Equipment- Part 3

For this third and final equipment post, I will be helping you know what clothes you need for your uniform to officiate football. I saved this for last since many times, people have the most questions on this part. However, before I get going, I wanted to tell everyone that earlier I strongly recommended you join your area officials association, you can read that post here. If you do, many times people have extra clothes or equipment they are giving away for free! Take advantage of that as just another reason to go to an association meeting.

To start, you need some shoes. There are many out there and all different brands. Try to find a store in your area that sells them and try some on to see which are most comfortable to you. Also talk to other officials to see what their favorites are. With your shoes, make sure you have black socks.

You will also need officiating pants. These are black with a white stripe down the side. College and High school officials where the same pants. Here is an example of a pair from Honig’s. Make sure if it is cold, you have a pair of long tights you can wear under the pants to keep you warm.

Next is the officiating shirt. For most states in high school, you need a striped shirt that has 1” stipes. (example here) Most high school state associations want your shirt to have its association patch on the left arm.  For college, you need a striped shirt with 2” stripes. (example here) If you are registered with the CFO, which you should be, you should order a shirt with the CFO patch on the left arm. If you want to know more about the CFO, please read my blog here. I always like to get an American flag on the left side of my chest, but you don’t have to. You should also have some sort of athletic under shirt, either black or white, to wear under the shirt. 

Depending on the climate you work in, I strongly recommend getting a long sleeve and short sleeve shirt to have. You never know what the weather is going to be like and it is too late to order a long sleeve shirt the week of your game. So be prepared and get one of both. For college, when you are just starting out, you will most likely work a number of different positions. You can call honig’s and ask to just order the different letters for the back of the shirt and front and then stick them on with safety pins. This is what seems to be the best solution so you don’t have to buy a shirt with each position letter. High school shirts don’t have position letters.

Hopefully this has answered many of your questions and you are ready to get prepared for the season and order all of your equipment way before the start of the season. You want to leave time to make sure it fits and if not, return and reorder. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me here. 


Check out a great undershirt you can buy from Prepared Football Officials to show you go above and beyond to prepare for the season!