Synopsys: Schutt F7 football helmet has 3 different versions. The F7 VTD, F7 LX1 Youth Helmet and the latest F7 2.0 adult football helmet with face mask. All of these helmets are 5 star rated football helmet with a extremely high performance rating from Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings.
The latest F7 2.0 has safety performance score of 1.35, replacing its predecessor F7 VTD football helmet. Whilst the first of its kind, the F7 VTD has a safety rating score of 2.54, the f7 2.0 football helmet is a battlefield winner of Schutt helmet line. Compared to the these professional grade helmets, the Schutt F7 LX1 has a star value score of 4.96 ranking on the 24th position among 34 other top rated Virginia Tech Helmet Rating List.
With multiple layers of protection, adaptive fit technology, jaw line protection, Tektonik Plate inclusion and a wide range of safety features provides top-notch protection with these 3 helmets. No secret why these super protective football helmet has the highest range of ratings from Virginia Tech Performance Helmet rating.
While the F7 VTD was the first ever helmet that has a padding on the outside of a shell, The F7 2.0 and the Youth LX1 also features this same facilities. So, If you are a professional footballer in your adult age or youth, looking for a perfectly fit capable Medium size to XXL football helmet, then Schutt F7 all variants has a perfect one for you.
In this article, we will provide a comprehensive idea of Schutt’s ALL 3 F7 football helmet variants; the F7 VTD, the F7 Youth lx1 and the F7 2.0, that may help you to get over your dilemma for choosing your next football helmet. Read out the full blog to get the best idea. Thanks!!
Quick Spec Comparison for Schutt F7s
Buying Guide for Your Next Football Helmet
Before we dive into the F7, let’s take a moment to understand the importance of football helmets. With football being one of the most strenuous contact sports, the risk of injury is immense. In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that football injuries accounted for 1 in 5 sports-related injuries in 2019.
The primary purpose of a football helmet is to protect the player’s head from potential injuries during the game. Football helmets reduce the risk of head trauma, concussions, and other serious head injuries caused by impacts and collisions on the field. They provide crucial brain, skull, and face protection, safeguarding players from potential life-altering injuries.
Importance of Football Helmet
And what’s even more alarming is that a significant percentage of these injuries are concussions and traumatic brain injuries. That’s where football helmets, especially those like the F7, play a vital role in protecting players from potential harm. But what to look for in a football helmet that can improve your game avoiding injuries at the same time? or What makes a helmet like F7 so special to be recommended?
What to look for in a football helmet?
And what’s even more alarming is that a significant percentage of these injuries are concussions and traumatic brain injuries. That’s where football helmets, especially those like the F7, play a vital role in protecting players from potential harm. But what to look for in a football helmet that can improve your game avoiding injuries at the same time? or What makes a helmet like F7 so special to be recommended?
Lightweight Outer Shell Material
- Molded Polycarbonate: Used in constructing the outer shell of football helmet. Extremely durable and lightweight. Considering its high impact absorption capability, Molded Polycarbonate is the ultimate polymer material to have in your outer shell construction to distribute the impact force throughout the helmet surface and absorb the rest.
- Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene: Mostly the youth football helmet are made up with the ABS material as they are lightweight as polycarbonate. Polycarbonate made helmets are prohibited in youth football league as they can seriously damage the ABS material.
Choose the most lightweight one
Molded polycarbonate, polyurethane, carbon fiber or even titanium are the most lightweight material that is being used to manufacture different parts of NFL helmets. Modern science blessed us such highly impact absorbent material that offers speed and protection in all cases. Choosing a helmet based on its lightweight compact material never fails to perform in a game.
High Performance & Safety Ratings
There are lots of option available for you in the market. But how to shortlist a helmet? Simple, Find a model, check their safety ratings and shortlists them to try it out.
Most Reputable Football Helmet Safety Ratings
Among the available football helmet safety ratings, the Virginia Tech Helmet Safety Ratings, The helmet laboratory testing performance results by NFL and the standards set by NOCSEA are the best to shortlist your next helmet based on the safety ratings.
Virginia Tech Helmet Safety Ratings
With three different categories for football helmet, Virginia Tech helmet rating has been providing unbiased helmet safety & performance ratings through Star since 2011. They have 3 different categories of Football helmets. Varsity Football, Youth Football & Flag Football category. In each category, they have 30 to 35 helmets listed based on the highest safety & performance score.
How Virginia Tech Rates Helmets?
