Best Soccer Headgear in 2026: Storelli ExoShield vs Unequal Halo 3 vs Full90 (and What a Headband Can Actually Do)

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Every season a parent asks me the same two questions in the same order. Which soccer headgear is best? And does it actually stop concussions?

The second question is the one that matters, and most “best soccer headgear” articles dodge it. So this one starts there, with the lab data and the one real field trial, before it gets to the three headbands people actually buy: the Storelli ExoShield, the Unequal Halo 3 and the Full90 Premier.

Here is the breakdown.

Quick Verdict

• Best overall: Storelli ExoShield Head Guard. The highest-rated soccer headgear Virginia Tech has tested (5 stars, 84% reduction in head-injury risk for the impacts tested), ASTM certified, $59.99. The trade-off is that it is the thickest and heaviest of the three.
• Best for players who hate wearing anything: Unequal Halo 3. Under two ounces, 6 mm thin, Virginia Tech 4 stars, $49.95. The one a teenager will actually keep on.
• Best coverage and fit features: Full90 Premier. Extended back-of-head and temple padding, a ponytail port, four colours, $59.99. Full90 does not publish a Virginia Tech rating, and that matters.
• The honest answer on concussions: padded headgear reduces the force of hard head-to-head, head-to-knee and head-to-elbow impacts in the lab. The only large randomised field trial found it did not reduce how many concussions high-school players got, or how bad they were. Buy it for the impacts it cushions, not for a promise nobody can make.

Does Soccer Headgear Prevent Concussions?

No, and the companies that make it say so on their own product pages. Storelli’s listing for the ExoShield states there is no conclusive data that it prevents concussions. Unequal’s says no Unequal product can prevent concussions. That is not lawyers covering themselves. It is how concussions work.

A concussion happens when the brain moves inside the skull during a sudden acceleration or deceleration. A layer of foam on the outside of the head can cut the peak force of a blow, but it cannot stop the brain from sloshing when the head whips round. That is why American football helmets, which are far more substantial than any soccer headband, have not eliminated concussions either.

So what does the evidence actually show? Two things that look contradictory until you read them properly.

The lab says it helps

In 2018 the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab, the group behind the football helmet star ratings, ran the first independent test of soccer headgear. They built an impact simulator that slams two instrumented dummy heads together the way two players’ heads meet going up for the same ball, at three speeds and two locations, with and without headgear. Twenty-two models from twelve brands were tested and scored from two to five stars. Five stars means the headgear cut the risk of concussion by at least 70% for the impacts tested.

Only three products got five stars: the Storelli ExoShield (84% reduction, the highest score in the study), the Unequal Halo 1 (74%) and the Unequal Halo 2 (77%). The lab was clear about what those numbers mean. The headgear cushions the hard blows, head-to-head, head-to-knee, head-to-shoulder. It makes no meaningful difference to heading the ball.

The field says it doesn’t

The year after, the British Journal of Sports Medicine published the only large randomised trial on the question. Timothy McGuine’s team at the University of Wisconsin enrolled 2,766 high-school soccer players, two-thirds of them girls, and randomised their schools so that half wore lab-tested headgear for every practice and match and half wore none. Over 3,050 player-seasons, 130 players were concussed. The headgear group had no fewer concussions and no shorter recoveries than the no-headgear group.

A secondary analysis hinted that girls might have seen some benefit, and the National Federation of State High School Associations mentions that in its current position statement. The same statement is blunt about the main finding: the evidence that soft headgear prevents concussion is limited, it should not be worn for that purpose, and it can create a false sense of security that makes players, coaches and parents less careful about avoiding head impacts and reporting symptoms.

How both can be true

The lab measures force in a collision that already happened. The field trial counts concussions across a season. Concussions in soccer come from many mechanisms, including whiplash with no direct blow, falls, and elbows to the back of the head, and the padding only addresses some of them. Reducing peak force is real and worth having. It just does not show up as fewer diagnosed concussions across thousands of teenagers.

Read that way, the right expectations for a soccer headband are: it will take the sting out of a clash of heads, it will spare you some cuts and lumps, it may give a nervous player the confidence to go up for a ball properly rather than flinching into a worse collision, and it will not make your kid concussion-proof. If you buy one, keep teaching technique, keep the heading rules for younger players, and keep reporting symptoms. The headband is an addition to all of that, not a replacement.

Is Headgear Allowed in Soccer?

Yes, at every level, with a few conditions.

