WARNING! - KEP riding hat safety - please open

[draftxfan]

I keep thinking of this photo of Edgar Prado's skull cap: https://mobile.twitter.com/shealeparoux/status/557536530621661184

 

[kamili]

I keep thinking of this photo of Edgar Prado's skull cap: https://mobile.twitter.com/shealeparoux/status/557536530621661184

what would happen if that was a KEP hat? would it fall apart?

 

[myISH]

Wow. Just, wow. Here's a meme I made that you can post online to help spread the word. It shows a broken KEP hat compared to a broken Troxel which are about the cheapest you can get in the US. Feel free to share! https://imgflip.com/i/oai7z

 

[Goldenstar]

I keep thinking of this photo of Edgar Prado's skull cap: https://mobile.twitter.com/shealeparoux/status/557536530621661184

Holy cow , that's some photo.

 

[Goldenstar]

Wow. Just, wow. Here's a meme I made that you can post online to help spread the word. It shows a broken KEP hat compared to a broken Troxel which are about the cheapest you can get in the US. Feel free to share! https://imgflip.com/i/oai7z

Tbh the more I think about I am going to stick with my traditional type crash cap.
And forget these lighter vented type creations .

 

[Vodkagirly]

Not a lot to add except I would never purchase a Kep hat now.

 

[maccachic]

For certification X amount of helmets are required to release a batch of 1600 helmets, this is reevaluated yearly and per batch.

Only the snell standard does random sample testing, Snell buy 2% of the helmets of what the factory send onto the market.

The manufacturer buys serialised stickers, and the number from each of these stickers are sent into snell so they know how much the factory have. If there are any fails in that batch, that batch is then recalled.

KEP do not have the SNELL standard.

Thanks for that!

 

[hairycob]

Interesting pic of the Trowel. I have one for hacking & came off the other day onto a hard stoney track ( new hat order). Couple of scratches on the Trowel.

 

[milos]

I had a gate house the vent slipped after 13 months they replaced it. The girl I got on the phone said they only warranty for a year. I explained that I didn't expect to pay £170 for a hat and it last 13 months especially as it hadn't been dropped nor had I fallen off. I appreciate she was giving me her standard company policy. She said to send back hat and she would fix the vent. Which is fair enough as vents I would presume are glued on. In the end she replaced it with a new hat. So I was happy with outcome. She replied to my calls and emails promptly so I was happy with the outcome. So although they give a years warranty gatehouse saw sense and replaced my hat without any hassle so good standard of after care from them.

 

[Dizzle]

I thought I had read it all... so KEP are suggesting that we play a game of 'head roulette' with a helmet that may or may not come apart on either the first or second impact.

I can't think of anyone that would take such a gamble with their brain and skull!

 

[OldNag]

This has completely put me off the vented-style hats. I will stick with jockey skulls from now on. (darned sight cheaper too).

Shockingly bad customer service from KEP.

 

[orionstar]

I am stunned at what happened to your hat, and more than astonished at KEP's attempt at a response on this forum!

 

[bounce]

I certainly wouldn't ever consider buying a KEP after reading this thread. Fair play to the OP to bringing this to everyone's attention and taking the matter further with the company.

I was interested to read someone else had an issue with the vent on a gatehouse slipping though as I have recently had the same problem in my hat that is less than 6 months old. Gatehouse did at least exchange it for a new one straight away but I do wonder if there is a design fault or weakness there. At least their customer service is a lot better than KEP.

 

[DollyPentreath]

FAACTS ABOUT MRS. ANDREA SMITH'S HELMET AND KEP ITALIA'S REACTION.

So, assuming Mrs. Smith is not liar, we suggest one of a few things:
. that Mrs. Smith fell on a harder ground than she thinks, or that she fell in a more powerful way than she recalls;

. that Mrs. Smith’s hat was not properly fastened (this is a very common situation unfortunately) and that she lost the helmet after she fell. In this case the horse might have stepped on the helmet in its effort to stand up after falling, or that it stood on the helmet in any other way;
Another, and worse, thought came into our mind: that someone might intentionally be mounting up this case with the precise purpose of damaging KEP Italia’s image. KEP Italia is a growing company and we know for sure that some of our competitors are reacting in a bad way to this, some of them even scaring off kids at shows by telling them stupid and false stories.

6. Conclusions.
We are perfectly aware that the social media environment speeds up the travelling of information, and while we are going to take proper actions in order to stop the releasing of false information, we are committed into turning this into a unique opportunity to talk about safety. We invite all of you who have shared posts regarding Mrs. Smith broken helmet, to also share our response in order to let riders have all the data they need to build their own opinion.

We are also informing the persons sharing false information that they should stop defaming our company and that they will have to assume responsibility for the consequences of what they say.

Thank you for reading.

Astounding reaction KEP. What a complete PR boob posting on this forum was. Thank god this poor woman was ok and your terrible customer service has been publicly highlighted.

Looks like the rest of the equestrian world has noticed too.. I have friends in Australia and the U.S. sharing this. http://the900facebookpony.com/2015/07/14/kep-italia-buyer-beware/

 

[Clannad48]

I've just read this thread all the way through and am absolutely astounded. I recently purchased a new hat for my daughter and am really glad that I did not purchase one of these but stuck to an old favourite brand. Glad to hear you are relatively ok OP. KEP you should be ashamed of yourselves.

 

[Dunlin]

Absolutely shocked to see the photo's and even more astounded by KEP's response on this forum. Certainly done themselves no favours there and rather than putting the blame on the poor OP I think they need to take a good long look in the mirror because I have to say, rather than the accident and photo's of the hat it's actually their response which has made me feel the most sick!

