Quentin Mulders and Zoé Absil, the founders of the start-up Warq, have already conquered the European airsoft and paintball market with their full-face protective helmet. These two activities involve teams competing to shoot each other with small plastic pellets (in the former) and paint balls (the latter). The pair are now offering training helmets for defence and law enforcement purposes. The French army have already placed an order and Germany and the Netherlands have also shown interest.
Warq, which was founded two years ago in Charleroi, offers a unique, full-face protective helmet as its flagship product, with absolutely no fog. Airsoft and paintball lovers, who needed to combine goggles, masks and netting, are delighted. This leisure market represents nearly two million people across Europe.
This full-face helmet also fully meets the standards for training in the law enforcement sector, such as the police. “Police officers need to train regularly, but not necessarily with their regular equipment, which, in some cases, is very expensive. It’s important to avoid unnecessary breakages. Furthermore, these units train with different ammunition than what they use during standard operations. Instead, they use striking ammunition, such as paintball ammunition, so our helmets are obviously useful,” explains Zoé Absil.
“We just got a huge order from the French army through our partners who work in France. We’re shipping a huge number of helmets,” Quentin Mulders notes. “Now we’re working with Germany and the Netherlands and a lot of other countries”.
The start-up is now aiming to develop a helmet for real-world situations. « We are considering and would like to develop an operational helmet that we can work with, but that depends on time and budget ”, Quentin clarifies. This could then be optimised using augmented reality.
Sources : Le Soir et la RTBF
