How All-Star Catching And Paige Halstead Are Redesigning Softball Gear

Why Softball Gear Needed a Redesign

For years, most fastpitch catchers used gear that was adapted from baseball designs rather than built specifically for female athletes. Sizing was often just scaled down, not re-engineered for different body types, which left a lot of taller and stronger women fighting their equipment instead of being supported by it. Paige Halstead knows this firsthand. At 6'1", her catcher's gear rarely fit correctly throughout her UCLA and Team USA career.

How Athlete-Led Innovation Started

That experience is what eventually pulled her into a multi-year collaboration with All-Star. The company had been exploring fastpitch-specific redesigns and connected with Halstead because of her size, experience, and technical understanding of catching. Over three to four years of working with the brand, she became part of the process to help shape a line specifically engineered for female athletes—especially taller catchers who traditionally had the fewest options.

A Market Ready for Modernization

Softball isn’t a niche category anymore—it's a growth market.
Research across multiple industry analyses shows:

• Global softball equipment valuation ranges from $500M to over $1B in 2024, depending on methodology.
• Projections place the market between $720M and $2.18B by 2034, with CAGR estimates between 3%–6%.
• U.S. softball equipment alone has been valued at ~$1.27B in 2024, projected to exceed $1.8B by 2030.

Every major report shares the same conclusion: women’s softball participation is rising, and equipment spending is rising with it.

Inside the All-Star PHX Fastpitch Line

All-Star’s fastpitch redesign focuses on three core areas:

• Protection: Impact-diffusing helmet designs and fastpitch-specific cage geometry.
• Fit: Female-specific size charts, redesigned torso length, and improved adjustability systems.
• Mobility: Leg guards and chest protectors engineered to support fastpitch movement patterns, not hinder them.

The PHX line—marketed as the official gear of Paige Halstead—integrates extended blocking zones, refined 3D bar structures for rebound control, dynamic hinging in leg guards, and enhanced shoulder and clavicle protection.

Why Paige’s Role Matters

Halstead’s contribution wasn’t just a signature partnership. Her lived experience—years of struggling to find gear that fit her frame—is embedded into the design. The result is equipment shaped by the exact type of athlete who needed innovation the most: a tall, elite-level female catcher whose needs had never been fully addressed.

What This Means for Softball’s Future

This collaboration signals a broader shift.

Athletes are shaping product engineering, not just endorsing it. Female athletes are finally getting gear built for their bodies, not scaled-down versions. Brands investing in women’s sports are gaining real commercial upside, not just goodwill.

As participation continues to rise, female-specific R&D will no longer be optional. All-Star’s move—and Halstead’s involvement—may be the blueprint others follow.

Sources

• Allied Market Research – Global softball equipment valuation & CAGR projections
• Deep Market Insights – U.S. softball equipment market valuation and growth
• Emergen Research – Global equipment forecast through 2034
• All-Star Sports – PHX fastpitch product materials and design descriptions
• Retail product data (Dick’s Sporting Goods, HQ4Sports, Smash It Sports) – feature and specification listings