Virginia Tech suggests using helmets rated from 4 to 5 stars, as they have higher impact absorption quality & lower concussion risks. Other than the star rating, virginia tech provides a safety & performance score. The closer the score of a helmet to 0 the better the helmet is.
What is the Top Ranked Football Helmet in Virginia Tech Ranking 2023?
The #1 ranked helmet in the youth category is the Vicis Zero2 Youth and Vicis Zero2 Trench is ranked the #1 safe helmet in the Varsity Football Category of Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings.
Currently, the Schutt F7 2.0 is ranked #5 in Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings, while the F7 VTD is ranked #10 in the varsity football helmet category and the Schutt F7 LX1 helmet is ranked #24 with a 5-star rating in the youth football helmet category.
NOCSAE Certification
The NOCSAE committee develops standards and guidelines for manufacturing helmets suitable for football, hockey, baseball and lacrosse. Rather than focusing on just the helmet, The NOCSAE creates standards for manufacturing other sports protective equipment too.
How does NOCSAE test their helmets?
Testing results and opinions collected from various physicians, academic researchers, coaches, certified trainers, manufacturers and leading scientific experts, NOCSAE establishes standards that test football helmet performance across multiple impact velocities and locations.
High Impact Absorption Capability that Protects Your Skull
Look for helmets with advanced impact absorption technologies, such as multi-layered foam and padding, to reduce the force of impacts on the head. To enhance impact absorption and minimize the risk of possible head injuries, check the interior pads type and foaming ability before you choose your next helmet.
Multi-Layered Foam that Fits & Feels Comfortable
Multi-layered foam or cushioning provides superior shock absorption and energy dispersion during impacts. TPU Cushioning, Energy Wedge, Zero1, Adaptive Head Protection, and PTH® Crash Pad are the most common multi-layered foam available for football helmets.
Multi-layer foaming and pads in a football helmet vary from brand to brand. Material quality, the working principle, and impact absorption capability vary too based on the technologies provided by the brands.
Impact Absorption Key Technologies of Different Brand’s Football Helmet
Schutt helmet has a TPU Cushioning under the outer shell of a football helmet. TPU cushioning is basically a set of columns under the outer shell that absorbs impact energy through column elasticity. It provides advanced impact absorption and durability and protects players from high-velocity impacts available in Schutt Helmets.
Impact Absorption Key Technologies of Different Brand’s Football Helmet
Schutt helmet has a TPU Cushioning under the outer shell of a football helmet. TPU cushioning is basically a set of columns under the outer shell that absorbs impact energy through column elasticity. It provides advanced impact absorption and durability and protects players from high-velocity impacts available in Schutt Helmets.
Zenith helmet provides Aware-Flow Shock Absorbers designed to mitigate rotational forces and manage impact energy.
RFLX Liner is a highly responsive and energy-absorbing foam for maximum protection available in both Vicis & Schutt football helmets.
EPP (Expanded Polypropylene) Foam interior is available in Under Armour helmets, designed to absorb and disperse energy during impacts available in.
Choose facemask matching your playing position
Facemasks are the only equipment protecting a footballer’s face during a clash on the field. Only a facemask stands between your opponent and your face. So, this is one of the most important safety gear that comes with your helmet.
But, you don’t want to get a helmet facemask that obscures visibility to receive a ball. So, choosing a helmet with a position-specific facemask is important. As a facemask’s bar configuration determines its performance & protection based on the player’s position on the field.
Facemask For Quarterback & Wide Receiver Position
A facemask with a lot of cross bars higher across the eyes may protect the player, but it’s also going to obscure visibility. That probably wouldn’t help a quarterback or wide receiver too much, who rely on their wide field of view to get the job done.
So, Quarterbacks & wide receivers need helmet facemasks that are wide around the eyes with limited bars like the Open Cage Style. To have a wider view with a lightweight facemask helps quarterbacks to play more effectively. And material like carbon fiber is the best in this case. As they are extremely lightweight, lightweight, and highly protective.
Facemask for playing in Fullback Position
Fullbacks, Linemen and Linebackers often uses the full cage helmet facemasks. Full cage football helmet facemasks have numerous bars on the lower half of the facemask. For continuous battlemented players in need of maximum protection, Full Cage Facemasks are more appropriate.
