(Even dogs love our dots. Photo credit @lunarakas via Instagram.)
We’ve always had a polka dot helmet in our Nutcase line, and it’s likely we always will.
That’s because polka dots are energetic, endlessly adaptable, and fun: just like Nutcase.
The polka dot has a bit of a weird history, but the dots themselves, whether they are on haute couture or your everyday helmet, are driven by a fundamentally human love of energy, pattern, and contrast.
Back in the 1850’s in Europe, polka dancing and music became a craze that swept from street musicians to fancy ballrooms. Polka music was vibrant and full of get-up-and-dance energy (at least for the people of that time!).
So as polka became a transnational obsession, polka accessories followed. There was a polka hat, polka shoes and dresses, and even polka pudding. (Spotted Dick, anyone?)
Godey’s Lady’s Book, the fashion bible of the day, dubbed the pattern on much of this polka promotional merchandise polka dots.
And history was made. Of course, obsessions flame and fade out, and the dot didn’t get its first all-out revival until around the 1930’s when Disney’s Minnie Mouse started wearing a complete polka outfit.
Then in the staid but successful 1950's, the dot emblazoned almost everything.
The '50 might have been polka dot's busiest decade, yet now polka dots are tried-and-true classics, and they still carry that dancing energy and happy vibe.
Of course, with every classic there's a Nutcase interpretation, and the dots are no different. Mini Dots is perhaps our most classic and conventional take on the dot - lipstick red background, and small even white dots. (Look closely and you'll see a fleeting Mini Dots helmet in the Filmed By Bike promotional video below).
But where there's convention Nutcase will play around, and we play with dots a lot, not just in their colors and in their combinations but also their sizing. We'll stretch the paradigm,
Modern Dots - very different, still very fun.
but we know there's an underlying plea - Do Not Lose The Dots - and we won't.
Our current Dots helmet - a take on the 1960's popular Twister game - is such a timelessly fun and fashionable embodiment of the energy of polka dots that it is always popular.
But that doesn't mean we aren't playing with a new variation on the polka dots theme - stay tuned!