A note from our founder:

I shouldn’t be here.

Years ago, I was hit by a car and thrown headfirst through a windshield. I suffered a traumatic brain injury that required emergency surgery to remove part of my skull. I spent weeks in a coma, and months in recovery, unsure of what would come next.

The person who saved my life was neurosurgeon Howard Riina. What started in an operating room turned into a close friendship, and eventually a shared curiosity about how better materials could change the way we protect people.

Through Howard, I was introduced to Fritz Vollrath, a materials scientist at the University of Oxford and one of the world’s leading experts in natural silk. His work showed something pretty remarkable: when engineered correctly, silk can outperform many of the synthetic materials we rely on today.
We started by asking a simple question. Why are we still relying on foam and plastic to protect what matters most?

That question became the foundation for INO Armor.

What began as an idea to rethink helmet safety quickly grew into something much bigger. A new class of protective materials, built from nature. By using the inherent strength and energy absorption of silk, we’re developing high-performance alternatives that don’t just work better, but can return safely to the environment.

In 2024, I was introduced to Tara Hobbs, who has been instrumental in taking INO Armor to the next level. Tara leads product development, sourcing, and operations, helping translate our technology into real-world applications and scalable products. Her leadership has been critical in moving us from breakthrough material science to market-ready solutions.

INO Armor exists because I was given a second chance and chose to build something meaningful with it. Today, we’re a team of scientists, engineers, and designers working to rethink how protection is built, from helmets to packaging and beyond. If you’re building products where performance matters, we’d love to work together.

—Charlie Maddock