Bold Brand Campaign for DuPont™ Kevlar® Kicks-Off with ESPN X Games

Dare Bigger™ Launches with X Games Austin, Kevlar® Documentary Debuts on BBC Horizons

DuPont Protection Technologies today announced the new DuPont™ Kevlar® brand platform, Dare Bigger™, and a sponsorship of ESPN X Games through 2015. Kevlar®, an advanced material synonymous with strength, durability and performance in extreme conditions, is the perfect sponsor for the powerful global event platform where athletes break the boundaries of action sports. The campaign will begin running with the inaugural X Games this week in Austin, Texas.

The Dare Bigger™ brand platform represents inspiration for anyone who relies on the safety and performance of Kevlar® brand fiber. The science behind this advanced material, coupled with its strength and durability, allows us to push boundaries, defy limits and challenge the conventional.

From athletes to astronauts, first responders to industrial workers, Kevlar® enables anyone with an
imagination and a job to do to Dare Bigger™.

“The DuPont™ Kevlar® brand and Dare Bigger™ are a great fit for the X Games,” said Eric Johnson, ESPN executive vice-president of global multimedia sales. “The brand has long been a component in performance-based sporting equipment used by our athletes and we look forward to exploring the possibilities of this new collaboration in the years ahead.”

In addition to the ESPN sponsorship, DuPont™ Kevlar® also is the subject of a documentary-style advertisement that premieres this spring during commercial breaks in the fourth season of the award-winning series, Horizons, which is sponsored by DuPont, on BBC World News. The Kevlar® Journey, Top to Bottom takes the audience from space to earth and below to showcase through spectacular footage how the technology can challenge boundaries.

Kevlar® is seen in the design of such varied products as space suits, cell phones, high-performance sporting equipment and mining belts. To view: click here.

“Our potential to Dare Bigger™ is limited by what materials can do,” said William F. Weber, vice-president, Kevlar®, DuPont Protection Technologies. “Products made with Kevlar® help enable you to challenge those boundaries, much in the way an athlete or astronaut defies the limits of possibility. That is the spirit of this campaign and the promise of this brand.”

The breadth and versatility of the Kevlar® technology platform helps enable customers to design products that make a difference when performance and safety are crucial. It is lightweight, extraordinarily strong and flame resistant. Best known for its use in ballistic and stab-resistant body armor, Kevlar® has helped to save the lives of thousands of people around the world.

The use of Kevlar® has been extended to everything from fire fighter and industrial protective clothing to vehicles, fiber optic cables, mining belts, commercial aircraft and city roads. Kevlar® fiber also is used in many consumer products such as mobile phones, tires, sporting apparel and equipment.

“The science behind DuPont™ Kevlar®, along with its proven strength, endurance and versatility, enables performance and safety that customers have come to trust,” said Marc Doyle, president DuPont Protection Technologies. “Our science and application knowledge is what allows us to continue our legacy of market-shaping innovation.”
Additional Quotes:

Stephanie Kwolek, DuPont™ Kevlar® aramid fiber inventor: “All sorts of things can happen when you’re open to new ideas and playing around with things.”

Scott Parazynski, retired NASA astronaut (7-time space walker): “Is my space suit going to protect me today? Without the presence of Kevlar®, I think it would be terrifying.” – BBC Horizons, The Kevlar® Journey, Top to Bottom

Bruce Burkholder, global technology leader, DuPont Protection Technologies: “It’s really gratifying because Kevlar® has been around for a long time and you still see it finding applications in cutting-edge technologies.” – BBC Horizons, The Kevlar® Journey, Top to Bottom

Reuben Castano, design director, Motorola: “The beauty of using Kevlar® is we can actually design properties into the material and create something new.” – BBC Horizons, The Kevlar® Journey, Top to Bottom

Kathy Kowalski, global brand, marketing and communications leader, DuPont Protection Technologies: “The Kevlar® brand has great heart based on its 50 years of enabling people to do the extraordinary and with the ESPN X Games partnership, Dare Bigger™ brings the world a new attitude for innovating to reach new levels of extreme protection and performance with Kevlar®.

Jeffrey Cohen, founder & co-chairman, Earthbound LLC: "We are thrilled to be working with the iconic DuPont™ Kevlar® brand. Kevlar® is a brand that has meant so much to so many people and has protected the lives of our armed forces, policemen, firemen - the people who protect us. We are so excited to be bringing the Kevlar® brand and technology to the consumer market!

The X Games could not be a more perfect way to launch the brand. Earthbound is a brand management company that has always dared bigger, so we are ready to once again build a great success at the consumer level with DuPont™ Kevlar®.”

DuPont Protection Technologies is a leader in technologies and products that protect people, the environment and critical assets worldwide. For additional information, please visit DuPont Protection Technologies.

DuPont (NYSE: DD) has been bringing world-class science and engineering to the global marketplace in the form of innovative products, materials, and services since 1802. The company believes that by collaborating with customers, governments, NGOs, and thought leaders we can help find solutions to such global challenges as providing enough healthy food for people everywhere, decreasing dependence on fossil fuels, and protecting life and the environment.

For additional information about DuPont and its commitment to inclusive innovation, please visit http://www.dupont.com.

By press release