Nutcase | Funky Helmets for Safe Rides

Too many sports and lifestyle brands get their start the same way: test market research, demographic analysis and sales projections before even the first product is manufactured. Nutcase is a very different story. Heading out to a Civil War football game between Oregon and Oregon State in 2000 and looking for something to symbolize the impending doom of the “Oregon Ducks” designer Michael Morrow grabbed an old black sport helmet, a handful of 4-inch screws and some rubber duckies. His creation got such a rave reaction from game fans that a light bulb went off overhead. Morrow, a former creative director for Nike, where he spent ten years, was no stranger to understanding consumer demand for lifestyle sports and high design aesthetics, but he quickly realized a gap in the market and a hidden truth: sport helmets are dull: either license cartoon character designs for kids or monochromatic colors.