Law 4 of the Laws of the Game lists headgear among the non-dangerous protective equipment a player may wear, provided it is made of soft, lightweight padded material. A head cover must be black or the same main colour as the shirt, must not be attached to the shirt, must not be dangerous to the wearer or anyone else, and must not have parts sticking out from its surface. All three headbands in this article are sold in black and meet those requirements.

High school (NFHS rules) permits soft headgear. It is never required. If a doctor prescribes it, the note has to say the player is cleared to play with or without it, because the NFHS will not treat headgear as a condition of clearance. The NCAA takes the same line and will not issue medical waivers for soft headgear as concussion prevention.

Youth clubs follow their league. US Club Soccer names the Storelli ExoShield as its official headgear. Separately, since a 2015 lawsuit settlement, US Soccer bars heading for players 10 and under and limits it in practice for 11 to 13 year olds. Those heading rules are followed strictly by US Soccer’s own youth programmes and adopted to varying degrees by local leagues. None of that requires headgear; it is worth knowing because it changes how often a young player’s head meets a ball at all.

The Three Headbands Compared

Storelli ExoShield Head Guard: Best Overall

I have already written a full Storelli ExoShield review, so this is the short version.

The ExoShield is the headband the Virginia Tech numbers were built on. Its 9 to 12 mm of Zorbium foam, a three-layer impact material Storelli licenses from a military helmet-liner maker, is what produced the 84% figure, and the current Head Guard Pro version keeps the same foam with cleaner glued and top-stitched seams and no gaps between pads. It is the only one of the three with a named ASTM certification (F2439, the standard for soccer headgear) and the only one with an official endorsement, from US Club Soccer.

The cost of all that padding is that you notice it. At eight ounces it weighs four times the Halo 3, and the first few headers feel different. Most players adjust within a couple of sessions, but a player who is already reluctant to wear headgear will not love this one. Sizing runs from 1 to 6 on head circumference; Storelli says to go up if you are between sizes. Hand wash only.

Buy it if protection is the priority: a defender or keeper who contests a lot of aerial balls, a player coming back after a knock who has been cleared and wants the most padding available, or a parent who has read the lab data and wants the top of the chart. Check the ExoShield price here.

Unequal Halo 3: Best for Players Who Won’t Wear Anything Else

Unequal built its reputation on the Halo 1 and Halo 2, both five-star in the 2018 Virginia Tech round. The Halo 3 is the lightweight successor, and it traded some rating for a lot of wearability: 1.9 ounces, 6 mm thin, Virginia Tech 4 stars, which the lab labels “Recommended”. Unequal’s own claim is that it is the lightest headgear to earn that designation, and nothing I have found contradicts it.

The construction is different from the other two. Instead of a thick block of foam, the Halo 3 uses a coated aramid fabric, the same family of material as Kevlar, bonded over a thin comfort foam. The result is a band that looks like a sweatband with a bit of structure. Players who refuse the ExoShield because of how it looks tend to accept the Halo. That matters more than it sounds, because the headband that stays in the bag protects nobody.

Two cautions. Sizing is coarse: a Size 1 for small children and a Size 2 for everyone else, and more than one adult reviewer found Size 2 snug. And the band is only 2.25 inches high, so coverage at the back of the head is minimal compared with the Full90. Unequal offers a 30-day money-back guarantee if it does not fit.

Buy it if you are kitting out a teenager who has told you they will not wear “a helmet”, or a midfielder who wants something they can forget about. Check the Halo 3 price here.

Full90 Premier: Best Coverage, Weakest Evidence

Full90 is the oldest name in soccer headgear and the one you will see most often on youth pitches, partly because it has been sold through team-dealer catalogues for twenty years. The Premier is its top model: Force Bloc foam, extended padding over the temples and the occipital (back of the head) area that the other two leave thinly covered, and a ponytail port, which is the feature that makes it the default choice for a lot of girls’ teams. It is the only one of the three that comes in team colours, and the only one with an entry-level sibling, the $39.99 Select, which is the original design with less coverage.

Now the part the catalogues leave out. Full90 does not publish a Virginia Tech rating or an ASTM certification for either model, and in the lab’s rounds its headgear finished well behind the ExoShield and the Halos. On the one independent measure that exists, it is the weakest of the three. The padding also covers less of the forehead than the ExoShield, where most head-to-head contact lands, in exchange for the extra coverage at the back and sides.

That does not make it useless. Occipital padding is genuinely rare in this category and a fall backwards onto turf is a common way young players hurt their heads. But if you are choosing on impact performance, the ExoShield is the better buy at the same price.

Buy it if your player has long hair and the port solves a daily argument, your club needs headgear in team colours, or you specifically want padding at the back of the head. Check the Full90 price here.

