Helmet company Samshield has announced a voluntary recall of certain helmets produced in April 2015, citing a manufacturing defect that makes the helmets fall short of new European helmet standards.

The statement references certain Samshield helmets produced in April 2015. Those helmets met ASTM standards when they were produced, and therefore are still certified and able to be sold and used in U.S. competitions requiring an ASTM approved helmet. 

However, labeling on those Samshield helmets claimed they met a new 2016 European CE helmet certification. The company said in the statement it has since noticed that, due to a manufacturing defect, this is not true.  

“Safety and transparency being a priority for Samshield, we kindly ask you to check your Samshield #02 helmet model (Shadowmatt or Premium models),” stated the company in its release.

“If it’s a ‘#02 / production date 04/15’ please bring it back to the retailer who has sold the helmet in order to send it to Samshield, or send the helmet directly to Samshield to enable them to check it and, if necessary, exchange it for a model which should not represent any doubt regarding the certification claimed on its label,” the statement continued.

The new safety standard was created to unify certifications of helmets across all European countries, and an interim standard for 2016 with the prefix VG1 was developed. The aforementioned Samshield helmet models failed to meet the CE-VG1-040 standard for 2016.