6 Best Football Visors: Clear, Dark, Kids, and Budget (2024)

Football is a great game. But let’s face it, it’s also a brutal sport, with close contact leading to possible eye injuries. Protect yourself or the vision of someone you know who plays the game with the best football visors. 

But not only will the best football helmet visors help prevent injury, they’ll also cut glare from the sun, minimize fogging and otherwise, keep a player’s vision clear and sharp. What’s more, tinted or dark visors — if allowed in your league — will also hide the eyes of a player, intimidating an opponent and keeping the next move a mystery. 

In this guide to the best football visors, we tell you what you need to know to get ready for football. With a new football face shield, it just might be a season to remember, from Pop Warner to the pros.

Top Picks

Huddle up and scan through each product in our ranking.

Among the many things we liked about the Under Armour men’s football visor is that it’s made from APVX, meaning it’s 10% clearer than other face shields with improved impact resistance and better visibility than traditional polycarbonate. It’s also highly scratch-resistant, with anti-fog coating, and two clips for easily adding or removing the visor from a helmet. 

This is a great choice for an extra-large helmet, we found out, but it also fits youth and pre-teen helmets. Overall, it’s a quality product from a leader in the sportswear industry that’s easy to install. While it didn’t fog up in the cold, but it did fog up a little in wet weather. It also held up well over multiple seasons, which we liked to hear, and the custom stickers included with purchase help to match your team colors.

To get yourself the best football visor without spending a bunch of money, we recommend the clear vision football visor from EliteTek. Fitting most kids and adult helmets, this polycarbonate visor is impact, fog, and scratch-resistant, with a 2-clip attachment system. We also like that this eyeshield is approved in most leagues, from youth to the NFL. 

There are some reports, however, that this visor won’t fit extra-small helmets. But otherwise, feedback calls EliteTek an excellent visor with zero fog. It retains strength and takes a pounding, with only simple adjustments required to install the visor on most helmets. Some minor scratches were reported after extended use, but otherwise, the visor is super clear and durable, based on feedback.

Oakley’s football shield is the best clear football visor in our ranking. Made from Plutonite, a proprietary polycarbonate plastic blocking UVA, UVB, and UVC plus blue light, this visor is also coated with an AFR lens treatment for anti-fog performance and better scratch resistance. We also like Oakley’s high-definition optics (HDO) tech eliminating any visual distortion.

Otherwise this one-size-fits-all clear football helmet visor has an injected molded shape for clearer vision at any angle. Those who’ve used the visor call it a great product that’s easy to install, saying that it fits most helmets, but especially Riddell. It also effectively cuts down glare, according to reports, even in humid conditions. It will also protect your eyes from those little black chunks when you hit the turf, according to reports.

To conceal your eyes during a game or to cut down even further on glare, we like the smoked, dark visor from Barnett. This polycarbonate one-size-fits-all football face shield is also scratch-resistant with fog and UV coating. And the two-clip system makes taking off and putting on the visor quick and easy with both youth-sized and adult-sized helmets.

Overall, the face shield is tinted enough to cut down on glare from the sun, but not so dark as to hinder visibility, based on feedback. The flaps do stick out from the top of the helmet, some say, which is not ideal, but otherwise, it’s just the right thickness and durable, we found out — stiff, but flexible enough to fit most any helmet.

For the best youth football helmets visor, we like the Nike Gridiron youth football eyeshield. These one-size-fits-most, molded polycarbonate football visors for kids have a unique curvature, fitting better with less bending. This curve also helps cut down on visual distortion, and we also like the shock-dampening attachments with mounting hardware and clear assembly instructions. The face shield is also highly shatter-resistant and scratch-resistant. 

This is an excellent youth visor, according to feedback, that players can use season after season. Thought it might be too small for some extra-large helmets, however. It also comes with some multi-color stickers to match the team colors, or if team colors change between seasons.  

It also fits most of Riddell’s most commonly used helmets, and most notably it’s clear. Tinted visors are prohibited in many youth leagues.

For the best blue iridium football visor (among many other colors) we like the football helmet eyeshield visor from SLEEFS. Available in more than fifty color choices — be careful, though, because some leagues restrict dark-colored visors like these — this universal fit football visor is made from optical polycarbonate. It’s also anti-glare and scratch-resistant, cutting both UV rays and blue blight. 

The football visor also comes with a really nice pouch for storage and a pair of universal clips, fitting most popular football brands. Feedback calls this visor “teenager approved,” and although it’s a bit pricier than other face shields, it’s well worth the cost. It fits helmets well, and the broad color selection helps match the visor with team colors, though they are prohibited in some leagues.

Our Process

For this guide on football visors, our team spent 5 hours researching the most popular options from over 30 brands and manufacturers big and small. We then read about 120 user reviews (both positive and negative) to discover what shoppers thought about each visor. After comparing this data, we narrowed our list down to the top 6 football visors on the market. You can count on this research to guide you to a mindful purchasing decision.

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Further Reading