The helmet as it appeared on my desk.
This morning when I got to work I found the strangest thing sitting on my desk. It was a helmet. Sort of. Actually, it was an industrial hard hat modified to resemble the sort of helmet one would expect a Roman gladiator to wear. But what was it doing on my desk? Obviously it was a joke of some kind, but what? I decided that somebody was making fun of my motorcycle riding - not because I could think of a reason for such mockery, rather because it was the only activity I partake in that requires a helmet!
And so I just set the helmet aside hoping that my benefactor would eventually show his face and explain the joke to me. Towards the end of the day, he did.... The helmet wasn't a joke; it was a piece of paintball gear! One of my co-workers had played paintball in the mid-80's; back when shop goggles were the standard eye protection. Alas, he discovered that face shots hurt and decided to do something about it. So, he created his own paintball mask to augment his goggles!
I don't know a lot about the lore of early paintball gear, but I suspect that this has got to be one of the very first paintball masks. Notice that it even has the "advanced feature" of a chin strap? In any event, I though ya'll might find it interesting (I know I did).
 ('tis a bit too big for her). |
 construction details |
PS: Does anybody know when the first commercial masks appeared?