Inside POC with Martin Söderström
POC is a brand that is distinctly individual. The aesthetically minimalist lines and sharp appearance of their apparel and protective gear are easily recognizable, and after visiting their HQ in downtown Stockholm it’s not hard to see where this approach stems from.
An old red-brick, ex-industrial building with towering window panes is where the bulk of R&D, marketing, design, purchasing, and the financial staff are housed. Inside, is a bright and modern open plan workspace with a relaxed atmosphere and a gentle buzz, as clusters of smartly clad employees from various rolls discuss ideas and approaches. It’s clear that everyone here has a passion for design and safety that runs a lot deeper than simply churning out snow or cycling gears. Aside from the staff in Sweden who predominantly focus on product development and innovation, POC have another two main offices in the US and Austria who concentrate on sales.
Globally, POC are a 100 strong, split relatively equally through their main bases with around 33 working in Stockholm. The team crosses over into both bike and snow, with the majority of staff having an avocation in one of those sports, which apparently injects fresh ideas into both disciplines, bolstered by feedback from athletes on the world circuits, such as Robin Wallner and Zakarias Johansen of the Ibis EWS Team.
Co-founded by Stefan Ytterborn who, until a few years ago, was the company CEO, POC laid their foundations in the snow sport sector back in 2005 before expanding into mountain biking in 2008, noting that the two markets were similar in terms of location and with participants eager to wear protective gear. Road cycling then followed with POC aiming to shrink the disparity between bike and snow.
After a morning nosing through products, old and new, and discovering what makes POC tick, a certain Mister Soderstrom turned up. Pens, paper, and computers were swiftly ditched in exchange for a lunchtime thrash through the local trail playground of Hellasgården.
Trendy downtown Stockholm is the main base for POC and is where the bulk of product development takes place.
On the far right, the R&D team are assembled, working on projects up to three years ahead of the tables on the left, where the the marketing crew sit.
The modern open-plan work space is filled with eclectic memorabilia and new projects.
It's not hard to sense the influences and see the similarities throughout POC, whether it's their products or the office.
 | We started out in skiing in 2005/06, making only winter ski stuff. We started making cycling products in 2008/09. We started out from the gravity side of biking, which could be seen as an unusual choice. The reason for that is we saw a lot of cultural similarities with the skiers. Many skiers ride mountain bikes, but we also saw some infrastructure synergies there, with the big ski areas in the world, like Whistler, Are, and Hajfell, which in many cases were already or wanted to become major bike parks in the summer. We were already present in that environment. Many of the stores that sold skis in the winter and supported POC, also sold bikes in the summer. |
POC started off with helmets, as they say; "Protecting the head is the biggest chance you have to make a difference in the event of a crash."
The skiing and bike sectors crossover. with staff focusing on both sports.
After starting on the gravity side, POC has now entered the road market too.
Often helmets crashed during competition are sent back for analysis and frequently show trends in terms of crashes and impact locations.
| What we are doing is that we are applying this mission, saying that we should do what we can to save lives and reduce the consequences of accidents. That’s something we have been working on since 2005 when the company started. It’s really important for people to like what they see and want to wear a helmet or protection. The company was co-founded by Stefan Ytterborn and Jan Woxing who both have strong backgrounds in design management, working with the likes of Ikea, Volvo, Absolut (the Swedish powerhouse brands) connecting their design to their missions and trying to make it all make sense. |
Everyone in the office seems to have a passion in their relevant sports, but also keep a keen eye on a wider range of fashion, products, and markets that they may draw influence from.
Rider feedback is crucial to POC. They have worked alongside fellow Swede Martin Soderstrom for over ten years now.
It's handy that Martin literally lives just around the corner!
Frederick, one of the leading designers/engineers on the POC team, has his own room to create mock-ups of future concepts.
| You can’t approach safety without talking about the medical aspects. To gather the competence of the medical field, we set up the POC Lab, which has been with us since day one. In that scientific forum, we have gathered the best brain surgeon we could find, the best spinal cord injury doctor, and so on. They are invaluable with their scientific feedback, When we ask searching questions about things we want to change, or if we see a phenomenon we think we should focus on, they look at the evidence and draw on their wealth of scientific and practical experience and say, "Yes, this is something you should prioritize;" or "No, this is something that requires little consideration at the moment." |
The HQ has a small store of materials they can use to make very early prototypes.
The soft goods and apparel are manufactured in a mix of Asian and European countries. For example, POC utilize German optic expert Zeiss's extensive knowledge in the manufacture of their eyewear.
