Protective

Baseball Umpire Gear & Equipment 

Make the right call with confidence. Team Town Sports provides everything officials need to command the diamond. From the local Little League to elite travel tournaments, shop professional-grade umpire protective gear, apparel, and accessories from trusted brands like Wilson, Rawlings, All Star, and Louisville Slugger. 

Shop Umpire Equipment by Category: 

• Protective Armor: Stay safe behind the dish. Find heavy-duty, hard-shell chest protectors, specialized umpire face masks, and wrap-around shin guards designed specifically to rigidly deflect foul tips and wild pitches. 

• Umpire Apparel: Maintain a crisp, authoritative appearance. We carry official moisture-wicking umpire shirts (in standard powder blue, black, and navy), durable heather grey slacks (in wide plate and standard base cuts), and fitted umpire caps. 

• Footwear: Protect your feet in the line of fire. Shop specialized steel-toe plate shoes for home plate duties, and lightweight turf shoes for maximum sprinting mobility when working the bases. 

• Game Accessories: Keep the game running smoothly. Stock up on essential ball bags, multi-dial indicators (clickers), wooden plate brushes, and lineup card holders. 

Umpire Equipment: Gear, Safety & Setup FAQs 

What equipment does a home plate umpire need? 

To safely officiate behind home plate, an umpire requires a complete set of specialized protective gear. This includes a traditional steel or titanium face mask (often with an attachable throat guard), a hard-shell chest protector worn underneath the shirt, heavy-duty shin guards worn underneath the pants, and steel-toe plate shoes. An athletic cup is also absolutely mandatory. 

What is the difference between an umpire chest protector and a catcher's chest protector? 

While they look somewhat similar, they function entirely differently. A catcher's equipment chest protector is designed with soft, high-density foam to absorb and deaden the impact of a ball, dropping it straight down into the dirt so the catcher can retrieve it. An umpire's chest protector is built with hard plastic exterior plates. It is designed to rigidly deflect high-velocity foul tips away from the body, as the umpire does not need to catch or recover the ball. 

What do the numbers on an umpire indicator mean? 

An indicator (commonly called a clicker) is the handheld tool umpires use to track the exact game state. Most standard indicators have three or four dials tracking: 

• Strikes: (0-2) 

• Balls: (0-3) 

• Outs: (0-2) 

• Innings: (1-9) The dials are designed to reset after reaching the maximum number (e.g., clicking past 3 balls resets the dial back to 0 for the next batter). 

Why do umpires wear different shoes for the plate vs. the bases? 

A home plate umpire stands directly in the firing line of foul balls and dropped pitches, so they wear Plate Shoes. These are heavy, specialized shoes featuring a reinforced steel toe and a thick metatarsal plate over the top of the foot. A base umpire, however, needs to sprint into position to make calls on close plays, so they wear lightweight, highly tractioned Base Shoes or turf baseball cleats that do not feature the heavy steel plating. 

How should an umpire face mask fit? 

Unlike a player's batting helmet, an umpire's traditional mask is designed to fit slightly loose rather than form-fitting. If a high-speed foul tip strikes the mask directly, the mask should be able to spin or be knocked entirely off the umpire's head. This dissipates the kinetic energy of the impact, significantly reducing the risk of a severe concussion. The harness should just be tight enough to hold the mask securely in place when looking down to sweep the plate.