Rawlings Mach One-Tone Batting Helmet

On paper, the Rawlings Mach is a top-notch helmet: it offers better protection than the average baseball helmet, has great visibility, and is very comfortable, plus the matte colour looks nice. If you want, you can easily add a chin flap or a shield without having to drill any holes. However, in practice, I can't recommend this helmet at all. After just a few months of pretty light use (I only wore it once a week), the foam padding behind the right ear has started to fall off. This foam is glued in, so it can't be replaced, and I have not been able to find a glue that will keep it stuck down. I want to emphasize that the helmet was treated gently and stored carefully in its own compartment in my bag since I got it, so this is clearly a quality issue. And remember: this helmet is supposed to be the nicest one Rawlings makes. But the padding on it will soon come off entirely, and at that point this practically-new helmet will become useless, and I will have to throw it away and buy a new one. For the amount of money that this helmet costs, that is simply unacceptable. Rawlings customer service was unwilling to honour a warranty claim for this issue, and when I asked for suggestions how I might repair it so that I did not have to send a perfectly good helmet to the landfill, they couldn’t be bothered to respond — so I guess that really goes to show how much they apparently value their customers. Again, this is a nice helmet on paper, and I like it generally — but the build quality definitely doesn’t justify its price. If you feel that your gear should last at least a couple of seasons before falling apart, I strongly recommend you avoid this and buy a helmet from another company that actually stands behind its products.