Inside the Custom Face Masks Taking the NFL by Storm

The story of the Shnow mask began in the Bills’ locker room in 2024, when Dawkins says he was approached by someone at Riddell, an official helmet supplier of the NFL, at the Bills’ training facility. “They came over to me and they were like, ‘Dion, we’re thinking about doing a face mask [for you],’ he recalls. Dawkins wasn’t all that impressed by the sample—and said as much. “It just wasn’t correct. So we sat down and then I was like, ‘How about, let’s put a bar here, let’s put the snowflake here, let’s do this.’”

Getting the Shnow mask right wasn’t as simple as just slapping on a snowflake design, though. Dawkins had specific requests that were nonnegotiable—like being able to reach through the bars to touch his face—and Riddell had to worry about meeting all of the safety requirements put in place by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, or NOCSAE.

“Dion was somewhat unique with this because his request had some personalization, some cosmetic requests, but also some functionality requests that required some customization,” says Chris Kays, the vice president of product development at Riddell. “He was kind of a nice blend of being creative to get the look that he wants, but also we had to do some things to make it to where he could use [his helmet] the way he likes to.”

No one is more appreciative of this than Dawkins, who said the standard face mask he was given as a rookie was “ugly as hell” and didn’t add to the all-important swag quotient whatsoever. He credits Terrell Suggs, the longtime Ravens linebacker who tortured quarterbacks for a living across 17 NFL seasons, as the true pioneer of the custom face mask movement. Kays, however, says that isn’t quite accurate. The first player he recalls voicing his desire for a custom face mask was Connor Barwin, a defensive end who played from 2009 to 2018. Unlike Dawkins, Barwin actually sat down with a marker, drew out exactly what he wanted, and sent it to Riddell. “He sketched this out with our key account manager right beside him,” Kays says, adding that the resulting mask is now an inventoried item that Riddell keeps in stock. “Because he was on the Texans, I ended up calling this the TX.”