Ruby® was born out of Parisian designer Jérôme Coste’s obsession with a particular safety accessory: the motorcycle helmet.

Jérôme grew up in the world of the mechanical sports, fascinated by the champions’ performances and their outfits. He wanted to emulate them, and his own breakneck temperament earned him six cranial traumatisms.

Although no after-effects showed up on the encephalograms, he saw this as an additional explanation of his interest in «protective headgear», and decided to launch his own collection.

 
After studying at the Ecole Estienne des Arts Appliquées in Paris, in 1992, he took off for a decisive experience in California, working for the motocross equipment brand of his dreams, JT Racing®. This was when he realised that what he enjoyed the most was developing a brand’s identity through all kinds of media.

In 1996, this idea led to Hold-up®, a brand of clothes and accessories linked to his own favourite sports: skateboarding, BMX and mountain biking. At the same time he also set up the Deep® design studio, which allowed him to apply his creative approach on various issues combining fashion, sports and musical labels. 

One day, back in 2001, he read a Japanese motorcycling magazine and fell in love with the spirit of the Tokyo biker gangs, who expertly mixed street culture and a vintage motorcycling spirit. He then drafted the idea of a brand of helmets which would have a conventional design although using modern technology. In 2004, Jérôme chose the name «Ruby», designed the Pavillon® and came up with the whole concept of his brand. 

The rest of the story is a long crusade, which picked up pace in October 2006 when Jérôme was joined by Jean-Etienne Prach who took charge of all the adventure’s realistic, operational data. The two had become friends 10 years earlier due to a shared interest in skateboarding and since then Jean-Etienne had become an expert multinational management consultant.