When the Mayor of our hometown city of Portland, Oregon is the first to wear one of our new helmet designs, that feels good.

It’s even better when that design, which we’ve dubbed The Portlander helmet, is based on Portland’s city flag, a vibrant pattern of gold, white and bright blue stripes on a verdant green background.

The Portlander has hints of a few classic Nutcase design elements: not only the bold colors but also the off-center striping, while the flag inspiration is reminiscent of our best-selling Union Jack.

This is the first time we’ve commemorated a city with its own flag-inspired helmet, however. Based on the absolutely enthusiastic response from Portland Mayor Charlie Hales when he received the new helmet, it might not be the last.

Mayor Hales stopped by the Ford Building, Nutcase headquarters, to have coffee at the laid-back Ford Food + Drink café. It’s part of the mayor’s action plan to hit different coffee spots in the city on Monday mornings and talk to people about their transportation options and concerns.

A few facts about the Portland flag were exchanged. Designed by Douglas Leach in 1969, the flag includes a Kelly green background signifying the tree-friendly city of Portland,  yellow-gold stripes pointing to Portland’s agricultural heritage, and periwinkle blue stripes representing the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers here.

With the mayor was his wife Nancy Hales, sporting her own bit of Nutcase nuttiness with the Hula Blue helmet.

Nancy Hales (right) in Hula Blue; Mayor Hales before he got his Portlander.

Nutcase founder Michael Morrow signed the Portlander helmet for the mayor and told him, “Now you are ready to ride.”

Which, once Mayor Hales was properly caffeinated and shook everyone’s hand, he did.

(Portland just inaugurated not only a new car-free bridge over the Willamette River called the Tilikum Crossing, but also a new set of infrastructure to that bridge and for a new light-rail Orange line from our city to the neighboring burg of Milwaukee, and the Mayor, Nancy Hales and some aides set off to try it out.)

The Portlander will be out in 2016 with a limited edition of the new helmet set to appear right around the holidays.