Bizarre ‘Airbag Jeans’ save motorcyclists in a crash — for a hefty price

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It’s giving Michelin Man — or Sam Smith.

Riding a Harley is fun and games until it isn’t — fatalities and injuries among motorcyclists have steadily increased over the years. In 2020, there were more than 5,000 deaths and 83,000 injuries.

While helmets and other protective gear are encouraged for riders, they do very little to provide a cushion in the case of a serious accident.

Cue: “Airbag Jeans.”

Swedish design company Mo’cycle has crafted a pair of inflatable denim trousers meant to break the wearer’s fall using CO2. A cartridge installed inside the jeans releases the gas as the rider topples off the bike during a mishap.

But the price of safety isn’t cheap – the jeans retail at $499 and will be available to order later this month.

Marketed as the “world’s first” inflatable jean, Mo’cycle’s pants are made from abrasion-resistant and water-repellent fabric, yet feel like true denim. Before the airbag deploys, the trousers seem just like any other pair of pants – that is, until the airbag is triggered. Within “milliseconds,” the website claims, the jeans inflate.

The company also engineered an Airbag Vest and an Airbag Outfit, inflatable alternatives to standard cyclist gear.

Videos on their website show the products in action, showing interested consumers how the cutting-edge technology operates. The inflatable pants, specifically, are tethered to the bike – when they’re yanked from the seat, they inflate as the motorcyclist tumbles to the ground after being thrown from their bike.

The pants are completely reusable, the website claims, and the CO2 cartridge can be replaced after it’s used. To wash the pants – which will be launching on the crowdfunding campaign sire Indiegogo – just remove the airbag components.

“The only impact protection you have in regular motorcycle jeans is basically the knee protectors and sometimes you get hip protectors,” said founder and designer Moses Shahrivar, per the Daily Mail.

“Most injuries occur on the lower body in a serious motorcycle accident, so for 17 years I’ve been trying to solve this problem,” he added, referencing his nearly two-decade-long pursuit to create the safest pair of jeans.

For this launch, which is the third-generation design of Shahrivar’s motorcycle jeans, Mo’cycle teamed up with airbag vest creation company Helite to make the pants available in the US this year.

“What the airbag did for cars is about to happen to us motorcycle riders,” he said.