*By Christian Smith*
In a final push before bringing its collapsible, baseball cap-style helmets to market, Park & Diamond launched an Indiegogo campaign on Tuesday ー and hit its goal of $50,000 within an hour.
The company, which was founded in 2015, makes helmets shaped like baseball caps in a safety-first effort to encourage riders to wear protective gear while cycling or taking other modes of alternative transport, co-founder and CEO Jordan Klein said Tuesday in an interview on Cheddar.
"We really are going after people who traditionally would not be a helmet user," he said.
It's a cause that is especially important to David Hall, the company's other co-founder and president. Hall's sister went into a four-month-long coma after she was hit by a car while biking at the corner of Park and Diamond streets near Virginia Tech's campus. It was that very accident that led Hall and Klein, then both engineering students at the university, to create their company with the goal of reducing the 85,000 severe traumatic brain injuries that result each year from cycling accidents in the U.S.
"We interviewed thousands of people after Rachel's accident, and we found that people don't wear helmets because they're uncomfortable, they're ugly, and then most importantly they're not collapsible; you can't take them everywhere you need to go," Klein said.
While it may have been a biking accident that launched the idea for Park & Diamond, Klein said the company has other ambitions.
"We may have started around Dave's personal story ー around bike helmets ー but really we're passionate about alternative transportation and safe alternative transportation," Klein said.
Klein and Hall have been in contact with many mobility companies ー including Uber and Lime ー since Park & Diamond was founded. Ultimately, the co-founders want to forge partnerships to spread their mission of safety.
Park & Diamond's helmet is available for pre-order on the company's [website](https://www.park-and-diamond.com/) for $79.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-company-thats-making-helmets-cool-again).
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
