 Hi, I'm Luke, I'm the Helmet Buyer at Ellis Briggan Mountain Sports. I'm doing this video to give you a bit of an insight into helmets and why there's so many various prices and the differences between them all. Gone are the days where helmets are huge bulky things that look like you're getting sent into space. The new modern day ones are a lot lower profile, lighter and more comfortable to wear. The main thing to look at in helmets is the different types of construction. There's two main types. We have in-mold helmets and hard shell. The way in-mold helmets are made is using a tough polycarbonate outer and fusing it in one moulding process to the EPS energy absorbing impact liner. As a result you tend to have lighter helmets that are thinner and often with more complex venting systems that you can open and close. Hard shell helmets are made slightly differently. They have a tough wearing outer and then an energy absorbing foam inside. They're made in two separate parts which are then stuck together or attached together. As a result you tend to end up with a slightly chunkier helmet which are great for freestyle uses that are a little bit harder wearing. But you tend not to be able to do much with the ventins so the ventins are usually permanent full-time ones, not ones that you can open and close. But the way they make them also keeps the cost down. You may also come across hybrid construction. This is a mixture of in-mold and hard shell. You tend to use in-molds to keep the weight down and then the hard shell in the areas which tend to get more knocks. Downside is sometimes they're a little heavier and tend to be more expensive. Another safety feature you'll come across in a helmet is MIPS. This stands for Multidirectional Impact Protection System and is something that many different companies use. The easiest thing to look for on a helmet is a little yellow sticker or stamp on it which will indicate that it uses MIPS. Ventin a helmet is really important because it allows you to regulate your temperature on the mountain. There's two main types. There's what we call passive and active. Passive ventin you usually find on cheaper helmets tends to be full-time holes within the lid that you can't open or close. It does keep the cost down though. You'll often find it on park helmets too. Active ventin you usually find within in-mold helmets usually but not always. It's a more complex system that will allow you to open and close the vents and alter how the air flows throughout. Sizing on helmets is really important because if it doesn't fit your head properly it won't work as effectively. As a result there's different fit systems. There's what we call standard so the helmets mark the standard that is non-adjustable. The shell would just come in various sizes to fit different head sizes. There's auto-adjust which usually uses some form of elastic band at the back to fit on your head and just adjust slightly. There's fully adjustable. If the helmet is fully adjustable it will usually have some sort of dial or thing at the back of the helmet which can be tightened or loosened for different head shapes and sizes. It doesn't always pull just in at the back of the sides. It usually pulls in around the helmet as a whole to give a better, more secure fit. Snow Sports helmets have to pass various vigorous tests to be classified as such. These are different to motorbike helmets or cycle helmets because of the conditions you're facing on a mountain as opposed to on the roads. If ever you're unsure of whether a helmet is suitable for Snow Sports you can always look under the liner and there'll be a sticker in there somewhere which either has ASTM 2040 which means it reaches the US safety standard or EN 1077 which is the European safety standard. Year on year helmets are getting better. Brands are bringing in their own additional safety features. At the end of the day you do kind of get what you pay for with a helmet. A cheap helmet would tend to have more basic vent in and more basic fit system and construction where the more you pay the better the fit system would be and the better the venting control. If ever you're unsure on a helmet either hit us up at the comments below or pop into store it's really important that you make sure your helmet fits well and we can do that for you by measuring up and trying on some different models.