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Baltimore Ravens Unveil Alternate Purple Helmet

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The Baltimore Ravens unveiled a new alternate helmet this morning.

It will mark the first time ever the team has worn an alternate helmet, and also the first time the team will sport a purple helmet.

First, the obligatory hype video:

The team is billing the helmet as “Purple Rising” and it was designed specifically for use with the team’s Color Rush (CR) uniforms.

The helmet itself is painted with a purple matte finish, and features a gold facemask. The front bumper reads “RAVENS” in raised black and gold lettering. Two gold helmet stripes taper to a point from front to back (which is the same striping pattern as is on their current black helmet).

Baltimore announced that the team will wear its “Purple Rising” helmet for one game in the 2024 season, but have not revealed in which game the CR uniform and new helmet will be worn.

The helmet will also have a new logo — which is currently their secondary logo. The front-facing bird will be on both sides of the helmet.

Previously, the Ravens paired their black helmets with their CR uniforms.

Although the NFL lifted the “single shell” rule for the 2023 season, and many teams took advantage by introducing alternate helmets to pair with their third jersey, CR uniform, or throwbacks, the Ravens were not one of them. That’s changing going forward.

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I love this new helmet, and it will certainly pair much better with the CR uniform than the black helmet, although this will be a very purple heavy uniform. Fortunately, the new helmet has a gold cage and helmet striping and the logo also has a decent amount of gold. The CR uniform has gold numbers outlined in white (with black blockshadow), and the pants feature white/gold/white striping.

I’m not a helmet guy, but I do usually prefer matte finishes, so that checks another box for me. This will definitely improve the look of the CR uniform, as the new helmet will pair much better — and fortunately, while the helmet, jersey, pants and socks are all purple, there is a good amount of gold (and some white) to break things up nicely.

Your thoughts?

 
  
 
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Comments (78)

    Normally I really hate mono sets, but I do think this helmet pairs better with the CR uni than the black one. I agree that the gold pops well, and especially like the gold facemask.

    I am a helmet guy, but I didn’t think this was necessary. Especially because glossy helmets are better than matte.

    Also I’m not crazy about that logo. Looks as if he’s having a bad hair day.

    And I’d rather see the helmet with the black jersey. Instead we get another mono look. At least it’s not minimalist mono!

    Older Ravens fans refer to this logo as the “Gene Simmons Raven” for obvious reasons.

    Ravens fan, here. I can live with this for one game per season. It’s a nice change-up.

    I like it, but I’m a little skeptical on the facemask. It’s hard to tell in the video, but I worry it’ll look washed out and tan on the field, not matching the uni numbers at all. I’m sure this would be unpopular with many Uni Watchers, but I think a gold chrome or even a purple chrome facemask would look better.

    All in all, the new helmet definitely upgrades what I thought was a pretty weak Color Rush uni with the black helmet.

    It doesn’t look quite real in the pictures. Like something someone designed for a uni watch contest.

    I love it. The gold mask and stripes look great against the purple shell…

    I feel like more vertically-oriented logos just don’t work great on helmets. This feels kind of like the Lions’ blue helmet from last year, where the logo feels much more at home on the sleeves than the helmet.

    I think the trend towards vertical styled logos is a byproduct of modern helmet vents and such. This isn’t based in any kind of research, but it feels like that area is “most likely to be flat” on the most popular helmets in the league.

    Actually like the purple with the whole set, and I really like the stripes and facemask. It’s the logo that sinks it. It is silly and doesn’t really vibe with the rest of the uniform. Feels a bit amateur.

    Thank goodness for the gold facemask. I actually like the helmet logo. And, glad they went with gold stripes instead of black. A lot more contrast than what could have been.

    I’m sort of indifferent about it style wise. If anything I probably just have a little dislike for it simply because I am tired of all of these alternates.
    I think the gold/mustard pants would pair excellently with this helmet and their alt purple jersey that has the gold numbers.
    Mono purple, not so much for me. Mono white or black are really the only mono uniforms that a palatable.

    you never saw the mustard pants in person…sounds better than it really looked…personally hoping they don’t get pulled out of mothballs

    Those mustard pants were definitely a different shade of gold than the gold on the CR jersey. link

    If they were to somehow try to pair gold pants with the new helmet & CR jersey, they would have to design a new pair with a better matching shade of gold.

    I really like them!  I think the matte purple with the gold highlights (face mask and stripe) looks great.  I wish they had used the shield logo, but as Brad Downs said, they already have that logo on the sleeve, so they wanted to use a different logo.