If the horse had stepped on the hat there would be significant proof of that and also a large number of small pieces, even a Shetland pony weighs a good 1/4 of a ton! You cannot hide what the photographs show and why on earth would someone have facial injuries if they were "on purpose" trying to damage KEP's reputation. Ludicrous!

I've seen a rider get rolled over on a road, they were wearing a very old Beagler/Patey style hat without a strap, the horse was a good 17hh IDxTB, how she got up straight afterwards was beyond me and how the hospital stated only a minor concussion with broken nose was also a shock! The hat was intact with only scuff marks and ripped velvet and naturally the polystyrene inner was crushed so thin it was almost non-existent. That was an impact with a road (from trot) followed by a very big horse rolling all the way over her head, you would almost expect a disintegrated hat, yet it wasn't.

Having seen some pretty nasty broken noses and bad whiplash from wearing peaked hats I'll only wear a jockey skull, needless to say I'd rather buy 6 of my Champion Jockey hats for the price of a KEP!

 

[rachk89]

No shelf life to hats that I am aware of. I had my last hat for 9 ish years before replacing it. Only replaced it after I fell off and managed to hit my head off the floor. It did absolutely no damage to the hat as it shouldn't but it gave me a headache from the impact so I decided to get a new one. Never know what internal damage was done.

That was with an old style helmet with large air flow gaps in it too so in theory should have been less tough than that kep but clearly wasn't.

 

[Dizzle]

Interestingly I had a look inside my Gatehouse Air Rider vented hat at the weekend and there is a warning along the lines of 'this helmet may not protect against death or injury from reasonably predicatable accidents' or similar words to that effect. I only use it for happy hacking in the summer but still :-/ may just sweat in my jockey skull from now on!

 

[Tiddlypom]

Interestingly I had a look inside my Gatehouse Air Rider vented hat at the weekend and there is a warning along the lines of 'this helmet may not protect against death or injury from reasonably predicatable accidents' or similar words to that effect.

If it's any consolation, my new Gatehouse HS1 skull says the same ie 'Some reasonably foreseeable impacts may exceed this helmet's capability to protect against severe injury or death'. Probably a standard disclaimer, but not a very cheerful one.

However, it makes sense that a skull helmet is going to have fewer weak points than a vented helmet, plus it hasn't got a fixed peak. My HS1, (this is my second one), is cool and comfortable to wear, albeit not very flattering.

 

[DressageCob]

It is indeed a standard disclaimer.

For instance, it is reasonably foreseeable that while out hacking you get hit by a speeding vehicle (particularly a large vehicle) and take the impact to your head. No helmet could protect against that

 

[Palindrome]

However, it makes sense that a skull helmet is going to have fewer weak points than a vented helmet, plus it hasn't got a fixed peak. My HS1, (this is my second one), is cool and comfortable to wear, albeit not very flattering.

My Gatehouse Pegasus is vented and does not have a fixed peak. I was pleasantly surprised after falling off face first (went out the side door as horse bucked jumping a small log) to see the peak had popped out and was able to rotate around the helmet. All of the helmet was intact and I just pulled the peak back in place. I think that's a very nice feature.
Reading the OP's story, I will never buy a KEP and probably going to go for a skull cap for next helmet as they do seem to offer the best protection.

 

[soulfull]

They have a win a hat competition in FB. I asked if its the same model as this one.
They have gone in about it is meant to break up on slow impact. When I asked about secondary knock they said horses rarely tread on a rider at slow speed, and the hat would react differently in a high speed accident

They have links to something about head injuries.

I really would like to know if any other manufacturers agree with their statement

 

[j1ffy]

They have a win a hat competition in FB. I asked if its the same model as this one.
They have gone in about it is meant to break up on slow impact. When I asked about secondary knock they said horses rarely tread on a rider at slow speed, and the hat would react differently in a high speed accident

They have links to something about head injuries.

I really would like to know if any other manufacturers agree with their statement

Well that sounds like a load of bull to me! How can something fall apart in a slow impact, but stay together at high impact? And what if a rider is being dragged? It's quite conceivable that a rider (I'm thinking of a fall I saw at a RS when I was young - a novice child) falls at a slow pace, gets dragged, horse panics...

I think they need to go back to their PR team AND their engineering team.

 

[ester]

clutching at straws...

 

[kamili]

I wonder how the riders featured on their FB page would feel if they were aware of their hats being possibly designed to break up on impact..
I would hate to see someone seriously injured on the international stage after wearing a KEP hat that disintegrated... same goes for anyone who is riding at home too international rider or not.

 

[9tails]

No riding hat should have crumple zones. I don't believe that this company has ever had anything to do with horses and just made a fashionable hat. I can't get the crunch of the hat in their video out of my mind.

 

[teapot]

Was flicking through the programme from Barbury the other day and one of the tradestands listed was KEP. Had I paid more attention, I'd have gone and asked awkward questions...

 

[maccachic]

This was posted on another forum today: http://horsetalk.co.nz/2015/07/23/r...met-testing-stanford-engineers/#axzz3glLnJitA

 

[kamili]

this video is really interesting too, how a charles owen helmet is made

http://horsetalk.co.nz/2015/05/26/video-how-riding-helmet-made/#axzz3gmnmBirv

 

[Clannad48]

this video is really interesting too, how a charles owen helmet is made

http://horsetalk.co.nz/2015/05/26/video-how-riding-helmet-made/#axzz3gmnmBirv

Interesting indeed - especially given this quote from this article:

Do helmets have expiry dates?
It is not printed on like a milk carton but YES helmets expire! The materials inside them degrade and replacement is recommended every 4 – 5 years or after an impact. This includes dropping it from a shelf, so be sure to store and handle helmets carefully.