, we had to hook up lot of riders, get “real estate"
If you got a free S1 helmet, are you a team rider? Not really, we just hooked you up with “No String attached”. Now, if once hooked up, a rider supports S1 by tagging and posting on Social Media then he is considered part of the “Hook up" team.
Our “Hook up” team has about 60 riders promoting S1 on a regular basis and this number is constantly growing as we expand to new regional markets and open new retailers.They are top pro riders, young riders on the comp circuit, “OG” influencers who have been in the sports since day 1 or just the kids his parents helped us reach new grounds.
As a Team Manager, you cannot focus and provide quality support to a huge number of riders, so we also created an elite team of “Certified Ambassadors”. Those guys have been hand picked for their energy and enthusiasm, their personality even more than their riding skills, though they have give us in these first months many podiums!
Our Certified Ambassadors are:
- Brig Beck (California) - The Scooter Zone
- Willy Cashion (California/Colorado) - The Scooter Farm / Undialed TV (pictured)
- Clayton Lindley (California / Texas) - The Scooter Farm / Undialed TV
- Chris Farris (California) - The Scooter Warehouse
- Chandler Dunn (california) - The Scooter Stop
- Will Barlow (Australia) - The Scooter Farm
- Jordan Robles (California) - The Shop Pro Scooter Lab
- Anders Svenne (Denmark) - AJ Scoot Shop
The achievements of those riders are too many to mentioned from Brig winning the 11 year old Division at last weekend Scooter Zone contest (he is 8…), to Chris Farris winning SD11 the biggest event aside the Word Championship (he was injured for that!), to Clayton, Chris and Will making it to the Nitro Circus World Games final.
Big Thanks to our Ambassador team and to all the #S1Lifer out there
What do you like about the S1 Lifer Helmet?
S1 helmets provide a real protection, up to 5 times more than soft shells.
I did tested the Lifer myself… crashing full speed on a skate downhill and didn’t feel anything on my head (12 stitch from the sunglasses hitting my eyebrow).
So the protection is the main stand out of the S1 helmets and this is due to the EPS Fus1on foam but also to the perfect fit the S1 helmets provide.
The color coded liners system is just pretty sick, allowing to adjust the fitting just right, one millimeter at the time.
While certified helmets are traditionally bulky, the S1 helmets is not. in a crowd of riders, it was easy to isolate the ones with certified bulky helmets, not anymore! Fashion senses are not irritated by the S1 fit, it just looks right. This is really important in a crowd of active teenagers!
So suddenly you have a helmet that does provide real protection and doesn’t make you look weird, those are the ingredients for a success story.
The S1 Lifer is making helmets cool.
This is obvious by the constant flow of positive testimonials we receive, riders are not proud to be a #S1Lifer.
Quality product + look = win win!!
How would you describe the S1 as a company?
S1 is committed to safety. Taking the decision in 2012, after testing various helmets, to stop producing and selling soft shell helmets because they do NOT provide sufficient protection is a huge commitment to safety and considerable business risk.
In a market dominated by soft shell, stopping your best selling product speaks volume. It takes guts and it's paying off as more and more riders (and parents) are getting aware of the difference in protection.
How many more brains were saved because of this decision? How many more riders are now wearing certified helmets? How many less contusions?
This translates no only in S1 products but also to the general philosophy of the brand, safety is number one, profits come after.
This is well illustrated by the number of scoot riders we have been hooking up since opening the scoot Division, 1st spread the good words, sales will follow.
Long Beach rider Dejion Taylor is a good example about changing this mentality, this dude goes huge, lot of amplitude but until recently never wore a helmet, now hooked up with a perfectly fitting S1 he will not ride without it.
Mentalities about wearing helmets are changing and that is big thanks to the S1 combo of perfect fit and enhance protection.
In summary, the S1 Lifer Helmet:
• Perfect Fit
• Lightweight
• Multi and High Impact Certified
• Batch tested for strict quality control
• Great Team and Marketing
• Support to the sport & its growth
• Strict Online MAP Policy (protects core retailers)
Follow us on Instagram @S1Scoot
Look for S1 Lifer helmets and liners at your local scooter shop or get yours online:
http://shop.s1helmets.com/s1-helmets/
Enter promo code “Undialed” to win monthly prizes and a chance to win a trip to Woodward with Undialed!
For wholesales inquiries, contact Pierre Camoin pierrecamoin@gmail.com, Subject line “Certified Helmet”!!
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