Umpire Equitment Bags with Room for Hockey Style Mask

[MarsOmega]

Hello everyone,

I am currently using an Adidas gym bag as my equipment bag and am looking to upgrade to a real equipment bag. I was wondering who uses a hockey-style helmet and what bag you use. 

Thanks!

[Thunderheads]

Have you searched the 'equipment forum' yet?  There are a TON of equipment bag threads loaded with information  

[MadMax]

On 5/17/2024 at 9:44 AM, MarsOmega said:

I am looking to upgrade to a real equipment bag.

Well, there’s two routes you can take to solve this problem. 

One question that will determine which route to take is, are you planning on (soon) doing air travel ✈️ with your gear (and thus, looking for an all-in-one solution), or are you doing “ground-work” and simply trying to reduce bags and components down so you have stuff organized? 

I myself don’t use a HSM, but I’ve outfitted plenty of colleagues who do. 

And for ground-work, I typically steer umpires into a 2-plus-luggage piece solution:

• a (rolling) gear bag to hold everything except your uniforms and HSM 
• a “bowling ball” bag with handles and the potential to be secured to the telescoping handle of the gear bag, or to the gear bag itself, to hold the HSM
• Your uniforms on hangers, either loose, in a garment shroud, or in a bonafide garment bag (this is the “plus”) 

If you’re a HSM user, I recommend acquiring an inexpensive traditional mask, kept in the gear bag, just in case something happens to you or your partner. If you’re injured while on Plate, your partner may have to fill in, and may not have brought (all) of their gear. Or, your partner may be assigned plate, and forgot / misplaced / or broke their mask. You don’t want to necessarily loan out your HSM. 

And while you’re using your HSM, you can put your valuables in the “bowling” bag, instead of lying loose on a chair, or trundling around in your gear bag. I recommend attaching a Tile or AirTag to or within this bag, not only to keep track of your HSM, but to mitigate / dissuade theft of the bag while you’re on a game. 

Which route do you need to navigate down?