Facemask for playing in Lineman Position
As linemen requires the ultimate protection for the face, jaw and neck area for the trenches. The closed facemasks are the most suitable type of helmets for lineman position. Linemans don’t need much of viewing area but requires a lot extra to avoid collision and contacts in sensitive areas like eyes or jaws or neck.
Closed facemasks comes in two variants. With the extra jaw/neck protection and just a closed face helmet with more bars. Closed facemask with extra bars and no vertical middle line from side to side.
Ultimate Guide To Choose Football Helmet Facemask
Basically, based on the number of bars on different position of the helmet, you can decide the open or close caged facemask for your preferred position and gameplay style.
If you are the one playing in quarterback or cornerback or a wide receiver who needs extra viewing area then you should go for open-cage style football facemask. That has lesser number of bars on your helmet’s eyebrow area.
If you are the one who needs more protection against face to face battle like the positions of FBs or Middle FBs or Lineman’s then you can choose the closed-cage style for the ultimate protection.
That’s all to know about the football helmet buying guide. Now, let’s move forward to the Schutt f7 football helmet variants.
Stay Protected with Schutt F7 2.0 Helmet
The F7 2.0 Football Helmet has taken the sports world by storm, revolutionizing how athletes approach the game with cutting-edge technology and emphasizing player safety.
The F7 2.0 boasts an updated impact protection system that utilizes state-of-the-art materials and design elements to minimize the risk of concussions and head injuries.
Quick Spec for Schutt F7 2.0 Helmet
- 5-star rated helmet from Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings, Performance score 1.35
- 4 different carbon steel facemask style: EGOP-NB-VC, ROPO-NB-VC, ROPO-DW-NB-VC & ROPO-SW-NB-VC
- Equipped with RFLX-S impact layer
- Features interior and exterior Tektonik Plates to distribute impact force
- Highly impact absorbent capability using TPU cushioning
- Dodges impact using rotational friction
- Adaptive fit using jaw pads and Helmet Stabilization System
- Pod stacking system to get the supreme fit
- Air assistance to personalize the helmet fit
- Custom fit using variety of different liner thickness
High Impact Absorption with RFLX-S
Schutt is featuring RFLX-S actually stolen from the VICIS football helmet. But they have the credibility to do that. As VICIS and Schutt is both owned by the same company named CERTOR. Meaning they share the same technology and R&D features.
The Reflex system in F7 2.0 features an interior layer which is basically a collapsing bridge structure that absorbs impact better than the other helmets.
As the VICIS helmet shell structure and F7 shell structure is different, the Schutt team has to work on it completely to align the RFLX-S system with the F7 shell structure.
What is RFLX-S in F7?
Mostly the F7 2.0 RFLX-S or reflex system has an optimized impact management system. It is a series of cushioning columns made of thermoplastic urethane that can absorb more impact across a wider variety of temperatures. Schutt claims this to be the highest impact-absorbing technology compared to the other helmets available.
Outer Shell Magnificence of F7 2.0 Football Helmet
As a footballer, you know your most impacted zone in a game. Yes, I am talking about the skull area. Schutt provided Tektonic Plate Load Management System featuring an independent movement, improving the F7’s performance against rotational forces.
How Tektonic Plate Load Management System Works?
The 3-dimensional movement available in the Schutt F7 VFD earned enough accolades in earlier period. The F7 2.0 has an additional thermoplastic urethane (TPU) cushion that absorbs more impact and avoid direct clashes using independent rotational force technology. Amazing, right!!!
Impact avoidance, equal distribution of the impact force and better fit is the fundamental goal of Tektonic Plate Load Management System. This layer is located right below the RFLX-S column.
The New Schutt F7 2.0 Adaptive Fit Technology
Football helmet that doesn’t have a perfect fit is not a helmet to win you games. Because comfort matters the most to become the best. The latest F7 2.0 football helmet provides superior fitting adjustment from the skull area to chin strap.
Unrivaled Flexibility & Superior Comfort
The new adaptive fit technology boasts an updated impact protection system that utilizes state-of-the-art materials and design elements. The main goal is to minimize the risk of concussions and head injuries, allowing athletes to focus solely on their game
The adaptive fit technology improved athlete comfort and fil flexibility by adding impact sensitive helmet liner. Integrated with an industry first pod system in five different location of the skull cap.
It also has a comfort layer with a D30 rate-sensitive dampening layer. The D-20 rate sensitive dampening layer is a flexible energy absorbing system including a material coating.
