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Obviously,
Gear junkys follow others, that's a given.
When I interviewed the leading equipment suppliers they all agreed to a letter: "By far baseball umpires are the cheapest of all officiating groups!"
While we do follow with shirt color, belt color (remember the maroon belts of AL umpires in the 70's) and patent leather shoes it will be a far stretch to go to hockey masks.
We have about 150 varsity level umpires in our local group. We have maybe another 35 to 50 beginners.
We have one umpire (BTW, a pro school grad who is universially considered our worst varsity umpire) that wears a helmet.
Don't get be wrong . . . seeing Ed Hickox wearing his 7 stitch under his helmet made me, for the first time, have an interest in trying the hard head myself.
Do I think it is a "fad" . . . sure I do . . . but some "fads" make it into common usage.
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