Standouts: The Designs Behind Harvard Ice Hockey Goalies’ Custom Helmets

One player stands out amid a swarm of crimson helmets zipping up and down the ice. Not only are ice hockey fans mesmerized by the Harvard goalkeepers’ skills and ferocity at the net, but also by their unique, custom-designed helmets.

A hockey tradition straight out of Boston, goalies have been integrating their style into their protective gear since the late 1960s. According to the National Hockey League, Boston Bruins legend Gerry Cheevers pioneered the idea, painting black stitches to mark shots deflected by his mask.

Harvard goalkeepers have embraced this creative outlet for many years, but only this past season did the program offer to pay for a helmet wrap for each goalie.

Junior women’s goalkeeper Emily Davidson’s parents funded the first helmet she designed her freshman year and used again during her sophomore season. She opted for a paint job, which is more expensive but also more durable than wraps.

“My parents were always like, ‘We’re not paying for that growing up. If you play NCAA D1 hockey, then you can get a helmet painted,’” Davidson said. “So, that was something I was really looking forward to.”

The process of designing a mask can vary from two weeks to two months, depending on the complexity of the design and how many edits are made.

Goalies and the artists they select — either on their own or through their equipment managers — constantly communicate throughout the production of the helmet. Back-and-forth digital mockups, progress photos, and small changes occur that ultimately lead to the final product. The painting process takes longer, while a wrap can simply be printed and placed on a blank helmet like a sticker.

Goalies rarely waste the opportunity to create a piece of gear that’s entirely their own. Significant, meticulous work goes into many aspects of Harvard goalies’ designs.

Freshman goalie Ben Charette takes the ice donning his custom helmet. By Courtesy of Ben Charette

Freshman men’s goalie Ben Charette, inspired by another goalie’s stained-glass helmet, wanted to include an element of an iconic building at Harvard. Charette thoroughly researched Annenberg’s 19 stained-glass windows and eventually landed on the 1900 “Honor and Peace” by Sarah Wyman Whitman, depicting a soldier heading off into battle with Honor watching over him.

“It’s a mental battle for sure on the ice,” he said.

Freshman women’s goalkeeper Ainsley Tuffy's helmet. By Courtesy of Ainsley Tuffy

Freshman women’s goalkeeper Ainsley Tuffy, also wanting to incorporate campus architecture in her design, placed a photo of Johnston Gate on the chin of her helmet, with many buildings in the yard, like Widener Library, faded into the helmet’s background.

She chose Johnston Gate because she and her freshman teammates often pass under it together on their way out of Harvard Yard.

A Boston College goalkeeper partially inspired Tuffy’s design, but she added her own twists to make it more quintessentially Harvard.

“I kinda changed it up and made it my own,” she said.

Thick crimson lines with bold “Harvard Crimson” lettering run across the sides of her mask, and the overhead views of campus buildings occupy the whitespace.

“The front and everything is Harvard-related, and then the back is usually something personal,” Tuffy said. “I added my old teams I used to play for.”

Her previous team logos are arranged around a picture of the John Harvard Statue — a suggestion from her teammate — which she made certain would have its golden foot.

On the back of Davidson’s helmet, she recognized the love and respect she has for her parents.

“I have a Canadian maple leaf engraved with ‘Mom and Dad’ to thank them for all the support they’ve given me,” she said.

As for the back of Charette’s helmet, there is only a wolverine — reminiscent of his time before Harvard with the Whitecourt Wolverines — biting the Veritas shield.

His design focuses on properly executing a few features, such as the stained-glass look, and does not include much else. His attention to detail applies to both his creative vision and gameplay — simple yet effective.

“I don’t really have a flashy style of play,” he said.

Tuffy and Davidson also included the Veritas shield in their designs.

Above the shield, Davidson added photos of three inspirational Team Canada goalies: Sami Jo Small, Erica Howe and Lesley Reddon.

“I actually asked Howe and Sami Jo for their favorite action shots of themselves, so to get to incorporate that was really fun,” Davidson said.

Sprawling across her helmet is an intricate neural network, symbolizing her concentration in Neurobiology.

“This helmet was pretty simple. My last one was a little bit more intricate,” she said.

When she was a rising freshman, Davidson eagerly awaited the opportunity to create her own helmet. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief’s garden scene sparked her creativity. She reimagined Medusa’s snakes turning enemies to stone and applied it to her position.

“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is brilliant because if I was goalie and this happened, I would turn the other team to stone and they would never score,’” Davidson said. “I’m a goalie nerd.”

The hissing snakes slithering across her helmet and the cracked-stone pattern on the back drove her theme home.

She also included small details, adding not only to the personality of the helmet but also to pay homage to her former teams and home city of Ottawa. The artist also blended the organic molecule responsible for the taste and fragrance of vanilla bean into the stone’s cracks.

“Because I’m nerdy — and, I love vanilla,” she said.

For many goalkeepers, the custom helmets are an opportunity to represent their interests, honor teams who have helped them reach their goals, and hone in on their game-day mentality.

Tuffy and Charette, both freshmen, are already looking forward to designing their next helmets.

Harvard goalies are even able to choose from several types of padding. Tuffy said she wants to keep the same vintage-style pads she wore this past season, so her next helmet may embrace the same look to make it a cohesive kit.

Charette is contemplating many designs and looking at what other goalies have done, but he is considering paying for his own paint job this time around.

Davidson said she likely will not create another helmet for her senior season. She plans to continue playing with her neural network design that depicts the female goalies she looks up to.

“It can be fun to just go through the design process. And goalie equipment itself is so unique,” she said. “It’s really like an art.”