The first Back Protector
You'd never thought of it before. Then someone proposes a shell that protects your back and says it's going to save you. That's not really easy to believe, right off the bat.
Yet Lino Dainese succeeded in convincing first MotoGP racers and then World Cup skiers to wear his Back Protector. That made it the red devil company's symbol: a product that cuts across lines and exports Lino's original concept of safety and protection from the world from the race track to the ski slope by way of snowboards, kite-surf, and mountain bikes.
Once again, the story of the birth of the first back protector for motorcycle riders is a result of the technical sponsorship of MotoGP racers.
Lino listened to the racers, especially those like Barry Sheene who were looking more to the future. He had a hunch, and discussed it with Marc Sadler, the most significant designer in Dainese history. Marc thought of the armadillo, flying insects that fall to ground and get up without a wince. A spinal shell: that was the idea.
Barry Sheene was interested and believed in Lino Dainese right from the start. He'd already broken enough bones as it was, risking his life at 250 km/hour on the Daytona track when a tire burst. He also knew the fine line between life and death was almost invisible because it lies hidden just beneath the surface. The back protector immediately seemed like the right solution.
Mother Nature inspired the shape of this remarkable innovation with the armadillo's jointed corazza more than the lobster's shell a masterpiece of biomechanical engineering. Human protection developed through Medieval and Renaissance armor that offered protection, ergonomics and safety to the privileged few. Created by ingenious craftsmen, they were extremely expensive, and reserved to only the most wealthy.
This is the challenge today: transform concepts inspired by nature and the most brilliant ideas in history in order to create protectors to be offered to the widest number of users possible.
Democracy has finally come to the world of protection.
"The back protector was not developed at the suggestion of marketing men or as a profitable niche market product, but rather the expression of a real desire to provide people with protection against trauma. The driving principle was "to do some good”, and it's perhaps not presumptuous to say that it's the result of good design in which form is the fruit of function. Over the years, the Dainese back protector has become something of a cult, receiving awards and recognition, but the most gratifying thing of all is the awareness that it has helped save lives."
Marc Sadler