Perfect Fit with Pad Stacking System
This feature is also similar to the interior pad stacking feature available in the VICIS helmet. The stacking POD system is basically available additional padding that you can add over the existing pads of your F7 helmet interior.
You can stack these pads in the temple, occipital and crown position of the skull cap. For different spaces, you can get different sizes of pads to adjust, like one-fourth of size pads or half-spaced pads.
Removable Jaw Pad System
As an update to ensure a perfect fit, the new F7 2.0 helmet comes with more comfortable jaw pads on each side. You can even get extra protection coverage and comfortable fitting in your jaws. The new jaw pads are softer, and the liner finish is superb.
Better Fit with Air Assistance
The F7 2.0 has a single inflation point to support athletes with better fit. The air pocket in the helmet is already contoured but using the inflation point at rear bumper, athletes can add extra air for extra comfort. It’s easily accessible for all genre of users.
Versatile F7 Football Helmet Facemask
4 different facemask available in f7 2.0 helmet makes it a suitable fit for players of every position. You can even customize your facemask too. For the ultimate F7 2.0 safety performance, Schutt has variated their F7 helmet Facemask with 4 different combinations. You can choose any of them specifically if you are ordering from SchuttSports official website.
Schutt F7 2.0 Safety Ratings
Schutt F7 2.0 has been rated by two different helmet rating scale. Virginia Tech rating scale and NFL Ranking. Right now the Schutt featuing F7 2.0 is now on the 5th position, while the No.1 football helmet is the VICIS ZERO2 Trench Football Helmet. But that is a story for another day.
Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings of Schutt f7 2.0
According to Virginia Tech Ranking scale, the F7 2.0 football helmet has been rated as a five star helmet in terms of safety and protection. This extremely high performing football helmet has a high performing score of 1.35. This magnificent beast was tested in various impact criteria to observe its impact inside and the result is satisfactory. Compared to other 5 star rated helmet. the Schutt f7 has a higher impact absorption capability.
Analyzing the complete structure of Schutt f7 2.0 football helmet, this is one of the best football helmet of 2023. Although, the f7 2.0 helmet was released in 2023, but this modern football helmet was available in the previous NFL for the leading athletes. According to sources, around 150-200 athletes wore the Schutt F7 2.0 football helmet.
Schutt F7 VTD: The Master of the Game (Predecessor of F7 2.0)
According to Schutt, this is the one that changed the game. The exact title of this f7 is the F7 VTD Collegiate helmet. Rated 5 star from the Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings. An iconic design with flexible internal fit system, students from varsity or youth level were the main target for the F7 VTD football helmet.
Quick Spec for Schutt F7 VTD Collegiate Football Helmet
- 5-star rated helmet from Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings
- 4 different carbon steel facemask style
- Highly impact absorbent capability using TPU cushioning
- The skull area moves independently using 3-dimensional movement
- Dodges impact using rotational friction
- Tektonik Plates incorporate additional cushioning that moves freely
- Adaptive fit using jaw pads and Helmet Stabilization System
- Equipped with high performance impact foam
- Flexural resistance optimized shell design
- Custom fit using variety of different liner thickness
Schutt F7 VTD Football Helmet Features
Schutt F7 LX1 Youth Helmet: The Gamechanger
According to Schutt, this is the one that changed the game. The exact title of this f7 is the F7 VTD Collegiate helmet. Rated 5 star from the Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings. An iconic design with flexible internal fit system, students from varsity or youth level were the main target for the F7 VTD football helmet.
Quick Spec for Schutt F7 Lx1 Youth Helmet
- Powered by the most advanced impact absorption technology: Thermoplastic Urethane Cushioning
- 5-star rated helmet from Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings
- Excellent comfort and custom fit with SureFit
- Inflatable Air Liner
- 3-dimensional Tektonic Plates management system
- Additional jaw pads for ultimate protection
- Helmet stabilization system
- High performance impact foam
How to Fit Schutt F7 2.0 or VTD or F7 Youth Lx1?
To get a perfect fit with your f7 series schutt helmet, follow these simple 4 steps.
- Measure your head with the tape placed just above the eyebrow
- Match your head size with the available helmet size chat. The size chart of F7 is extremely detailed. The size varies for even a quarter to half cm of head sizes.
- Put on the matched helmet size, holding the helmet with your fingers and placing it on the ear holes. It’s easier that way.
- Check if the crown of the helmet is an inch above the eyebrows or not.
For adaptive fit, the F7 series comes with extra jaw pads and they are easy to attach.