Great shield. Looks amazing, great quality, fits my N5A perfectly. Shipped to me within a couple weeks. Very pleased with the result!
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Shield Description
The Bare Bones Leather Firefighter Helmet Shield is the minimalist option in the Little River Customs shield lineup. It uses a clean, uncomplicated identification layout for firefighters and departments that want custom leather without added tooling, texture, or decorative artwork.
The design keeps the department or company designation, primary identifier, rank, name, and available color choices easy to organize. Use the live preview to enter the available text, select colors, and review the finished arrangement before ordering.
A simple custom leather helmet shield
Bare Bones is handmade from full-grain leather using the same core material as the more detailed shields in the collection. What changes is the design treatment: this listing concentrates on the essential identification fields instead of adding textured or beveled upgrade options.
That makes Bare Bones a practical choice for a first custom shield, a straightforward replacement, or a department order where a clean and consistent layout matters more than additional leather tooling.
The product has one intentionally restrained design system, allowing its identity to remain consistent across individual firefighter and department orders.
Choose the correct shield size
Select the dimensions that match your helmet from the available size options. Measure the helmet and shield holder before ordering rather than relying only on a helmet model name. The sizing guide displayed on the page explains the measurements to check.
Each Bare Bones shield ships unpunched so the mounting holes can be positioned for the customer’s helmet hardware. Review the mounting guide before drilling or punching the finished shield.
How Bare Bones differs
Choose Bare Bones when you want the simplest custom leather firefighter helmet shield in the lineup. If you want a traditional large-number layout with optional surface texture, compare the Standard Issue Leather Firefighter Helmet Shield. For optional beveling and a more old-school rocker treatment, see the Classic Leather Firefighter Helmet Shield.
How to Choose the Right Size Fire Helmet Shield
Choose height first. Measure from the brim where the shield’s bottom sits to the top notch where the shield seats in the holder, not the top of the eagle or ornament. Choose the closest available height at or slightly below that measurement. Round down slightly between sizes.
Example: 6.3″ of available height → a 6.25″-tall shield. A 6.5″-tall shield is too tall.
Then make a quick width check. Width usually falls in line once height is chosen. Measure outside-to-outside across the mounting studs or screws and add ¾–1″ total for the minimum recommended shield width. Add this once, not to each side. You can choose a wider look.
Phenix TL-2: Usually needs 6.25″ or 6.5″ of width. Choose the correct height first.
Sizes are listed height × width. Check this design’s available options. See our fire helmet shield measuring guide for photos and the helmet reference chart.
We do not punch mounting holes. Use our shield mounting guide to position and punch them for your helmet’s hardware.
Texture vs Smooth and Beveling Details
These options are not offered on every shield. When available on a design, the explanations below show what each option changes in the finished shield.
Textured
- A tooled texture applied to the face of the leather. It adds visual bite and gives the shield a more aggressive, high-contrast look.
Smooth
- No surface texture added. The leather face remains flat and clean, giving the shield a sharper, more traditional appearance with full focus on layout and lettering.
Beveling/Tooling
- Hand-carved and stamped tooling with beveled detail around borders, numbers, or design elements. Adds depth and definition to the leather.
- Learn more about beveling / tooling here
How to Mount your Fire Helmet Shield
Mounting your fire helmet shield is simple when you line it up correctly and drill or punch the holes the right way. Start by matching the shield to your helmet’s holder, check alignment, and mark your hole positions before drilling or punching. Once the hardware is secured, tighten everything evenly and break it in so it sits clean and square.
For full step-by-step instructions, see our guide:
How to Mount Your Fire Helmet Shield
Shield Combo and Bulk Pricing Deals
Firefighters looking for the best way to save on custom fire helmet shields and custom radio straps. Can take advantage of several automatic combo and bulk discounts.
Available Deals
Shield and Radio Strap Combo – 15 percent off
Pair a custom helmet front with one of our custom leather radio straps and get
15 percent off the pair. The discount applies per set, and you can order
multiple sets if needed.
Bulk Shield Pricing
If you’re ordering several shields. You’ll automatically get discounted pricing
based on quantity.
- 6–11 shields: 5 percent off
- 12–23 shields: 10 percent off
- 24 or more shields: 15 percent off
Discounts apply automatically in cart.
These deals make it easier to upgrade your fire helmet shield, customize your gear, and save at the same time.
