Understanding CE Approval

In brief, since July 1st 1995, it has become unlawful to offer clothing as "protective clothing", unless it has met with the specifications of the PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT DIRECTIVE (PPE). This contains official requirements for products to meet with the type approval standards relative to their usage. Compliance is ensured by way of rigorous sample and garment testing by an official notified body (e.g. BSI, SATRA or SGS Yarsley etc.), then independent certification of the CE Mark to show this.

BKS made the decision to put their range of motorcycle leathers through CE Mark accreditation to satisfy both legal and moral obligations. It seemed ridiculous to design and offer products providing a protective function and then ignore a European Directive on Personal Protective Equipment. We were also aware of the potential marketing advantage to be gained by showing the consumer our products had received independent approval.

With this in mind, we worked with Cambridge University to ensure our suits offered the highest possible level of protection. BKS Leather were very proud to become the first company in the European motorcycle clothing industry to have been awarded the CE Mark.

We qualified in July 1994 to the 'Cambridge Standard - High Performance' level.

Cambridge University have a Protective Clothing Research Facility, headed by Dr. Roderick Woods, who has done very extensive research into motorcycle clothing and how it performs in accidents. The Cambridge Standard has been developed as a result of this and has established itself as the leading benchmark for motorcycle clothing protection standards. In fact, since the 'Police Act 1997' was passed our largest user groups, the UK Police forces and Ministry of Defence riders, can now only be issued with High Performance garments, thanks to CE Approval.

The Cambridge Standard meets with, and goes beyond, the Health and Safety elements of the PPE Directive for the requirements and the risk assessments associated with motorcycle clothing

Some clothing has unfortunately side-stepped the need for CE Marking, but only if it does not claim to offer protection against anything other than adverse weather conditions. As soon as it advertises accident protection, claiming features such as abrasion resistance, burst strength and impact protection, then it must comply in one of the following two ways.

DO NOT BE MISLED INTO ASSUMING THAT A LEATHER SUIT FITTED WITH CE MARKED IMPACT PROTECTORS IS THE SAME AS AN ENTIRE CE MARKED SUIT.

The entire BKS suit is officially CE Approved and manufactured to comply with the European Personal Protective Equipment Directive (EN 13595 PT. 1-4), and this allows us to openly promote the protective qualities of our armour, leather and seam construction in relation to impact, abrasion resistance and burst strength.

Customer feedback has shown that CE Marking remains one of the major reasons people choose BKS, confirming the demand for an industry standard that consumers can trust.