If you look at the helmet inner labels one of them has to have the manufacturer's name on it. For instance, looking at Z1R and 509 helmets at the local Yamaha shop recently I found the same name. and of course, they do look similar.
I bought two 6D ATS1 helmets when they came out. I had helmet buffeting and lift at speed. I hit the grass in one, was knocked out and had several memory gaps immediately afterwards. Sent the helmet to 6D for post crash evaluation. The sent it back saying it was safe to use. No way was I going to wear the same helmet I was knocked out in. I went back to Arai. This review backed up my experience with the aero issues I personally experienced.
In the middle 80s I was working accessories at Anderson's on Telegraph I remember an independent rep coming in with a new brand of helmets called HJC, and the store bought a bunch of them. They were cheap, made of fiberglass, weighed a ton, and felt like the shell was 3 inches thick. At that time our #1 seller full face was a Shoei RF200 for $179. MX wise we sold a ton of Bell Moto4s, and Arai full face racer replicas were around $400ish. Fast forward to the late 80s and I'm working at Tucker and they introduce a new helmet that was going to squash HJC. They had their own helmet factory in China(?) and ta da that was KBC. Soon afterwards we saw the same issues with KBC that I saw at Andersons. Now it appears that KBC is selling dealer direct, and Tucker dropped them a lot of years ago? Man, I wish I had the time to travel around to peek inside a bunch of helmets to see who's building what and then share the results with BBS.
It's my understanding that many of the dirt helmet brands, Thor, MSR, Moose, etc, were(may still be) contract built for them by KBC.
Did some research today. The 509 helmets (parent company Polaris) I looked at today are made by Shanghai Hehui from China, and the similar style Z1Rs are made there too. The HJC helmets (flip open full face) I looked at are made by HJC in Vietnam. The Z1R kids (Parts Unlimited) snow helmet is made by J-Tech Corp in Vietnam. And the Klim (a Polaris company) F3 carbon MX/Snow Cross helmets are NOT DOT approved but are ECE approved? So you can ride off road on your dual sport bike but get pulled over and your...? These are made in China, but the manufacturer is not marked in the helmet? And is the same for the less expensive std. F3 MX/Snow Cross?
