Raiders Custom Helmet

Raiders Custom Helmet

This Raiders custom helmet was one of the coolest custom painted helmet gifts ever… Stacey Cole from Iowa wanted to surprise her husband with a custom painted Raiders helmet for his birthday. He had just come back from being deployed to Iraq, and she wanted to do something really special. So, she asked me to look at a custom helmet painting project on his HJC moto helmet. She picked a Raiders theme because her husband is a huge fan. We love doing custom painted helmets like this—especially when they mean something important to someone, AND when they are a total surprise.   It’s crazy when you get to see such a long process and so much thought be unboxed with zero suspicion.   A total Blown Away surprise.

We started by disassembling the lid and prepping it correctly for paint.  Done the right way, it will be durable and resistant to rock chips and abuse.  An HJC is perfect start for a custom painted helmet, because they are built pretty well in comparison to a lot of the other China manufactured helmets. We used House of Kolor paint for the deep black base. Then we added lots of details using helmet airbrushing. Stacey sent us pictures from the Raiders archives that she liked, and we used those to guide the design.

The whole helmet had a tough, dark look—just like the Raiders classic look.  We stuck to colors like silver, white, and gray to match the team’s style. This Raiders themed helmet had the Raiders logo on the sides and one Raiders logo adjusted with a cool pirate skeleton with an eye patch. I painted a mural of an old Raiders player wearing a leather helmet, and it looked hard and old school, on the lower part of the helmet. Alongside that, we added a few grim reapers and a graveyards on either side to match the custom Raiders imagery. It gave the custom Raiders helmet a bold and mean look, just like the team’s attitude.

To top it all off, I painted the three Super Bowl trophies the Raiders have won—Super Bowls XI, XV, and XVIII. The trophies looked pretty cool airbrushed in white and grey on the back of this custom airbrushed Raiders helmet. It really showed off the team’s history and pride. Whether you cheered for the team in Oakland, Los Angeles, or Las Vegas, the Raiders have always had that strong and dark style. This custom painted Raiders helmet fit right in with that tradition.  Dark and Hard.

This helmet wasn’t just for display. It’s a custom painted dirt helmet for riding in the dirt.  So now Stacey’s husband has a dirt bike custom helmet that shows off his favorite team while he’s out riding. It’s also a custom painted motocross helmet with a Raiders theme painted to last and built to ride. I love project custom painted MX helmets like this because they mix art with action.

Quality high end paint and clear from PPG, House of Kolor, Dupont, etc. ensure my helmet painting stays strong even with dirt, roost, rocks, wind, and sun. This one had several layers of clear, with sanding between each to make it smooth a mirror-show finish. That’s part of our high-end custom helmet painting process, a little extra time goes a long way, and is exactly how I would want my own done. When it was finished, the helmet looked so good that Stacey’s husband booked them a trip to Aspen to celebrate.

This kind of project is why I love what I do, even decades later… Every airbrushed helmet I finish is special.  Each one has to be, considering how much time I spend with each one.  This Cole offroad custom painted helmet was one I’ll always remember, and people have asked about dozens of times. This thing was more than just a new lid— a gift, a thank you, a huge surprise, and a piece of art all in one. If you’re a fan of the Raiders and you ride, nothing’s better than a custom painted Raiders helmet like this. It’s the perfect way to show team pride and ride with style.   I’ve done any team, school, sport, whatever, to go on any style helmet.  So whether it be the Raiders, the Vikings, Michigan, or Florida, I can custom paint any idea you can think of, or I can help you think up.  And that can be a custom painted helmet, a motorcycle, a refrigerator, a toilet seat, a beer keg, or a wall mural…   Anything.   No Rules.