Skully was a brand of

motorcycle helmet A motorcycle helmet is a type of helmet used by motorcycle riders. Motorcycle helmets contribute to motorcycle safety by protecting the rider's head in the event of an impact. They reduce the risk of head injury by 69% and the risk of death by 42%. ...

with a

heads-up display A head-up display, or heads-up display, also known as a HUD (), is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints. The origin of the name stems from a pilot being able to view informa ...

and a rear-facing

camera A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...

Skully Helmets Inc

The helmet was invented by Marcus Weller who also served as the company chief executive officer. As of July 12, 2016 Marcus Weller was removed as CEO and replaced by Martin Fitcher. Fichter was an executive at mobile device company

HTC HTC Corporation ( zh, t=宏達國際電子股份有限公司, s=宏达国际电子股份有限公司, p=Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, first=t) or High Tech Computer Corporation, (literally ''Hongda International Electron ...

's American subsidiary in Bellevue, Washington. The helmet's software is based on the Android platform, and can be controlled with

voice command Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers with the mai ...

s. Users can see rearward through the heads-up display and the rear camera. The helmet also includes

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

functionality, allowing music streaming from

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

s. As of August, 2014, the manufacturer was taking

preorder In mathematics, especially in order theory, a preorder or quasiorder is a binary relation that is reflexive and transitive. Preorders are more general than equivalence relations and (non-strict) partial orders, both of which are special c ...

s for the helmet. The company also had the fastest fully funded Indiegogo

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

campaign to-date, raising $1.1 million. However, there were significant production delays with the helmet including company insider accounts estimating no more than 20 to 100 shipped units as of July 12, 2016. Skully Helmets Inc shut down in July 2016 and was expected to declare bankruptcy shortly afterward. Despite having raised $2.5 million through the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, and an additional $11 million in

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

from

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

and others, the company was unable to secure additional funding. Former executive assistant, Isabelle Faithauer, sued Skully Helmets Inc and the founders, Marcus and Mitchell Weller, for fraudulently using corporate funds for personal use, although Marcus Weller denied the claims of the lawsuit. The lawsuit was later dropped. Skully Helmets Inc was also sued by supplier

Flextronics Flex Ltd. (previously known as Flextronics International Ltd. or Flextronics) is an American Singaporean-domiciled multinational diversified manufacturing company. It is the third largest global electronics manufacturing services (EMS), origi ...

for over $1 million in unpaid inventory expenses. The case was stayed during bankruptcy proceedings, and the assets were sold to Skully Technologies.

Skully Technologies

The assets of Skully Helmets Inc were acquired in 2017 by Ivan and Rafael Contreras, renaming the company Skully Technologies and relocating it to Atlanta, Georgia. The new owners demonstrated a new prototype at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, with plans to begin shipping that summer. The new company also promised to provide a helmet to anyone who had ordered one through the IndieGoGo campaign. The company sent confirmation emails on Friday September 21, 2018 to IndieGoGo campaign supporters that paid for the helmet in 2014. As of March 2020, neither those who have been promised a helmet through the IndieGoGo campaign or have made new orders have received a helmet from the Company. In February 2020 the new web site was closed, the App Stores dropped the Skully app, the corporate phone number was turned off, and although the Facebook page still exists, no one answers questions. It seems that the second Skully company has also failed.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Motorcycle safety gear Wearable computers