Schuberth North America recently invited journalists to meet with company executives at a media event in Southern California. Staged in a historic aircraft hangar on a former military base, the company displayed several of its existing and historic products and previewed a soon-to-be-released adventure helmet. Roadracing World interviewed Randy Northrup, Schuberth North America Vice President, at the event, which featured an appearance by IndyCar driver Townsend Bell, a display of Kawasaki H2 supercharged bikes and a pair of racing Lamborghini sports cars.

Roadracing World: What is the short-term strategic plan for Schuberth in the North American market?

Randy Northrup: Schuberth North America is a wholly owned subsidiary of Schuberth GmbH out of Magdeburg, Germany. So we are their distribution arm. We started with just being a flip-up helmet – the C3, then the C3W, introducing full-face S2, the SR1, which for roadracing is our racing helmet. That helmet was actually founded with Michael Schumacher when he retired from Formula One the first time and started racing motorcycles. That’s where we started. Of course, the North American market is very important for a helmet company, and Schuberth being a head protection company, we’re expanding all areas of the head protections that we do. If you walk around in here, you’ll see the crowd control helmets, the fire fighting, police, military and work protection helmets. There’s a whole line of five core competencies that really are our (specialty). There’s the SF1 helmet that you saw Townsend Bell on, the Lamborghini team is racing in our helmets, and they really bring all of our technologies together. You have bullet-proof face shields. You have helmets that foam up and extinguish themselves when they catch on fire – things like that that are interesting. As we’ve established ourselves right now, we have a plan for several new models to be coming out over the next several years.

RW: How important is the motorcycling segment to Schuberth?

RN: It’s the most important. It’s the most volume. Motorcycling is the beneficiary of all those other activities. You take our Class 1 optic face shields – those come from the auto racing side. The way that Schuberth builds helmets is different that everyone else. Everything is designed and developed in an aerodynamic and aero-acoustic wind tunnel…

RW: Aero-acoustic?

RN: What does it sound like inside the helmet? How much noise does it generate? We have a super-quiet, felt-lined wind tunnel that was just opened in Magdeburg – it was relocated from Braunschweig, where it was originally located. We’ve been using that for over 30 years. It’s not just about how the air flows over the helmet and whether it is stable, but what does it sound like inside?

RW: Where does Schuberth see the North American motorcycling market going in the next five years?

RN: If we had a crystal ball… We do know that based on our success that there is a need for quality products, something that really works, that you can count on working, and so we are going to continue to do what we do best, which is to make very good products that work and perform. They flow air when you open the vents! Those sorts of things are important to people. A lot of times, they don’t work that way …

RW: In terms of price on the scale of helmets, where does Schuberth fit in?

RN: At the very top. Schuberth is a technology company. There are more expensive helmets out there, but they are usually graphics, limited-edition graphics. Schuberth sells solid-color helmets for the most part. We recently introduced some graphics. It’s the technology and the performance of the helmet that is most important to a German engineer. It’s not about the fashion aspect, not about some famous racer who uses the helmet. That’s great, but the market is changing. People truly want the performance. They realize that the graphics are just paint. And if the helmet looks great on your head, but if it’s noisy …

RW: Among the various segments of motorcycling, what do you see as the most important segment over the next few years?

RN: We’ve done our research, we’ve looked. What it comes down to is what targeted groups do we want to go after. The helmet we are (previewing) tonight is an ADV (adventure) helmet. That is certainly a great market. We have a plan for several new models. I’m not going to reveal them now, but – we are not just a flip-up helmet company. I’ll give you that.