There's a moment most urban cyclists know well. You lock up your bike, pull off your helmet, and spend the next ten minutes trying to figure out what to do with it. Strap it to your bag. Carry it by hand. Stuff it under your arm. None of it is great.
Dominic Cotton and his co-founder Josh Cohen spotted that problem and spent six years doing something about it. The result is Newlane - a London-based startup that has built what it calls the world's first truly packable helmet: a full EN 1078-certified lid that folds down to 81mm, roughly half the height of a standard helmet, and fits inside a bag.
It's already picked up a Red Dot Design Award: Best of the Best. It's stocked at Halfords, Decathlon and many independent retailers. And it is now the only folding helmet in the world to feature Mips protection. Not bad for a product that didn't exist seven years ago.
I caught up with Dom to find out how it all happened.
It Started with a Near-Miss
The genesis of Newlane is very London. Josh, Dom's co-founder, had a close call on a hire bike in 2018, the kind of moment that reminds you, sharply, that cycling in a city is not without risk. Shortly afterwards he ran into Dom, who happened to have a helmet dangling off the back of his rucksack.
"His response was, 'can you make a folding helmet to solve both problems?'" Dom says. "That's how it all began."
It's a neat founding story precisely because it captures two very different kinds of urban cyclist. Dom had been commuting by bike for years and had even gone through a full MAMIL phase, including riding the Etape du Tour. Josh was more of a casual rider, someone who used hire bikes to get around rather than a dedicated cyclist.
That combination mattered. "We weren't just designing for cyclists," Dom says. "We were designing for how millions of people in cities ride today."
Six Years in the Making
If you're expecting a story of a quick pivot and a crowdfunding campaign, Newlane isn't it. The idea landed in 2018. Sales launched in October 2024. Six years of development, engineering, testing and fundraising in between.
Getting a new helmet design through full safety certification is not a simple process. The EN 1078 standard involves simulating high-speed impacts on the front, back, sides and crown of the helmet using flat and kerbstone steel anvils, and the helmet must not allow more than 250G to reach the headform. The Newlane exceeds it, recording just 134G. Dom says he can now recite the standard from memory.
"Getting all three things right at once was the hardest part," he tells me. "It had to look and feel like a normal helmet, meet the same rigorous safety standards, and fold in a way that actually made a difference day to day. That combination is incredibly hard to engineer."
The helmet achieved EN 1078 certification in December 2023. Then, after two years of collaboration with Swedish safety specialists Mips, Newlane launched the world's first folding helmet to incorporate the Mips AirNode protection system, priced at £129.99.
Built in Britain
What makes Newlane unusual isn't just the folding mechanism. It's that the whole thing is designed and manufactured in the UK. In a market largely dominated by products made in Asia, that's a deliberate choice and one that shapes how Dom thinks about quality.
The helmet is also made without any glue, which means it's easier to recycle than most other helmets. Newlane will accept returned helmets and break the materials down for use in other products.
For Dom, who came to product-building via the BBC and the charity sector, the manufacturing side was entirely new territory. "Building a physical product and dealing with manufacturing, certification and supply chains was all completely new," he says. "That's been the most rewarding part: learning how to turn an idea into something real that people use every day."
If there's one retail partnership that makes sense for Newlane, it's Brompton. The world-famous folding bike, designed and built in west London, and a folding helmet startup also manufacturing in the UK. This month, Newlane's Mips version went live on Brompton's website, with a rollout through their European dealer network to follow.
It's the kind of partnership that doesn't need much explaining. Two British brands, both built around the idea that things worth making are worth making properly, and both solving the same fundamental problem: how to move around a city without the faff.
Who It's Actually For
Dom is refreshingly clear about the target market, and equally clear about who the helmet isn't for.
Newlane is built for urban riders: people who use bikes, e-bikes or hire schemes to get around towns and cities. It's for anyone who would wear a helmet if carrying one wasn't such a faff. The patented Flip-Clip system takes the helmet from full size to a disc-like shape in a couple of seconds, slim enough to slide into a backpack alongside a laptop and a packed lunch.
It is not, Dom says, for performance cyclists chasing marginal gains. There are no aero vents optimised for 40kph. No aerodynamic tail. "This is about transport, not sport," he says simply.
Road.cc, which reviewed the helmet, noted that it felt like a normal helmet in use, a significant achievement given the entirely new design, and called it a worthy debut that brings something genuinely different to the market.
Advice for Anyone Building Something New
Dom's background, journalism then communications then product founder, isn't the typical trajectory. I asked what he'd tell anyone else looking to create a physical product in the UK.
"Surround yourself with great specialists early," he says. "People who really believe in what you're building. And design for manufacturing from day one. It's easy to create something that works once. Much harder to create something that can be produced at scale, consistently and cost-effectively."
It's the kind of advice that sounds obvious until you're three years into a certification process and wondering why you didn't think about tooling costs earlier.
Newlane is a genuinely good example of something rare: a UK startup that identified a real, everyday problem, took the time to solve it properly, and built something that stands up to scrutiny. The helmet works. The folding mechanism is elegant. And it comes from a city that understands, better than most, why getting more people wearing helmets on hire bikes actually matters.
We've arranged an exclusive 12% discount at Newlane for Velorution readers. Use code VELORUTION12 at checkout before 30 April 2026.
You can find out more and buy at wearenewlane.com.
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