AUSTIN, Texas – Looking your best on the football field is all about personal style. New Braunfels and New Braunfels Canyon went to the same company to get their new helmet decals for the 2024-2025 season.
Au Concepts and Designs is run by former Oklahoma State running back and Irving, Texas native Greg Gold. Gold has a home office in the Austin area.
He started the helmet decal company to help his son’s 8-year-old tackle football team have a snazzier look. It has since become a business that creates unique looks for over 2,000 high schools in 44 of 50 states.
Gold said creating new decals for the Unicorns and Cougars was a challenge.
“The unicorn was a first,” said Gold. “I was like, ‘OK, how do I make this a masculine horse while still trying to tie in everything with their uniforms?’ When I created that stripe, it essentially mimics not only the horn shape of a uniform where it tapers from large to a point. It also mimics the stripes on their uniform.”
When working on Canyon’s new decals, the idea came from a Cougar head already seen by students as they walked through campus.
“Canyon High, this year, a coach was inspired by a painting that was on the wall in their gym,” Gold said. “Because it was a painting, he had to send me a picture. We had to scan it, and then of course, we go to the drawing process, and put it on the helmet. And he said, ‘That’s it.’”
For decades, Gold’s ability to draw and be creative was a part of him that he didn’t tap into because his identity revolved around being a football player.
“If there’s one thing I want these kids to get out of (it) is to be proud of where you’re at in life, no matter what and whatever is on your head. Be proud of that,” Gold said. “What I hope they gain from it is a sense of pride, loyalty, something they go back to that they’re proud of, tell their kids and whoever their friends. ‘Hey, that’s cool, and that’s what we wore, and that’s what we looked like.’ And so, for them to be able to have something that they’re proud of on their head on social media without being criticized for, would be the greatest take I want them to gain from this.”
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