Riddell Helmet History: From the First Plastic Shell to the SpeedFlex

Almost every signed football helmet in the hobby says Riddell on the back bumper. That's not an accident. Riddell invented the plastic football helmet, held the official NFL helmet deal for a quarter century, and still makes the shells most players wear on Sundays. If you collect helmets, you're collecting Riddell history whether you meant to or not.

Here's how the company got there, era by era, and what each era means when you're deciding which helmet to get signed.

1929: A cleat company from Chicago

John T. Riddell was a high school coach and athletic director in Evanston, Illinois when he started tinkering with football gear. His first product wasn't a helmet at all. It was the removable cleat, which let players swap studs for wet fields instead of owning two pairs of shoes. He founded the company in 1929 and spent the first decade on shoes.

1939: The plastic shell that changed everything

Football helmets were leather until Riddell built the first plastic shell helmet in 1939. It used a web suspension inside the shell that held the head away from the plastic, an idea so good the U.S. military adopted it for helmets during World War II. Leather helmets hung on into the late 1940s, but the plastic shell was the future and everybody knew it. Every helmet on your shelf traces back to this one.

1940s to 1980s: Straps, masks and air

The decades after the plastic shell were about everything attached to it. Riddell added the chin strap in the early 1940s. Facemasks arrived in the 1950s, and the single-bar and double-bar masks you see on throwback helmets come from that stretch. Air-filled padding showed up in the 1960s, and inflatable liners that fit the helmet to the head followed in the '70s and '80s. Through all of it the basic shape stayed round and simple. That's the shell you picture when you think of a 1970s Steelers or Cowboys helmet, and it's what most of the throwback minis in the hobby reproduce.

1989 to 2013: The VSR4 and the NFL deal

In 1989 the NFL made Riddell its official helmet. For the next 25 seasons the Riddell logo was on the front bumper of most helmets in the league, and the shell under it for most of that time was the VSR4. Introduced around the same time as the deal, the VSR4 became the defining silhouette of the '90s and 2000s. Brett Favre wore one his whole career. If you picture a helmet from that era, you're picturing a VSR4.

It hung around a long time. Tom Brady wore a VSR4 into the late 2010s. The NFL and the players' union took it off the approved list in 2018 after lab testing and let players who already wore one finish that season. Since 2019 nobody's worn one in a game.

The NFL's official helmet deal with Riddell ended after the 2013 season, which is why newer helmets don't carry the NFL shield on the front bumper. Riddell still dominates the sideline. It just does it without the sponsorship.

For collectors: the VSR4 is the shell for anybody who played from the late '80s through the 2000s. If you're getting a Hall of Famer from that stretch to sign, this is the helmet they actually wore, and throwback Speed shells in the old team designs get you close if you can't find a true VSR4.

2002: The Revolution

The Revolution was the first helmet built around concussion research. Riddell extended the shell down over the jaw and moved the facemask attachment points, and the result looked different from anything before it. Peyton Manning made it famous. It wasn't around long as the flagship, but it set up everything that came next, and you'll still find Revolution shells on signed helmets from the mid-2000s.

2008: The Speed

The Riddell Speed took the Revolution idea and cleaned it up. Sleeker shell, a slightly extended jaw, the modern look. It became the most popular helmet in the NFL within a few seasons, and it's still the most common shell in the hobby by a wide margin.

The reason matters to you: Riddell makes the Speed in an authentic full-size, a replica full-size and a mini, so it's the shell that shows up in every price range. When you see a signed helmet with no other shell name attached, it's almost always a Speed. Our post on authentic vs replica helmets is mostly about the Speed for that reason.

2014: The SpeedFlex

You can spot a SpeedFlex from the upper deck. There's a notch cut into the crown, and the panel inside it flexes on impact. Riddell also gave it a flexible facemask attachment and a ratchet chin strap. It quickly became the helmet a large share of NFL players wear, and it's the premium collector shell today. A signed SpeedFlex authentic costs more than the same player on a Speed because the blank costs more, and because it's the helmet fans have watched that player wear.

2022: The Axiom

Riddell's newest platform. The Axiom launched in 2022 with a shell that's shaped from head scans of thousands of players, and a 3D printed liner version called the Axiom 3D followed in 2024. More players switch to it every season. There aren't many signed Axioms in the hobby yet because the collector versions are still hard to get, but give it a few years.

What this means for the helmet on your shelf

Every era has a shell, and matching the shell to the player is half of what makes a signed helmet look right.

• Pre-1990s player: a throwback shell in the old team design. The rounded shape and the simple mask are the point.
• '90s through 2000s player: a VSR4 if you can find one, a throwback Speed if you can't.
• Late 2000s to today: a Speed. It's what they wore, and it comes in every price range.
• Current player: a SpeedFlex if you want the exact helmet on the field, a Speed if you want to save a few hundred dollars.

Then there are the alternates Riddell puts out for collectors every year, the Lunar Eclipse, Eclipse, Flash, Slate and Salute to Service finishes. None of those were worn in a game, but they're some of the most popular helmets to get signed because they stand out on a wall. Our guide to every type of football helmet runs through all of them.

Where Riddell helmets fit in what we do

Full-size helmets are the biggest part of our business and the item we break more than anything else. We stock hundreds of authenticated signed full-size Riddell helmets across every shell in this post, and thousands of signed minis. If you'd rather take a shot at a big name for a fraction of retail, that's what our live helmet breaks are for. And once you've got one, our guide on displaying signed memorabilia will keep the signature looking like the day it was signed.