    Nicely done by the Ravens! If I had my way, I’d make it a glossy helmet and enlarge the logo a bit; logo seems a bit puny as it currently appears.

    I totally agree! Ravens fan since ‘96 at Memorial Stadium. I’d love to see these with white pants, too. Do we all think these will be worn vs. the Stillers?

    I like that the team is going full purple for Color Rush and I even enjoy the full face Raven occasionally. However, I would like to see a fauxback uni with block numbers, UCLA stripes and a B on the helmet.

    More Nike crap that needs to stop. These are uniforms, not costumes, yet every chance they get they costum-ify the uniforms. This is not the team’s helmet logo. If you want to invert colors, that’s fine, but the black helmet and purple helmet should have the same logo.

    It’s the same with shoulder/sleeve striping, number fonts, etc. the team’s look and pattern shouldn’t drastically change set to set. The uniform set should be…you know, uniform, with colors changing.

    “the black helmet and purple helmet should have the same logo.”

    As someone afflicted with a minor form of OCD, I’m wont to agree with you, but I’m curious as to why you feel this way. The helmet is clearly designed to be worn with this specific uniform — not mixed and matched with their regular set. As such, I don’t see the problem with using the alternate logo. I also happen to like the alternate logo a bit more than the front facing bird, so I’m sure that’s part of it.

    Just curious why the rigid stance on different colored helmets having the same logo as the primary lid.

    Wrong, these are costumes. We are talking about grown men who fight over a ball for a living.

    The colors and color balance is fantastic! Super sharp! The only thing I don’t like here is the helmet logo, which to me looks more like an angry chicken than a raven…

    I love purple. I love adding the gold accents.
    But this is too much purple. There needs to be something else. Black pants, white pants… hell, even the golden mustard pants.
    I always thought the Ravens nailed it with their scheme of black and a good amount of purple. That was balanced. The lack of black here is imbalanced.

    I’m a fan. I was checking out Ravens Twitter and a few people said they were curious about the size of the logo – some said they wish the bird were bigger. I wonder how it compares in size to the Raiders logo or the Steelers logo..

    Looks to be slightly taller than either of those but also skinnier. Definitely bigger than the Browns’ logo, though.

    The Ravens could easily have the coolest duds in football if the embraced the dark Poe side of things a bit more.. I’m thinking a helmet with a spooky graphicak profile of Vincent Price. Purple jersey with black tattered feathers trailing over the shoulders. Get rid of all the gold trim, weird horn stripes and TERRIBLE number fonts. Keep it bold and simple otherwise. Black, purple, white. DONE.

    That’s some wishful thinking. Be honest about the demographics of Baltimore, do you think the average person there has any idea who Edgar Allen Poe was? I know the soy community here will be up in arms over that comment but I live in the real world.

    Aren’t we all “helmet people”? How is it possible for any of us to not be helmet people? The design of the football helmet is perhaps the most important part of the football uniform. It’s often featured on posters instead of the primary logo, etc., and for one team… it is the primary logo!
    I remember Paul saying it before, but I sought clarification. He was only referring to the particular model that each player chose. He was not referring to logo, color, stripes, etc.

    To all of the non-helmet people out there, please enlighten me.

    Since this seems at least in part directed at me, allow me to elaborate.

    I’m a “helmet person” in that I know (and do care about) the shell colors, mask colors (in most cases they should be gray), logos, alternate helmets, etc.

    Where I’m not a “helmet person” is the helmet itself — unless it’s a weird looking model, I am not especially knowledgable on makes and models (Schutt, Riddell, Dungard etc.). I couldn’t quote you chapter and verse on which player wears which model, and I’m just not into the tech specs of the models. That’s what I mean by “not a helmet person.” It’s obviously a part of the football uniform and yes is often times used as a team identifier. I’m well aware of all those things. I’m just not into the specific specs of each helmets or the (often) small differences between models.

    You used to tell me “helmets don’t count” when I’d chide you and Paul for saying Monolulu Blue, even though the Lions wore silver helmets. I took that as you not being a helmet person, period. Thanks for clarifying.

    I dig. I didn’t see that connection in this instance, but I’m happy that we are all helmet people.

    Never understood this either.

    The three things I loved most as a kid were football, ski jumping, and the space program (or space sci-fi). What do they have in common?
    Helmets.

    The whole reason I’m here today?
    Seahawks at Chargers (sunny day real estate), 1978… on my grandma’s color TV (our house was void of one).
    It was the helmets!

