History
Troy Lee Designs

History

1981

A sign painter begins applying his art to anything from airplanes, mailboxes and helmets. Helmet painting begins to take over most of Troy’s time and so Troy Lee Designs is born.

1986

Ever the artist, Troy takes his design talents to designing aesthetically pleasing helmet visors to the leading helmet brands. It wasn't enough to apply a custom paint job to a helmet and Troy took on improving design and airflow characteristics into visor designs.

1992

The 90’s was the decade where custom helmet painting went to the stratosphere. Jeremy McGrath took the Moto industry by storm in the early 90’s and hasn’t stopped to this day and has had Troy paint him some of the most iconic custom helmets ever!

1995

Troy develops an industry changing mountain bike helmet called the Daytona. Mountain biking is getting faster and the rider needed a helmet that was safer and could handle the vastly increasing speeds racers were now achieving.

1996

Mountain bike legend John Tomac equally dominated the mountain bike racing world in the 90’s and showcased speed and style on the mountain and his custom painted Troy Lee Designs paint jobs.

1999

The late 90’s was the pinnacle of iconic “extreme sports” athletes like shaun Palmer who collaborated with Troy Lee to custom paint his numerous iconic helmet paint jobs in Snowboarding, Mountain Biking and Motocross and was named by USA Today at the time as :the world’s greatest athlete” in 1999.

2000

The 2000’s are when the brand Troy Lee Designs began to take safety into their own hands and began developing the most durable and functional gear for its athletes and customers. Troy brought all these features together and then added style and art to make racewear look fast.

2003

This is the year when TLD stepped into the deep end of Supermoto by fielding its own race team. There is no better way to develop your vision than to do it yourself and what Troy did. Product development with your own team leads to faster product development for all of our customers.

2004

The SE helmet was the first motocross helmet designed in house with all the style and comfort that Troy felt the Moto industry was needing. Years of inspiration came to fruition and began a goal to this day of designing the best protection for our customers.

2009

The D3 was introduced on the heels of the worlds most sought after full face helmet, the Daytona and the D2. This helmet wrote a new playbook on safety and design, continuing to cement Troy Lee Designs as the equipment of choice for the worlds fastest racers and riders that pretended to be.

2015

Trail riding also needs its version of comfort, safety and style. The A1 half shell trail helmet was a game changer and a huge success for the company. After 20 years of people wanting to see a TLD trail helmet. We finally gave them a helmet to remember.

Today

Almost 40 years of racing, riding, designing and TLD now offers a full range of Moto and Bike equipment for riders of all types, Men, Women, Kids designed to be comfortable, offer superior protection and look different on the track and trail.

1981
1986
1992
1995
1996
1999
2000
2003
2004
2009
2015
Today

A sign painter begins applying his art to anything from airplanes, mailboxes and helmets.

A sign painter begins applying his art to anything from airplanes, mailboxes and helmets.