DENVER — Inside a small warehouse in north Denver, Lizzie Shilko is trying to change the way skiers think about helmets.
Shilko, a lifelong skier who grew up on the bunny hills of Minnesota, launched her company, Revi Gear, earlier this year after realizing she was still using the same ski helmet she bought as a kid. When she asked friends if they liked their helmets, few could point to a model they were excited about or confident in.
“No one really felt passionately about their ski helmet,” Shilko said. “I realized I was wearing that same ski helmet I had bought on that teeny bunny hill”.
That realization sent her in a new direction. In February 2025, she quit her job, went all-in on design, and even flew overseas to spend long days on a manufacturing floor in China, working with engineers to create a different kind of helmet.
Revi’s design centers on an internal system the company calls ESA – a co-molded polymer layer built inside the EPS foam. Traditional helmets rely on a single piece of foam that compresses once and can stop absorbing impact. Shilko says the ESA layer is engineered to flex, absorb and redistribute energy across the helmet’s core, offering more consistent protection from small knocks to big hits.
She spoke with skiers on chairlifts across Colorado about comfort, ventilation and damaged helmets that many people never replace, and she built the design around what she heard.
“Your helmet isn’t going to work the way it was designed if it doesn’t fit you correctly, or if it’s so uncomfortable that you refuse to wear it,” she said.
Shilko says she was “insufferable” with questions on chairlifts last winter, asking fellow skiers what they loved, hated or wished existed in a helmet.
Those conversations helped shape Revi’s fit system, adjustable airflow, padding and design. She says it also reinforced a safety concern of many skiers keeping their helmets for a decade or more, even after falls, not realizing the internal foam may no longer protect them.
By summer, Shilko had partnered with a manufacturing team overseas and watched prototypes go through industry safety testing, including ASTM and EU standards.
In early November, a 53-foot truck delivered her first shipment to the Denver warehouse. She and her small team worked through the night to pack and ship early orders.
One of those orders went to Mark Mason of Colorado Springs, who happened to be Revi’s very first customer. Mason found Shilko on TikTok while searching for a helmet with modern safety technology after taking several hard falls last season.
“I was looking for the new safety system because my old helmet didn’t have that,” Mason said. “When she designed the new safety feature, that really sold me on it.”
Mason said he also liked the magnetic buckle, the adjustable fit and that the helmet worked better with his head size. Due to the lack of snow, he hasn’t taken it on snow yet, saying his family is waiting for deeper coverage before skiing. But says he’s already shown it off to coworkers.
Shilko showed gratitude to the ski community here in Colorado for supporting her small business and says she is excited about the new conversations around ski helmets and safety. Revi Gear helmets are available online and ship nationwide. For Shilko, the goal isn’t just selling helmets, it’s pushing innovation in a space she feels hasn’t changed fast enough.
“I don't dream or wake up in the morning thinking about just creating another widget, I'm truly here to co-create this, and solve problems for mountain athletes by just hearing and listening to what they're what they're missing,” Shilko said.
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.