Customer Reviews
Overall rating: 5.0 / 5 from 56 reviews.
The shield is beautifully done. I love the design on the shield. You all followed my design to a tee. I can not wait to get back to work to attach my new shield to new helmet.
It came out great and was done and delivered really quick
Great turnaround and product. Will use Little River Customs again.
Arrived quick, great product
Looks great and nice quality. Process was easy too!
Absolutely love the shield. Great quality and price
We love the shields
My helmet shield came out amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.
🔥🔥🔥
Great product and price
The whole experience was fantastic! The shield is absolutely awesome! Very Happy with the process and product! Please feal free to post the pics attached! Thank you so much. Tom Retired-DC/Palm Harbor, Fl.
Great product! holes were easy to drill and the size was perfect. Couldn’t ask for more quality.
Great quality and price
Passing down my retired helmet to my 3 year old grandson, who is infatuated with anything Fire Department related. The badge is well made with quality material. I’m sure it will look great for years to come.
If your looking for an affordable leather shield don’t hesitate to buy this!!!! SUPER GREAT quality!!!
This is a Cairns & Brothers vintage 1932 (by noted patent on badge holder). Passed down through our family in Illinois. Now a gift for our firefighter (Fayetteville, TN) son and the badge is dedicated to his Busia (Polish grandmother) who received this from her brother-in laws, because she was in charge of burning the deadfall. Looks fantastic !!!
Ordered a few as a present for the guys I work with. Delivered early and exactly as I ordered.
Absolutely love the shield on my natty, these guys nailed it
Great experience. Fast shipping!!!! Affordable!!!! The product looks awesome
Love the shield
The quality of the product is great.
Always great.
Great service. Answered my questions quickly and the product came very fast looking amazing.
Everything I expected and more!!! Especially for the money!!! Highly recommend and will do more business.
Came out amazing
Great shield. Absolutely love it.
Great product. Great price. Fast turnaround. Great customer service. Highly recommended.
My husband absolutely loves his new shield! I had difficulty customizing the design on their website and customer service was super quick to assist! I sent a message late and night and to my surprise, someone responded within a few minutes. It turns out, it was user error haha, but their customer service is certainly responsive and will go the extra mile to ensure everything goes well in the ordering process. Once I figured out how to customize the shield, it was super easy to complete. The helmet shipped about 6 days after placing the order and I received it a couple days later. I was pleased with the outcome of the shield. The leather is good, sturdy quality and it fit my husband's helmet perfectly! Highly recommend this item and company!! Thank you 🫡
Very happy! Truly great craftsmanship and quality with this product.
When I recieved my shield I immediately noticed the quality of the leather. It took a good amount of force to punch the holes for the mount screws. The paint was nearly perfect and it fit my helmet perfectly. Overall I love the shield. My only critique is with the design page. It would be nice if the colors were labeled. I thought I was ordering dark yellow and turns out it was gold. A welcome surprise as I like the good even better, but labeling would be nice.
Store owner replied: We've been trying to get labels for the color swatches. The app developer won't do it 😕.
Fantastic work, couldn't be happier with the quality and with how my front turned out. Very fast shipping as well, ordered and arrived in 1 week. Thank you guys for the work you do!!
Transferred to a new department and wanted to get a quick simple shield until I can find a new design. Very fast and seems to be high quality. Order arrived within 2 weeks from order. Very pleased. The texted shield is awesome. The 6x5.5 fit perfect on my N5A
Turned out better then expected. Easy to order. Quality work and it arrived less then 3 weeks later. Very happy and reasonable. Thank you!
AMAZING experience from start to finish!!!!! Easy to design and order my shield. It shipped in under 2 weeks and I had it a few days later. Couldn't be any happier with the look and quality of my purchase. Thank you!!!!!
Good quality shield and fast turnaround from time of order. Looking forward to buy more from them in the future.
Decided to try out a shield after seeing some really nice ones that a close friend had ordered. Was very pleased with the outcome, a super nice shield in a very short amount of time. Definitely plan on being a repeat customer. The ability to design the shield and actually see what it’s gonna look like prior to the order was also a huge bonus for me.
Turned out amazing, loved that they corrected some of the imperfections from the design. I’ve already sent 3 ppl to buy a shield from them.
Came out great! Excited to put it to work!
Helmet shield is very well done, you can see the craftsmanship that went in to making the one of a kind shield.