OT: New Schutt Helmet
http://www.schuttsports.com/aspx/news/News.aspx?newsid=155It looks like a lacross helmet
This.
Responding with "this" and nothing else is stupid.
And you took the time to reply to let me know your feelings. Neat.
I simply replied in the most efficient way possible. I love my post. I'm going to print it out and tape it to my mirror so that every morning when I wake up and every night before I go to bed, I can remember how efficient of a poster I am. Sorry you can't have the same pride about being an efficient poster. It feels amazing.
The helmet itself is whatever, but those facemasks are hideous.
I hate the facemask myself, but I'm sure some kids out there will love it. They love being different, these kids.
I'd like to see that helmet in it's proper color and design scheme before I judge it. Yes, I am talking about a Maize and Blue winged helmet.
OH GOD, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!!!!1
STFU IT TOOK ME A REALLY LONG TIME AND IT LOOKS TOTALLY AWESOME.
#nextbobross
No snob like a MS Paint snob
delaware helmet..?
This is the reason why we need the pos bangs to go to at least 11. Simply awesome.
He might adopt them for "throwback games" versus all our home opponents
So are you saying that, unable to choose between gray and blue, we're going with black facemasks this year?
The helmet itself isn't terrible. But oh my science that facemask...
I actually really like the Revo Speed helmets. The futuristic look is cool and Riddell actually had the common sense to match them with normal(ish) looking facemasks.
Yeah, I am not a fan of the facemask portion. Is it just me, or does the top portion of the facemask seem to be inspired by Grace Jones' eyebrows?
I wonder if the weird face mask is to help protect the crown of the head and temples by absorbing a bit of energy. If it's a case of form following function it's fine but otherwise it's hideous (kinda like the large "ear-lobe" was on new helmets a few years ago for preventing neck injuries during removal, but now are ubiquitous and seem normal).
That looks like a trap from Saw
The thing is that a helmet can only lower the chance of head trauma if people actually wear it. If it looks totally gumpy, nobody is going to adopt the new style, because a lot of athletes are somewhat image-conscious.
Remember when the first-generation Riddell Revolution helmets came out with the new rounded facemasks? Peyton Manning aside, not many players adopted them, because they looked different and uncool. It was only when they came out with the Revo Speed series of more aggressive-looking masks that they gained widespread adoption.
And for a more extreme example, a small company produced a football helmet called the Gladiator Helmet that was supposed to be really good at protecting against concussions, but it looked like this, so it never caught on:
Is that Mark Kelso? I still remember his pro-cap "Gazoo" helmet.
I wonder whether there would be more or less concussions if they did away with helmets (or at least facemasks) altogether.
general belief is fewer head injuries without helmets
Riddell says don't lead with your head.
...helmets, behold the sneak peek of the soon to be debuted University of Arizona alternate helmet:
...as a matter of function (and wasn't even unique), might there come a day where we will have to redesign, if the basic helmet designs become too differentiated from what currently exists? ("No," is the simple answer that I expect.)
But for our Friday review class, let's recall that the Michigan helmet design from the 1930's followed what was supplied in the standard Spalding catalog of the day.
The 1937 Spalding FH5:
Tom Harmon, running against Michigan State College in 1940 (with the Aggies wearing their own black and silver winged helmets from Spalding):
The modern equivalent might be for Michigan to paint the functionally raised portions of the Schutt helmet Maize, with the rest Blue. Anybody care to photoshop that one? ("No," I once again expect is the answer. But it would be interesting. It is hard for me to believe that there won't be a big push to develop better and better helmets in repsonse to the concussion controversy, and it would seem logical that a different-looking helmet will be the eventual result.)
I'm pretty sure you have it backwards. My understanding is that in 1935, two years before that, Fritz Crisler came up with the idea of having the three stripes on the helmet (to represent tiger stripes for Princeton). Before then, the Spaulding helmet only had wings, or sometimes the wings accompanied by a single stripe. Crisler's three-stripe design was later adopted by Spaulding - not vice-versa.
1938: Crisler brings the Spalding FH5 to Michigan, in a custom color combination of maize and blue.
1935: Crisler uses what will become the Spalding FH5 at Princeton.
1933: MSC is using a Spalding(?) winged design (gold with black leather trim) with a block "S"; they continued using it until the 1940's. (See Harmon picture above. Incidentally, I see references to that photo being a 1939, and not a 1940 photo. I am also corrected on MSC using gold and black, rather than silver and black, as team colors. Anybody beside me think that they once used sliver and black? Don't recall where I got that from.)
Pre-1933: There is considerable doubt about which colleges were first to use the "winged" (leather forehead patch) design. Personally, I DON'T think it was the MSC Aggies. I think that there were some eastern schools (Rutgers? St. John? Holy Cross?) that were first.
In any event, I have always thought that the design orginated with helmet-makers at A.G. Spalding, and/or another manufacturer, and NOT with Fritz Crisler. His teams; a national-champion Princeton team in 1935, and later a long series of great Michigan teams, just made the stock design popular. If it is a matter of trivia that Fritz asked Spalding for three stripes instead of one, it seems to be a debatable point. What seems to be beyond debate is that the front "patch" was never Princeton 'laid-back Tiger ears.' Whether they were a helmet-designer's vision of "wings" is also debatable but surely more credible than 'Tiger ears.'
http://www.uni-watch.com/2010/12/29/winging-it-helmet-history-reconsidered/
IIRC, the "wings" were Spaulding's idea (based on the forehead padding) but the idea to have three stripes going from the wings to the back was Crisler's.
Since three-stripe helmets existed before Crisler used them at Princeton, and there are photos to prove it.
http://www.spartanjerseys.com/michigan-state-football-jersey-helmet/winged-helmet/
That article sums it up pretty well*. I have seen other old pictures from the early 30's with lots of variants of the winged helmet (one-, two- and three-stripe versions). Did Crisler suggest the three-stripe design to the A.G. Spalding Co.? Weird, if he did, and other schools used that design before Princeton did.
*But there's a photo-caption that reads, "Larry Sawicki in 1934 against Chicago on November, 11 1933." Which can't possibly be correct.
I've never heard before that someone used the wings/three stripe combination before Crisler. I have my doubts about that site - it is a Sparty homer site, after all. Even if it's true, who cares - we embraced the design, unlike everyone else - and it's justifiably known as a "Michigan helmet" given that we've worn it for a much longer period of time than anyone else.
Coming up with a site dedicated to proving that your rival didn't originate its iconic helmet 70 years ago - that's a pure Little Brother move. Spartans can't seem to make up their minds about this: one minute they're arguing that our helmets are ugly, the next they're jumping up and down and claiming they wore them first.
pictures don't lie, do they? This is purportedly Indiana in 1934:
(You can see it larger by right-clicking on the image and selecting "view image" from the popup menu; the photo credit reads "Courtesy of Indiana University Arbutus Yearbook.")
From your comments about the linked site, I have trouble believing you actually looked at it. Sorry if I'm wrong about that.
Too beautiful, in fact. You've photoshopped over the physical contours of the outer shell of the new Schutt design. As if the maize paint were floating, on what would be the surface of one of the current designs.
You're good! It actually looks okay in that rendition.
There are so many models of helmets out there now, with various players on any given team wearing perhaps five or six different helmet models, I don't suppose that anybody will incoporate elements of the helmet shell into a paint-scheme design. But that of course is how the Michigan design arose...
...helmet numbers.
/ducks