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When John Riddell created the first plastic suspension football helmet in 1939, polycarbonate hadn’t yet been invented. Today, it’s hard to find a sports helmet that isn’t made from this material. Colors have been introduced as well. While most NFL helmets are painted for a high gloss, the underlying material must be a certain color so that the end result is uniform. The Green Bay Packers, for instance, insist on their exclusive version of the color gold.

Michelle Maniscalco

September 29, 2008

3 Min Read
Matching that Green Bay gold

When John Riddell created the first plastic suspension football helmet in 1939, polycarbonate hadn’t yet been invented. Today, it’s hard to find a sports helmet that isn’t made from this material. Colors have been introduced as well. While most NFL helmets are painted for a high gloss, the underlying material must be a certain color so that the end result is uniform. The Green Bay Packers, for instance, insist on their exclusive version of the color gold.

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Getting the right shade of gold, or any other color, is critical for Riddell Sports, which supplies more than 85% of the NFL and a majority of college, high school, and grade school football players with helmets.

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The Design Center at the Color Competence Center encourages hands-on involvement in the color-matching process. Customers can see products using various colors and special effects in the design gallery, and view thousands of color samples displayed in a rotating rack under different types of lighting.



Today, Riddell Sports (Elyria, OH and New York) supplies more than 85% of all football helmets used in the NFL and a majority of those used by college, high school, and grade school athletes.

Riddell designer Jim Tansey tells IMM that a recent experience in color matching reinforced his belief in working closely with his material supplier.

“I was the keeper of the colors, and we had 12 helmet colors that I had been working on for about a year to get approved after switching from one PC supplier to Bayer MaterialScience,” he explains. “My team couldn’t get the spectrophotometer readings to agree, and the samples were old and hadn’t been maintained in a pristine environment, making our job that much more difficult.”

Bayer invited Tansey to visit its Design & Color Competence Center in Newark, OH to resolve the issue. “Using a method their experts had developed, we were able to sync the readings within 0.1 deltaE, which enabled us to get the correct color,” he explains. “After that, we just began running color after color. They produced and molded whatever chips we needed, adjusting until the color was exact. Not only did we get the chips made, but we also got the standards settled.”

Tansey credits the color lab for having both experienced formulators such as Joe Cameron and Duane Brummage, and a production area with its own molding machines. “Within 16-20 hours, they solved a problem we had worked on for a year. If there was a problem with the initial color chip, the techs would tweak it, make another batch, and it would be dead on. I was impressed by the attention to detail, expertise, and knowledge base,” he adds.

Bayer MaterialScience opened the Design Center addition to the Color Competence Center at its Newark compounding plant in June 2007. In addition to color and design services, the plant compounds Makrolon PC and Bayblend PC/ABS resins with other polymers and additives to meet specific customer needs.

The hands-on design center encourages customers to be actively involved in the design process, according to Bayer, so that they can obtain custom color matches in a personalized and streamlined way. Like Tansey, customers work together with dedicated staff to create color matches and special effects. In most cases, they can also leave the facility with samples produced on the center’s molding equipment.


Bayer MaterialScience | www.bayermaterialsciencenafta.com
Riddell Sports | www.riddell.com

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