Written by Mike Finney, former VICIS Salesman, and Student Manager for the Colorado State University Football team.

A little over a decade ago, I was an 18-year old freshman at Colorado State University working as a Student Manager for our football team. I went on to work for 3 additional universities as an equipment manager, and 3 years as a football helmet Sales Representative. As I reflect on my time as a Student Manager fitting football helmets for our team it’s clear that the helmet industry has evolved dramatically, but the one thing that has changed the most is the amount of options available for athletes. In this post, I’ll share football helmet purchasing trends.

Why are there so many football helmet options?

• All head shapes are different among the athletes – all helmets fit different
• Each helmet is ranked by how much they reduce head impact severity – Safety
• All helmets differ in how much they cost
• All helmets look different – Swag

The football helmet industry is ever-evolving.

It’s worth giving some kudos to all helmet manufactures here for keeping all these things top of mind as they continue to create the safest possible helmets for the game of football.  It’s a lot of pressure to innovate consistently for the health of these athletes and it’s clear that they keep getting better year after year.

When evaluating this list though, it begs a question to the athletes selecting which helmet to wear, and it begs a question to the coaches/equipment managers purchasing these helmets: What’s most important to you when you select and/or purchase a helmet? I believe this is different for athletes compared to coaches/equipment managers.

In my experience, I believe athletes purchase football helmets based on the following criteria:

• Swag
• Fit
• Safety
• Cost (If you purchase your own helmet)

For coaches and equipment managers, I believe they purchase football helmets based on the following criteria:

• Safety
• Cost
• Fit
• Swag

I think this ranking can change depending on the person, but overall, this is what I have found to hold true. 

So, what do you look for when purchasing in a helmet???

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