POC's helmets are manufactured in China, as this is where they say the highest quality producers are found.
One of POC's latest technologies, "SPIN" is designed to reduce the potential injuries caused by rotational impacts.
| [Talking about the crossover between bike and snow] Everybody does everything, which is really nice, because almost all the office staff are into biking or skiing, which gives us a great way of looking at things. It helps bring across a lot of ideas from different disciplines. For example, a lot of the early mountain bike stuff we did was influenced by skiing, of course. We’d gained a lot from the high-end World Cup racing environment for protection. |
The Stockholm base has 33 staff, including the R&D team for both hard and soft goods. It is headed by Oscar Huss (center), who has been in the company since its early days.
More often than not, at lunchtime, the tools are downed and the team heads into the local trail playground of Hellasgarden.
A ten-minute blast through the Stockholm streets, then straight on to some urban singletrack gold.
Although there aren't any massive hills, there is still plenty of fun to be found, as Martin demonstrates!
| Snow is still bigger than the bike side, but our objective is to be 50/50 within the next year or two. That’s where we want to go and we can definitely see it closing in, as we’ve put a lot of effort into the bike side (which of course means road, as well as mountain bike.) We’ve only really been involved in road since 2014, so it’s still really new in that sense. Mountain biking came earlier, because we had a product base to work from and it was easier to make that link with the gravity sport side. |
Damian Philips (pictured) says the trails, which are a stone's throw from the office, are great for product testing, with contrasting light conditions and plenty of roots and rocks to put their gear through the wringer.
Over the ten years Martin and POC have worked together, plenty of Martin's feedback has gone into their products currently on the market.
A ride in Hellas is best finished off with some grub...
...Although I'm told Indian takeaway is usually the preferred choice.
Better make the most of it boys, ski season is on the way!
MENTIONS: @rossbellphoto
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Excerpts from the Swedish Cycling Statement:
"Question: What has SCF done to resolve the conflict
Answer: POC asked us to change our position and waive our policy on August 15, 2017. As a consequence, SCF has presented an offer to the three teams involved to buy the rights for the Championships for a 1 Euro symbolic sum, so that the cyclists involved will be able to compete at the World Championships in Cairns, Australia, 5-10 September 2017."
"Question: How does the union's sponsor POC view the situation?
Answer: POC have publically stated that they are flexible and want to find a solution to the situation that has arisen (read more). They have already showed this flexibility and at the Olympics in 2016 they offered national cyclists the opportunity to use helmets and glasses from their own sponsors. The SCF has chosen to stick to its own position and interpretation of the UCI rules in the contract discussions and in the dialogue with the athletes and teams."
POC Statement:
news.pocsports.com/2017/08/16/poc-position-on-swedish-athlete-jenny-rissveds-not-attending-the-world-championships-in-cairns-australia
Signed: POCs greatest online fanboi
As for the rest, I can't argue (literally). I don't have any favourites, but adhere to a Dadaist approach to bikes. Grab/purchase what I happen to come across when I need it and if it stays in one piece for a while and works, then I'm a fan of that particular object, nothing more (ok, maybe I have a soft spot for a couple of brands but nobody's perfect, and there's no dogma). Certainty is a sure-fire way of being wrong at some point.
I love it though how people think I am sponsored by POC. Got some funny PMs.
Also Volvo
hash out some numbers on a computer.
Hire a doctor?
At European wages.
Then manafacture the helmets in China.
Your paying for all those people to work in a plush office.
Helmets probably cost 20$ to make in China vrs the 10$ walmart helmet.
You have a business idea right there... or at least for custom sized helmets.
Slap a F'in name on it, sell the design to a cheap-ass Chinese manufacturer, and laugh all the way to the bank.
Same exact SCHEME in the Sunglasses and Eyewear industry. over 90% of ALL Eyewear is made by?! LUXOTICA.
Look it up.
So what it boils down to is this: Find what fits, F' the name on it, and find what color you want. If the price is right, buy it. All the rest is bullshit marketing.
I absolutely love the POC Tectal helmet, not gunna lie.... but the more I look into this company the more it reminds me of Hipsterbucks.
During my testing, poc helmets, scored low grades in fitting and durability.
www.bicycleretailer.com/international/2017/11/22/mips-takes-poc-court-over-helmet-technology#.Wh2NH4hryUk
also Söderström not using Öhlins. a dark day
EDIT I get that these things take a long time to test/develop but that just had me thinking