is a Japanese company that designs and manufactures motorcycle helmet

Motorcycle helmet

A motorcycle helmet is a type of protective headgear used by motorcycle riders. The primary goal of a motorcycle helmet is motorcycle safety - to protect the rider's head during impact, thus preventing or reducing head injury or saving the rider's life...

s and other helmets for motorsport. It was formed in 1926 by Hirotake Arai as a hatmaker. Currently, Michio "Mitch" Arai runs the company and his son, Akihito, is also involved.

Every Arai helmet is hand-built.
All Arai helmets sold in the USA meet or exceed the Snell Memorial Foundation

Snell Memorial Foundation

The Snell Memorial Foundation is a not-for-profit organization created to provide a high quality standard of safety for helmets. Founded in 1957, SMF is named after William "Pete" Snell, a popular sports car racer who died in 1956 of head injuries he received when the racing helmet he wore failed...

 safety standards. The current certification for motorcycles is M2010 which was released in the beginning of 2010. For auto racing and karting the helmets that are sold today are still SA2005 and K2005 certified, these helmets will be legal for competition until 2015. The 2010 certified auto racing and karting helmets will not be available for sale until October 1, 2010. These will be certified as SA2010, K2010 and a new SAH2010 will be introduced which will include HANS anchor posts as part of the certification process.

Arai has been ranked first in customer satisfaction in all ten annual J. D. Power and Associates Motorcycle Helmet Satisfaction Studies. It was also first (or tied for first) in three of four categories: Overall Satisfaction, Ventilation, and Styling.

Several prominent MotoGP racers use Arai including Nicky Hayden

Nicky Hayden

Nicholas "Nicky" Patrick Hayden , nicknamed the The Kentucky Kid, is an American professional motorcycle racer, who won the MotoGP World Championship in 2006.-Beginnings and AMA Championship:...

 and Dani Pedrosa

Dani Pedrosa

Daniel "Dani" Pedrosa Ramal is a Grand Prix motorcycle racer. Pedrosa grew up in a village near Sabadell called Castellar del Vallès. He is the youngest world champion in 250cc Grands Prix...

. Although popular in MotoGP many of the Formula 1 drivers also use Arai Helmets since the Arai GP-6 RC is one of the few helmets that meets the FIA requirements for the sports. The drivers include: Adrian Sutil, Heikki Kovalainen, Kamui Kobayashi, Lewis Hamilton, Lucas Di Grassi, Mark Webber, Rubens Barrichello, Sebastian Vettel, and Jenson Button. Button made the switch to Arai at the 2010 Canadian Gran Prix.

External links

• Official website