    Never liked that logo. Looks like a crazy ostrich. Should have used shield logo.

    Huge fan of the shield.

    I also wish the helmet stripes were either absent or black. Not a fan of anything truncated. Unless I catch a prison sentence. Then, and only then will I accept truncation.

    Going to disagree. The shield looks contrived to me. The head-on bird looks like a Raven Lunatic.

    I’m a fan. I was checking out Ravens Twitter and a few people said they were curious about the size of the logo – some said they wish the bird were bigger. I wonder how it compares in size to the Raiders logo or the Steelers logo.

    Tryna multitask and didn’t realize I already posted the comment lol

    I kind of like it and I’m also disappointed in myself for liking it. My biggest complaint is that it doesn’t really say “Ravens” to me.

    If I’m being honesty, I like this helmet better than the Ravens’ regular hemet and logo. I really wish they’d embrace purple more TBH, and have that be the predominant color over black in their visual program.

    I really like the helmet. I just really want to see it with a white jersey and white socks.

    Somewhere Paul is having an aneurysm. :) Even TCU thinks that’s a purple-overdose.

    As an individual element, I like it…with the mono-purple, not so much. Mono-anything, as I regret often, is just not a good look to me…and this even more so than most.

    Now, if they start allowing some mixing and matching (which they should)….then purple/black/purple would be pretty sharp, I could dig that.

    Sort of awkward use of the secondary logo…I would have loved to see them just lift the “B” from the current helmet logo and place that on each side…would be a much better fit. Could be white, gold or even black with a gold outline or pick up the gold with a black outline to mimic the numbers

    the new helmet logo fights for visual attention with the shield logo on the sleeve (which is really a well designed classic graphic) in part due to the similar size…using them at the same size together creates a visual traffic jam that serves to almost cancel each other’s visual impact. The simplicity of the B would subordinate that art to the shield logo, and be more visible to the fans at the game.

    The thick and thin curves in the B also work cohesively with the weight and curves of the number font. I’d be curious to find out if this idea was presented as an option

    Wish the matte trend in football and baseball would go away. A professional should shine and this starts at the head, Other than being matte, the helmet isn’t bad at all.

    Never have understood the hate of that logo.. but then again i loved the 90s nba so…

    This jersey is just like the Washington Huskies uniform with a matte helmet instead of the purple chrome.

    These (and the mono purple unis) look great in the hype pics and vids, but somehow the ravens always manage to look underwhelming and dingy on-field in their purple gear. Not sure what it is, because the Vikes, UW huskies, TCU, etc always have that bright purple pop that makes it a nice uni color. I do think the ravens’ unis suffer from a mish-mashy design, and that might be it. The sleeves have that busy, crummy shield logo, then the the swoosh, then the TV numbers with an outline and a drop shadow. The pants have traditional stripes that aren’t mirrored on the sleeves or helmet plus they have that crummy B logo, on the hip. The usual helmet has the really crummy bird B logo and the darted stripes down the middle with don’t match the ssthetic of anything else on the uni, and this purple helmet will have the same issue with the gold stripes, plus an additional logo. They need to start editing their uni set stat. Because purple and gold is a really nice color scheme, and they are one of two teams that should get a pass on BFBS, and they are doing nothing great with any of it.

    I was hoping for a poe raven themed uni and ditching the cr uni (which I actually do like). Imagine a blacked out shield helmet and a black jersey with purple numbers and nevermore replacing the ravens script on the front. A man can dream.

    Gold facemask and stripes and matte finish look terrific. Front facing logo on the side of the helmet looks terrible. It’s too small and resembles an emu more than a raven.

    This Raven is drunk like a Real Housewive with the same stare and disheveled hairdo. I prefer the B or the regular Raven as a logo on this helmet.

    To anyone who says the Steelers and or Penguins use gold and not yellow..this Ravens helmet has gold in it. See the difference??

    I agree it matches the color rash better, but man this uni could use some white (or even gold) pants. Also, while i think the logo is fine as a logo, i think it works significantly less well as a helmet logo than the normal one, which fits into a helmet shape perfectly. and so it feels like a downgrade in that regard

    Crazy idea but I’d love for the helmet to be a mix of Matte and Glossy with the pattern of Lord Baltimore’s Flag (kind of like what UMD does, but simplify the colors to be glossy purple and matter purple).

    The Baltimore B on the side in Gold outlined in white.

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