Bell Helmets: No Longer Made In the Usa?
Bell Helmets: No Longer Made in the USA?
ROUNDUP
BELL SPORTS, THE AMERICAN company that for years was the undisputed world leader in motorsports helmets, soon will cease U.S. production of most of its motorcycle helmets and use the resulting production capacity to build bicycle helmets.
Mark Dwyre, Bell’s national sales manager, said the company is making the move because it needs to put more financial and management emphasis on the company’s growing bicycle division. Dwyre said production of about 1500 motorsports helmets per day, in a roughly equal mix of dirt and street helmets, has remained fairly constant over the past four years, but that during the same time, production of the company’s bicycle helmets has grown from 250 per day to 10,000 per day.
To find the production capacity at the company’s Rantoul, Illinois plant to accommodate this growth, Dwyre said, “We decided to look for alternate sourcing of some models of the Bell motorsport helmet. A couple of models always will be built here in the U.S., but we’re also looking to see if there are factories in Europe and Southeast Asia that have the ability to build helmets with the quality we require, at some savings, with some new technologies. We’ve contacted manufacturers we’ve had dealings with in the past, sent them samples of our product and asked them to give us prototypes of the same helmets so we can evaluate them.”
Dwyre told Cycle World that a decision on which helmets will be built here, and which will be built overseas, has not yet been taken and ultimately will depend on the quality and price of those prototype helmets. The actual phase-out of most of the company’s domestic helmet production will be gradual, Dwyre said, and probably will begin in early fall.
Bell’s move comes in the face of a helmet market generally acknowledged to be shrinking. And though the size of each manufacturer’s market share has been closely guarded, according to Rick Mitchell, publisher of Motorcycle Industry Magazine, “At one point, the market was dominated by Bell. For the past couple of years, Bieffe, HJC and Shoei have been really hot, and Arai and Kiwi are also doing extremely well. They all have to be getting their market share from someplace.”
Response to Bell’s decision from representatives of the other players in the helmet business was guarded. Said one manufacturer’s spokesman, “They’re going to lose the mystique of‘Made in America.’ I don’t know if they can ever regain the prestige they’re going to be giving away.”
Said another, “I think they’ve fallen a little bit behind the times. Their name, their history in the business is unmatchable. To see this ‘Made in the USA’ product go away and be an overseas operation is a shame.”
Yet Dwyre is eager to make the point that Bell can in no way be counted out of the helmet wars. He said, “This may look like a retreat, from the surface, but it certainly is not. It’s just better use of the facilities and personnel we have.”
—Jon F. Thompson
