Best known for its clean-burning camping stoves, energy company BioLite is making its move on another segment of the adventure gear game with its very first headlamp. Through a slim fit band with electronics built in, BioLite is promising new levels of comfort for wearers of its so-called HeadLamp, namely through the elimination of bounce at the front end.
Regarding its new HeadLamp, BioLite says if "you forget you're wearing it, we did our job." The company sees headlamp design as something that has largely gone unchanged in a long time, and typical solutions have a bulky ball of batteries and bulbs bobbling around on your forehead. "Not this one," it says.
The company may be over-egging it a little, this is no revolutionary redesign. The One80 that replaces a central light with a circular halo and puts out 360 lumens, for example, is much more of a departure from the classic headlamp. But BioLite's does involve some sound tweaks that could find a sweet spot for outdoor enthusiasts in search of a more comfortable fit.
The LED panel sits at the front and pumps out 330 lumens in one of four modes: dimmed white spot, dimmed white flood, red flood and strobe. This panel sits on a hinge that allows the user to direct the light downwards as needed, and hooks up to a battery pack at the back through electronics hidden throughout the moisture-wicking fabric headband.
Because the battery is at the back it should reduce the headband slipping downwards, if not completely eliminate it, while the thinness of the band at the front should allow it to sit flush against the head and cut down on bounce. That 900 mAh battery is rechargeable via Micro USB and will allow 3.5 hours of light at maximum brightness, and up to 40 hours at minimum brightness.
BioLite has taken to Kickstarter to fund the production of its HeadLamp, and has amassed more than US$300,000 in pledges at the time of writing, easily surpassing its humble target of $40,000. Early pledges of US$49 remain, and will have a HeadLamp headed your way in December 2018 should all go to plan, with a small stuff sack that doubles as a light-diffusing lantern (when the HeadLamp is thrown inside) thrown in for good measure.
You can check out the promo video below.
Source: BioLite