Regular BDN readers will be well aware of the D3O armour brand. We visited the British firm’s Croydon headquarters last year for a tour of the R&D facilities and to learn about its work on rider protection. Its patented polymer technology gives top-performing impact absorption, and its trademarked Pantone orange colour is becoming a more common sight in the bike trade.
The firm says its ultimate aim is to become as significant an ‘ingredient’ brand as Gore-Tex, 3M, and Intel, with the D3O branding accentuating other already strong brands in the bike kit market. To that end, it has been developing protective inserts that provide the required CE protection levels, approved to those regulatory standards, with lighter, thinner, and better-vented products. It’s a great British success story and a good example to those who think the UK doesn’t ‘do’ advanced manufacturing these days.
D3O already supplies multiple British bike brands with armour products – Belstaff and Triumph Motorcycles use the orange protectors in their clothing ranges. But at a special launch on the Isle of Man, backed by a sponsored Superbike race in the TT, the firm announced that it’s supplying a third UK firm, this time the RST Moto brand.
BDN spoke to D3O’s chief marketing officer, Mostyn Thomas, and asked what D3O offers over ‘standard’ unbranded OE armour products. “Anyone can go and make a jacket in China and ask the factory to source the material, which will likely pass the standard,” he said. “And then they’ll have to go and test it. That’s fine – there is a market for that. What it won’t have, which we do, is that we’ll be supplying a product that’s already certified. So, the brand isn’t going to have to go and certify the armour separately.
“Additionally, parts from an ingredient brand will be more suitable for their intended purpose. Therefore, you can have a 4-6mm thick protector instead of a 20mm one. And you’ll have something low-profile, stealthy, lightweight, comfortable, breathable, and more ventilated that’s been designed and moulded to fit the body.
Mostyn Thomas, D30 chief marketing officer“But the whole play on ingredient brands is that we, like Gore and Intel and Vibram, invest in our brand and look to actively market to consumers. We build that trust factor and build the value, and that creates demand for our partners’ products in itself. People say, ‘ah, it’s got D3O in, I’ve seen that, I’ve read about it, I know Michael Dunlop wears it – I trust it.’ And that trust and brand recognition is where our partners say the value comes in: they know a D3O product will sell better. There’s a commercial value we bring through the brand as well as the practical value.”
That’s backed up by comments from two of the British brands which use D3O. We spoke to Colin Harvey, motorcycle consultant at Belstaff UK, and asked him about D3O. “We saw D3O at Eicma many years ago, and Franco Malenotti, who was the head of the company back then, invited them to our Italian HQ. He was particularly impressed by the hammer test when the rep from D3O placed a piece of the armour (not entirely voluntarily…) across the back of my hand and then struck it a heavy blow with a hammer. Result? No pain or damage whatsoever. We started to use it in most of our motorcycle jackets from then on.
“They are the market leader in their field and are immediately recognisable by their bright orange colour. Also, they are constantly evolving and improving their product; we’ve seen huge progress from the early Level 1 and 2 products through to Ghost and now Diablo – each variation proving more wearable, lighter and just as protective.”
RST’s Stuart Millington also praised the tech side of D3O. “We’re proud to collaborate with the industry’s leading innovators in rider protection. D3O is at the forefront of impact protection technology, making a partnership with such a pioneering brand a natural progression in RST’s evolution. Together with our elite-level riders, we’ve been developing the RST x D3O programme – rigorously testing and validating performance enhancements that we’re now thrilled to introduce in our upcoming 2026 collection.”
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