In 1985, the same year Jim Gentes, a cyclist who worked as a designer at Blackburn Design, founded the company in Thorkel, California, the American Cycling Association (now USA Cycling) required all cyclists to meet the standards of the National Standards Institute. Since the safety standards were set to force the wearing of helmets that fit, with the cooperation of NASA engineer Raymond Hicks, we developed and released a helmet called Prolite made of Lycra. This was the beginning of a lightweight frameless helmet and the beginning of GIRO's long history.
