While I was with Dr. Sap visiting Capitol Varsity Sports last month we stubbed our collective toe on something. After we witnessed Russ Hawkins execute the helmet painting process A to Z, our hosts mentioned a unique twist to the U-M helmet they made in 2012. As prescribed by the athletic department, they added gold flakes into the maize paint…and showed us an example: Say what? So then there was the question: Did the team wear helmets with gold flakes nestled in the maize last season? Before checking with #1000SSS, I asked around and couldn’t find anyone aware of the change or a release talking about the flakes.* I checked out some close-ups of photos and didn’t really notice anything. Sap found one U-M collector, Dan Oles, who got his hands on a 2012 helmet that indeed had the flakes. Oles wrote to Sap, “I contacted a few players via twitter asking if the regular season helmets had maize glitter paint. They all confirmed that they did.” Oles even shot a note to Jon Falk who confirmed the change. Fast forward to today. I verified with media relations & with Falk that indeed the team had the bedazzled headgear in 2012. The change to the paint was announced as part of the Cowboy Classic uniform reveal…but the news release didn’t…
-
-
I’m Partial to Schutt (Reloaded)
[ed. 8/15 – After a few reader comments and questions, I revised this post. Gotta love Michigan football, where questions about helmet paint get the blood pumping.] I hope you had a chance to catch longtime equipment manager Jon Falk in a recent edition of ‘Countdown to Kick-off’, discussing reconditioning of the Michigan helmet. In the video Falk notes that there are two brands of helmet at Michigan, Schutt and Riddell (although a few varieties of styles are available for each company). Back in May I swung by Schembechler Hall to catch one batch of helmets just as they were being scooped up from the folks from Capitol Varsity Sports, the folks who recondition the Schutt equipment. Here’s a few of the facemaskless helmets sacked up about to be loaded on the truck to Oxford, OH: As wonderfully highlighted in the Countdown video, the man who cares for the Schutt gear once it arrives in Oxford is a man named Russ Hawkins. While the folks at Riddell use a mold to define the maize wing pattern, Hawkins sets the paint boundary by hand. To watch him work his magic is a sight to be sure: Sorry Riddell, give me a Schutt. This May I asked Falk about how Michigan hooked up with Capitol Varsity and Hawkins and he told me…