Other Names You’ll See

• Gamebreaker. A soft cap rather than a band, with far more coverage. Its multi-sport cap earned four stars in the 2018 round and a newer soccer model topped the lab’s 2019 round. Worth a look for a keeper or a player returning from a serious injury who wants everything covered, if they can live with wearing a cap.
• Unequal Halo 2. Still sold at the same $49.95, still five stars from 2018, thicker than the Halo 3. If you want Unequal’s fit with the higher rating, this is the one.
• Don Joy Hat Trick and Forcefield. Both tested in 2018 and landed mid-table. Fine, but outclassed at the price.

Fit Matters More Than Brand

Virginia Tech tested every headband in the position the maker specifies. A headband that has ridden up to the hairline or slipped down over an eyebrow is not the product that was tested. Three rules:

1. Measure, don’t guess. Tape measure around the forehead at its fullest point, snug. Every brand sizes on that number and they do not line up with each other: Storelli has six sizes, Full90 two, Unequal two with a big jump between them.
2. It should sit above the eyebrows and below the hairline, squarely on the forehead, and not move when the player shakes their head hard. Snug is correct. Too tight gives headaches by half-time and the band ends up in the bag.
3. Wear it in training first. Heading feels different for a session or two. Nobody wants to discover that in a match.

And replace it when the foam is compressed or the seams open. A headband that has been through two seasons of a kit bag has not got the padding it was rated with.

Who Should Wear Soccer Headgear

The evidence points to a narrower group than the marketing does.

• Players who contest a lot of aerial balls: centre-backs, target strikers, keepers coming for crosses. These are the collisions the lab tested, and the ones headgear cushions.
• Players returning after a head injury who have been medically cleared and feel more confident with padding. The confidence is real and useful. The clearance has to come first; no headband is a substitute for it, and your high-school association will not accept it as one.
• Younger players still learning to head, whose parents want some margin while technique catches up. Combine it with the heading limits for under-11s rather than treating it as permission to head more.

Who can skip it: a player who rarely goes up for the ball and dislikes wearing it. The marginal protection for a winger who heads twice a season is small, and the NFHS warning about false security applies most to the player who thinks the band lets them stop worrying.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does headgear prevent concussions in soccer?
No. Lab testing shows the best headbands cut the force of hard head-to-head impacts by 70% or more, but the only large randomised field trial found no reduction in the number or severity of concussions among high-school players wearing it. Wear it for the impacts it cushions, not as concussion prevention.

Is headgear allowed in soccer?
Yes. Law 4 permits soft, lightweight padded headgear that is black or matches the shirt, is not attached to the shirt and has nothing protruding. High-school and college rules permit it and never require it.

What headbands do soccer players wear?
The three most common are the Storelli ExoShield, the Unequal Halo (2 or 3) and the Full90 Premier. Gamebreaker makes a fuller soft cap. Most professionals wear none; the players you see in headgear, like Petr Cech did, are usually returning from a specific injury.

What is the best soccer headgear for kids?
For impact performance, the Storelli ExoShield in the correct size. For a child who will refuse anything bulky, the Unequal Halo 3 Size 1 (19 to 21 inch heads). For long hair, the Full90 Premier’s ponytail port.

Can you still head the ball properly with headgear on?
Yes. The ball plays true off all three, and the lab found headgear makes little difference to head-to-ball contact in either direction. Expect a session or two of adjustment.

How do you wash a soccer headband?
By hand. Storelli and Unequal say hand wash and air dry; Full90 says wipe the surface with a damp cloth. None of them should go in a washing machine or dryer, which breaks down the foam.

The Verdict

If you want the headband with the strongest evidence behind it, buy the Storelli ExoShield. It is the top of the only independent rating that exists, it is certified, and it costs the same as the alternatives.

If the player will not wear the ExoShield, buy the Unequal Halo 3 and be glad it is on their head at all. A four-star band that gets worn beats a five-star band in the bag.

Buy the Full90 Premier for the ponytail port, the colours or the back-of-head padding, knowing you are choosing fit over the rating.

Whichever you pick, it goes on the head of a player who still learns technique, still follows the heading rules, and still tells someone when their head hurts. That combination is what actually lowers the risk. The headband is the easy part.

Related reading: the full Storelli ExoShield review, and if you are kitting out a player from the ground up, our Carbon Athletic shin guard review.

Andrew Murray

I discovered soccer as a U-6 coach. I love soccer, futsal on the weekends in a men’s league. I am now living in Portugal (and playing futsal!)

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