Meet the artist behind the Green Wave’s wildly popular hand-painted City Edition helmets

For the second year in a row, Tulane Athletics unveiled new City Edition uniforms featuring hand-painted helmets that are unmistakably New Orleans. The airbrushed design captures the colors of Mardi Gras, with the Angry Wave reimagined as a Carnival jester and strands of beads completing the homage to the city's annual celebration.

The helmets were shared on social media in August and were immediately met with millions of views and widespread acclaim.

About 1,200 miles away from New Orleans in the small town of Imperial, Nebraska, the man behind the helmets allowed himself a relieved smile.

"I'm just really glad the fans like it," Armando Villarreal said. "As an artist, even when you know you have a good thing, you still second-guess yourself. Then to see social media explode, with everybody loving them, well, I think we nailed it."

Villarreal, who paints special-edition helmets for several universities, calls the Tulane design "by far" the most complicated helmet he's painted for 2026. Other helmets used no more than six layers of paint. This one had 12.

It's a worthy follow-up to last year's City Edition helmet, which evoked the famous white and blue street tiles that can be found on many New Orleans corners.

"Last year's was also the most complicated design for 2025," Villarreal said with a laugh. "There is just so much to draw from in New Orleans, and we want to do things that are truly unique to the city."

We sat down with Villarreal to discuss his process, his inspirations and how he hand-paints hundreds of helmets.

The City Edition helmets and uniforms will be worn at the Green Wave's Sept. 12 game against the University of South Alabama.

How did you find yourself painting football helmets for universities across the nation, including Tulane?

Villarreal: I had been doing artwork since I was a kid, and while I was deployed in Iraq, Orange County Choppers (the custom motorcycles brand) was really popular. So when I got back, I started airbrushing motorcycles. After some time, I met someone who was looking for somebody to do football helmets for Mississippi State. I did my first ones for them in 2018 and then the next year, I painted helmets for Utah, where Tulane's equipment manager Cody Heidbreder was at the time. Then Cody came here and we continued working together.

This design is obviously a hit. Where did you start in the process? How did you approach the design?

Villarreal: After designing the 2025 helmets, I went to a game last year for the first time to see the players wearing them, and Cody said, "I know what I want to do next year. We're going to do Mardi Gras." We went to Mardi Gras World and experienced that. He sent me pictures of the uniform, and after going back and forth a few times, we had the design with a stripe that matched the pants, the random beads and the color of the green. And then watching it hit social media, that was unreal.

So you paint each helmet individually?

Villarreal: Every one, one at a time. I think we did about 150 for Tulane. You want to have backup helmets in case something happens. The biggest challenge was the layers, because certain paints cover better than others. You have to figure out how to mask it off and which colors go on first. There are 12 steps to this helmet, which is more than double any other helmet we did this year. Cody just likes to push the limit of what we can do.

Now for the tough question: Do you have a favorite?

Villarreal: I think I like last year's more, but just barely. It's so different and out of the box. When Cody told me he wanted to capture the tiles in the sidewalk, I had never been to New Orleans, and I told him that I had no idea what he was talking about. I did not see the vision when we started that one, so for it to be so successful … I see things differently than most people, and he sees things differently than most people. So we make a good team.

You'd never visited New Orleans before 2025, and you've now been a couple of times. What do you think of the city?

Villarreal: It is unlike any other place I've been. Everybody was very friendly. The food was awesome. I'm a big World War II junkie, and I served in the military and deployed twice. Going to the National World War II Museum - that was unbelievable. It was awesome. I loved Tulane. I loved the city. It was just fun.

Last year, you attended your first Green Wave game at Yulman Stadium to see players wear your helmets. What was that experience like?

Villarreal: It's so special. After the game, they brought me into the locker room for the celebration. We got to be down on the field, and you're right there. They're wearing the whole uniform and the helmet.

When I have the helmet, it's just the shell, and you kind of get sick of looking at it that many times. Then when you see it on the field, it's a complete helmet with the complete uniform. It's out in the light, and everybody is so pumped up to see it, and it's so special to get to be part of something like that.