US brand LAP has launched its first product, Project 001 – Founders Cut, claiming to have addressed one of cycling’s longstanding compromises by combining integrated impact protection with race-ready performance. Developed by former professional cyclists and incorporating D3O protective technology, the California-based company’s debut range is designed to offer lightweight construction, aerodynamic efficiency and unrestricted movement without the bulk often associated with protective gear.
Injuries are often accepted as an unfortunate part of cycle sport – of the 184 starters in this year’s Tour de France, for example, there were 26 withdrawals, more than half of them directly attributable to crashes or injuries – but we’re hearing more about rider protection these days from brands like ArmaUrto, Aerobag, Bioracer, and Castelli. Plus, the UCI has called for a “clear regulatory framework” to govern rider airbags.
Things are certainly happening in this sphere, and now LAP has entered the market with its Project 001 – Founders Cut – which it describes as “premium race-ready garments with integrated impact protection engineered from the beginning to prioritise lightweight construction, aerodynamic efficiency, breathability, and unrestricted movement”.
LAP founder and CEO Joseph Lupien, a former pro racer, says, “Road cycling has become faster, lighter, and more aerodynamic than ever. Yet outside of the helmet, rider protection has changed very little. That gap is why we created LAP — Light. Aerodynamic. Protection.
“Working with D3O, we developed PROJECT 001: a race-ready cycling suit with integrated Level 1 protection for the back, shoulders, and hips, engineered for aerodynamics, breathability, comfort, and freedom of movement.
“This is not another piece of cycling apparel distinguished only by its colours and logos. It is a new approach to one of performance cycling’s most obvious unresolved problems.”
D3O is a smart impact-protection material that’s soft and flexible during normal use but becomes much stiffer when hit suddenly. It’s used to help absorb and disperse the energy from impacts. You’ll find it in motorcycle armour, for example, and it’s widely used in mountain biking protective gear.
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The angle that LAP is coming from is that performance cyclists wanting maximum performance have traditionally accepted minimal protection. If you wanted more protection, you accepted more weight, bulk and heat, or reduced freedom of movement. It says that Project 001 changes all that.
LAP says, “Project 001 was not developed by asking how to add protection to existing cycling apparel. It was developed by asking a different question: What if protection could simply become part of the apparel itself?
The result is an integrated garment architecture designed to work with the rider, not against them. Using D3O impact protection integrated directly into the garment, Project 001 was engineered to maintain the characteristics performance cyclists expect from premium apparel: Light enough to race; aerodynamic enough to compete; breathable enough for long days in the saddle; flexible enough to move naturally with every effort; protection without unnecessary compromise.
“Every material, panel, seam, and pocket was evaluated with the same objective: if it reduced performance, it didn’t belong.”
The Full-Suit is available in both men’s and women’s cuts priced at US$369 (which converts to around £278). It’s a limited pre-order release. That means that pre-orders are accepted for a while, then there’s a production run, and you’ll receive your delivery in about 60 days.
“Project 001 is a performance cycling suit with integrated D3O CE Level 1 protectors at the back, shoulders and hips,” says Joseph Lupien.
“The back protector meets EN 1621-2:2014 Level 1 requirements, while the shoulder and hip protectors meet EN 1621-1:2012 Level 1 requirements. The certification applies to the D3O protectors themselves rather than the suit as a whole.
“One thing that separates what we’ve built from other approaches is the combination. To the best of our knowledge, Project 001 is currently the only commercially available road cycling full suit with certified impact protection covering the back, shoulders and hips together in one race garment.
“The other big thing is that it’s completely modular. You can ride with all the protection, just the back, just the shoulders and hips – any combination you like, or take everything out.
“That was important to us because the suit had to be a proper performance garment first. If I’m racing a crit, I might run full protection. If I’m trying to go up Alpe d’Huez as fast as possible, I can pull everything out and I still have a lightweight, aerodynamic race suit underneath it.
“We didn’t start with body armour and try to make it feel like cycling kit. We started with a race suit and worked out how to integrate meaningful protection without ruining the reason you’d want to wear it in the first place.
“It was designed, developed and tested by professional cyclists and serious riders. We knew pretty quickly that if it didn’t feel right at race pace, none of the rest mattered.
There are no batteries, sensors or deployment systems either. The rider just decides how much protection makes sense for that day.”
Joseph Lupien was himself a professional cyclist. He was involved in a collision with a car while training back in 2022, breaking 32 bones, undergoing emergency spinal surgery, and spending 45 days in hospital.
“It was a pretty horrible experience, but I was lucky enough to get back to professional racing eight months later,” he says. “It definitely changed the way I looked at the sport. We race at pretty serious speeds wearing little more than Lycra and a helmet, and for a long time the assumption has been that adding protection means giving something up. That’s what we’re trying to change.”
LAP sells internationally, including to the UK, through wearlap.com.
