A lot of so-called skateboard safety equipment of the 70’s was rebranded, ineffectual generic equipment; volleyball kneepads, gardening gloves, and hockey helmets that probably weren’t very useful for hockey either. Every couple years I get an email from the UK someone asking if I have any leads on old Cooper skateboard helmets, and the answer is always no, except when it isn’t. Is it a niche skateboard collecting community? No, not exactly. The hurling community values these. As recently as 2024, Cooper (Ireland) was still making these helmets, some with the skateboard brands they white labeled back in the 70’s.
Here’s an ad for “Skateboarder” branded Cooper skateboarding safety gear, from a 1978 issue of Skateboard Industry News. The company is called Cooper International, and has a New York mailing address. Cooper Canada must have been the parent company, because that’s the only company you can find any history about online. They used a Skate Boarder graphic on a hockey helmet and some chintzy pads. It’s kind of a cool logo, and it does not appear to be affiliated with Skateboarder Magazine.
Cooper dissolved in 1990 when Bauer bought the hockey division and the baseball bat division was spun off on its own. In Ireland, Cooper Hurling Helmets Manufacturing Limited was formed in 2004, and later dissolved in 2010. Yet somehow, the Cooper.ie domain is still active, still selling hurling products, including hurling helmets, some with skateboard branding. Good luck buying one of them. All the helmets are currently marked out of stock. The funny thing about these helmets, they look weird with the face guard tacked on them, but you have to assume the skateboarding versions looked odd to the hockey players.
This is the modern version of the Cooper SK100 helmet. Somehow these helmets received some sort of safety certification, at least for use in hurling. It’s hard to imagine these were very effective for skateboarding, let alone hockey. At least the face guard looks like it could deflect a puck. The modern version comes with extra padding compared to the original. The finishing is a little cleaner too, the stitching through the plastic shell is no longer present.
Here’s the modern version with the “Skate Boarder” logo.
Here’s two versions of the OG Skate Boarder version.
Next up, the modern version of the Free Former helmet.
Here’s a vintage Free Former helmet the Colonel once bought at a Goodwill for $3.50. You can see more of it here.
Flyer Landsurfer? Why yes, another 70’s skateboard brand from Morris Vulcan, out of the UK.
Here’s a couple OG Flyer Landsurfer helmets. Most of these OG photos are from the same couple of guys reposting the same photos in vintage skateboarding and hockey collecting groups. “Hi guys, I’m looking for…” Funny enough, they often include a Free Former photo from the old Skate and Annoy post. The rest are from old auctions.
Here’s where it gets a little odd. It was easy enough for a few 70’s skateboard brands to have Cooper pad-print their logos for a white label product. Hurlers scavenged these helmets and used them in their own sport. The decision to make the updated version and apply the old skateboard-related logos takes it to another level. It’s like collecting squared, or is it meta collecting? The hurlers fondness is for the form function of the helmet, and they are still using them. These skateboard branded versions must have an extra coolness factor, but removed from skateboarding coolness. So cool, in fact, that you can still buy t-shirts (in-stock) from the Cooper web site, and they are labeled as “Cool T Adult T-shirts.” Is that an editorial content or is “Cool T” a brand of shirt?
Here’s a couple vintage Flyer Landsurfer t-shirts from Morriss Vulcan you can see here. TIL that the skateboarder on this design is also wearing a Flyer Landsurfer helmet.
The current Cooper web site only show pictures of the Land Surfer t-shirt, but they also offer a Free Former, and Blaktrax version. What’s Blaktrax, you ask? A UK based skateboard brand from the 70’s. This ad is from a 1978 issue of Skateboard! magazine.
So it’s a safe bet that Blaktrax probably sold a white label Cooper helmet even though there doesn’t appear to be any photographic evidence online. Otherwise, why would Cooper make a modern version?
There’s no modern version of the Hobie helmet, probably because that trademark is still being protected. There are some photos of these helmets with a big, janky Hobie sticker on there floating around as well. Here’s a couple proper Hobie/Cooper helmets from an auction.
A Rollet branded Cooper helmet shows up in some of the Hurlers’ posts. I was previously only aware of the snow skate product from Rollet, but they made skateboards too.
Vintage Rollet skateboards are hard to find online amongst the noise. This one came from the French auction site Leboncoin. This board is in amazing shape, but looks like a cheap piece of garbage, skateboarding wise. Single action trucks and possibly rubber wheels, complete with hubcaps. This was the only Rollet skateboard I could find at teatime of publication.
That’s it for Cooper Hockey/Skateboard/Hurling helmets. I’ll leave you with this ad for Fagan, the UK distributors of Cooper helmets in the 70’s. This was in a couple of 1978 issues of Skateboard! magazine.
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