JOFA Helmets | Halos of Hockey

Gretzky, Lemieux, Jagr, Selanne, Savard, Sundin, Forsberg, Fleury, Kurri, Housley, Palffy, Salming and Stastny are some of the NHL greats who have worn the JOFA emblem proudly upon their foreheads during some of the highest scoring and most important seasons and careers in NHL history. This blog discusses the JOFA helmet, the different models, who men who wore them, their significance, where to buy and sell them, how to fix and modify them, and why they are icons of hockey excellence.

May 3, 2011

The JOFA 397


The JOFA 397 seems to be a hybrid of the JOFA 390 and the JOFA 366. There is virtually no information about this model helmet. Notice the partial ear protection combined with the ear loops from the JOFA 366. I have not seen these being sold anywhere, it could have been sold exclusively in Europe.


I became curious about this helmet after seeing Teemu Selanne wearing a "397" on his Team Finland helmet during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. The helmet Selanne wore is definitely not like the red JOFA 397 shown a the top. Also, Selanne's helmet seems to have different ear loops than all his previous JOFA 366 helmets; they look like they are installed through slots like other hockey helmets, not via rivets like his JOFA 366's he wore with the Jets and the Ducks.


From this angle, you can tell that the ear loops are definitely different than his other helmets. It also looks as though Selanne resorted back to his horizontal visor mounting he used early in his career. I wonder if this particular helmet was made custom for Selanne, and could he have simply thrown an old "397" bumper on his newly modified helmet to confuse officials?


In this photo, when Selanne broke his jaw during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, he is wearing the same ear loops as his JOFA 397, however it looks as though he replaced the front piece of the helmet with a new Rbk one. I would assume the horizontal mounting of the visor interfered with the addition of jaw protection. You can see he removed the front bumper, or the entire front piece of the helmet, which probably displayed a "390", as the JOFA 390 is the only model of this style helmet still produced by Rbk which he could readily obtain.


This obscure photo of Jorgen Jonsson, playing for Färjestads BK of Sweden's Elitserien, shows him wearing what also seems to be a JOFA 397. The helmet he is wearing looks as though it was custom made, as the ear loops and logos are yellow (the stock color is white). You can tell it is a JOFA 397 because of the half ear protection in contrast to the yellow ear loops.

6 comments:

  1. UnknownMay 19, 2011 at 1:51 AM

    The picture of Jorgen Jonsson are not from the national swedish team. The colour of the helmet are in fact purple (!) with yellow ear loops. The team he played for, Farjestad was sponsored by a big coffee company who has those colours.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JOFA Helmet ProMay 19, 2011 at 11:55 AM

    Thank you! You may tell I have posted a lot of Team Sweden pictures, I just assumed and didn't even notice! I checked and you are most definitely right! Please feel free to make other constructive criticism if you like. I'm trying to create a resource where people can share their knowledge of JOFA helmets and the greats who wore them, so have at it, the more accurate the better!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJuly 8, 2013 at 3:00 PM

    I have one up for sale on eBay right now
    Bids start at 26.99

    ReplyDelete
  4. rFebruary 18, 2014 at 8:32 AM

    i am looking to sell a 366 in red color, a 366 in blue color and a NOS 397 in blue color (teemu's olympic choice)..
    feel free to contact me for pics and offers or special modifying recquests..
    zentagasse@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. helloSeptember 12, 2014 at 5:53 PM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. helloSeptember 12, 2014 at 5:57 PM

    I belive that here in sweden you must have the earprotection. If you look at the players in SHL (sweden hockey leugue) everyone is keeping their plastic earcover on. Opposite to other leuges (NHL for example) the majority of the player play without the covering earpeice.

    The JOFA 390 was the standard helmet and the 366 the "pro model". I think that the 397 was the "pro model" for the swedish market. The 397 had the same earloops as the 366 but still some earprotection to keep it legal while playing here in sweden.

    I have no specific sources just my own research. But I want to share it anyway even if it's not a 100% correct :)

    ReplyDelete

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