Jens Munser started “small” in 1989 in his parents’ basement, where he first tried customizing his own motocross helmets with an airbrush to match his riding gear. Inspired by the work of Troy Lee, an American pioneer in helmet paintwork, Jens experimented enthusiastically with colors and motifs.

After many trials and plenty of learning, it became clear that combining paintwork, airbrushing and graphic design is essential to achieve outstanding results on helmets. Visits to and observations in auto paint shops as well as design and advertising agencies brought new insights that helped optimize our work: the simple fact that a helmet is round already makes the job challenging. Special tools we developed in-house are used to mark perfectly parallel lines, for example. The right technique also requires the right paint system. Even in his early days, Jens used a special approach to keep paint amounts low and spare riders unnecessary weight. With his own toolkit of pigments and binders, the paintwork on Schumacher’s helmet weighed only about 25 grams!

Your design is your signature. In close dialogue, the design is developed, refined and perfected together with the customer. A core principle at JMD is that every rider receives a tailor-made design and paint job exactly as desired. For inspiration, the JMD website showcases more than 1,000 realized helmet designs.

Good design attracts attention, as Jens quickly discovered. Other motocross riders wanted custom helmets, and demand kept growing. Jens presented his work at motorcycle trade shows and exhibitions and benefitted from short lines of communication in the paddocks, which made his designs so well known that in 1993 he decided to turn his hobby into a full-time profession as “JMD” (Jens Munser Designs). The right decision, as it turned out: at a motorcycle show, Peter Bürger—the Arai importer for auto and kart helmets—noticed JMD’s work. He needed a partner to expand his offering with professional paintwork, and after talking, the match was made. JMD enriched the portfolio with unconventional ideas and filled a market gap: instead of simple colorful stripes, individuality was in demand. From then on, the helmet surface was used to express oneself, convey messages and show personality on the track.

The inquiry that paved JMD’s way into Formula 1 came from Japan in 1998: Toranosuke Takagi, a Japanese F1 driver, was looking for a special green chrome design—which he found at JMD, where we had already been experimenting with chrome-based designs. These chrome helmets enabled the first step into F1. The next client was Nick Heidfeld, then still in Formula 3000 but already planning an F1 project with Schuberth helmets. Through our cooperation with Schuberth came the ultimate “dream client”: Michael Schumacher—his helmet design was initially adopted and, over the years of collaboration, modified based on JMD’s suggestions. He was followed by Ralf Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella, Mark Webber, Rubens Barrichello, Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa, Daniel Ricciardo, Sébastien Buemi, Adrian Sutil, Nico Hülkenberg, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel—who had his first helmet painted at JMD when he was eight years old.

Among all JMD customers, Pit Beirer—one of Germany’s most successful motocross riders—was particularly close to Jens’s heart. A big fan of the paintwork from Salzgitter, he was the only motocross rider to keep his own consistently unchanged design over many years. In the summer of 2003, a serious accident ended his career, and JMD ultimately withdrew from motocross as well.

With Sven Hannawald, the company had its first contact with winter sports—up close when Sven became the first ski jumper to win all individual events of the Four Hills Tournament in 2001. Felix Loch, Aksel Lund Svindal, Thomas Morgenstern and Lindsey Vonn were among several other exceptional athletes who followed. Even football stars like Lukas Podolski, Franck Ribéry, Sergio Agüero and sprint star Usain Bolt now own helmets from Salzgitter.

JMD established the helmet as an ideal communication surface that, alongside sponsor logos, provides space for designs that powerfully convey emotions and messages. A prime example was Michael Schumacher in 2001, when—after the attacks on the World Trade Center—he replaced the German flag with the American flag on his helmet: a political statement on a helmet, a world premiere!

Since then, messages have more often been carried outward via the helmet—for example with Giancarlo Fisichella, who celebrated Italy’s 2006 World Cup title and his 200th Formula 1 start with his helmet design.

After the serious accident at the Hungaroring in 2009, Rubens Barrichello used his helmet to send a message to his injured friend Felipe Massa—a gesture whose image went around the world!

Nick Heidfeld wanted something truly special when, at his request in 2007, a helmet with thermochromic paint was created for the first time—changing its design several times over the course of the race weekend.

For Michael Schumacher’s farewell race with Ferrari in Brazil, JMD prepared a very special surprise for the record world champion: all elements such as the dragon, logo and stars were applied in genuine gold leaf. In addition, the upper red ring was adorned with a listing of all 91 venues, including the years, where he won.

The theme of “farewell” was also creatively implemented for one of Vettel’s helmets marking his move from Toro Rosso to Red Bull: a collage of images from the first F1 victory for Toro Rosso and Sebastian Vettel.

In 2012, rally legend Walter Röhrl received his helmet with JMD design—and a piece of history from former co-driver Christian Geistdörfer—for his 65th birthday. Nico Rosberg’s expression of joy over Germany’s 2014 World Cup win did not align with FIFA’s lawyers: they prohibited him from wearing a painted image of the World Cup trophy on his helmet at his home GP in Hockenheim. In the paddock and in front of running cameras, Jens Munser had to rework it into four stars. FIA President Jean Todt, Niki Lauda and Dietrich “Didi” Mateschitz were also presented with JMD helmets; in all three cases, their life’s work was woven into the design with images and illustrations.

The indecisiveness of Sebastian Vettel and Jens Munser led Sebastian to change his helmet paintwork so often. For his first F1 race with BMW, there were too many ideas for too few helmets—so they were distributed across subsequent ones. The Vettel Helmet Art Collection took off: during his time at Red Bull Racing alone there were 94 different designs, and by 2018 the number had grown to over 130 variations of striking, effective headgear— with no end in sight. Even after the move to Ferrari and the FIA’s ban on fundamentally changing the helmet design constantly, Sebastian has remained experimental with us. The German flag running asymmetrically across the helmet and the mostly white front have—aside from a few exceptions—always been retained.

JMD has established itself worldwide as the go-to address for helmet paintwork. With a team of 14, we not only design helmets but also create drafts and products as gifts for teams and sponsors. It has become clear that JMD’s many ideas should not be limited to helmets; going forward, the company presents itself as one that brings design and style together with motorsport—the very fascination that has accompanied JMD from the beginning to this day.