Sports Equipment Manager Job Description

A Sports Equipment Manager is the person who makes sure every athlete on a roster has the right gear, in the right size, in working condition, at the moment it is needed. In a high school that may be one staff member covering several sports from a single cage. In a college athletic department or a professional club it is a department with its own budget, storage rooms, laundry and a staff of assistants and student workers.

The Athletic Equipment Managers Association breaks the profession into five areas of job performance in its certification program: department administration, safety and standards, operations, procurement and finances, and inventory control. That list is a fair map of a working week.

Safety and fitting. Fit is part of the safety work. Equipment staff size helmets, shoulder pads and other protective gear to each athlete using the manufacturer's fitting guidelines, then recheck fit as the season goes on. They inspect helmets and pads for cracked shells, worn padding and loose hardware, pull anything suspect, and repair what can be repaired in-house. Helmets also go out for testing: NOCSAE defines recertification as the process in which previously certified helmets are tested to determine that they continue to meet the original certification requirements, and it must happen as part of reconditioning. Auburn University's job description for its assistant athletics equipment manager lists fitting equipment "in accordance with manufacturer guidelines" and detecting malfunctions as core duties, along with keeping up with concussion prevention and technology.

Operations. Laundry runs every day there is practice. Game uniforms are prepped, numbered and hung by position. Sideline cases hold spare cleats, gloves, tape, tools and replacement parts, because a broken chin strap in the second quarter is the equipment staff's problem to fix in seconds. Road games add a second shift: packing trunks, loading the truck, and having the visiting locker room set before players walk in.

Procurement and finances. The equipment room buys apparel and equipment within an allocated budget and the institution's purchasing rules. That means working with vendor representatives on orders and sizing, managing outfitter contracts where a school or team has one, and evaluating new protective products before committing a roster to them.

Inventory control. Every helmet, jersey and pair of cleats is issued to someone and has to come back. Equipment managers keep issue records for athletes, coaches and support staff, collect gear when players leave, and plan replacement purchases from what the records show.

Compliance. Uniform and equipment rules come from several directions at once. Auburn's description, for example, requires its equipment staff to keep artwork and logos compliant with licensing, marketing, NCAA and SEC guidelines and to maintain hygiene standards according to OSHA. A professional club adds league uniform and equipment rules to the same checklist.

The job is physical and starts early on game days, and travel weeks run long on both ends.

Education. A bachelor's degree is usually the starting point for college and professional jobs, typically in sports management, sports administration, business administration or a related field. As one public-university example, Auburn University's description for an assistant athletics equipment manager asks for a bachelor's degree in one of those fields plus 3 years of experience in purchasing, maintaining and stocking athletic equipment, and lets candidates substitute extra relevant education for experience year for year.

Experience. One route into the field runs through a college equipment room as a student manager, then moves to graduate assistant, assistant equipment manager and head equipment manager roles. As a rough guide, expect several years at the assistant level before running a department at a large program. Experience that transfers well includes inventory control, purchasing, laundry operations, sewing and small repairs, and anything involving logistics on a deadline.

AEMA Certification. The Athletic Equipment Managers Association awards AEMA Certification to members who pass its certification exam. Under eligibility rules that took effect July 1, 2025, a candidate must be a standard AEMA member in good standing, actively working as an athletic equipment manager, and meet one of several requirements. The paths include a 4-year college degree plus 2000 hours of current experience in the field; a 2-year college degree plus 4000 hours; or a high school degree plus 5 years of paid full-time current experience. Certified members must earn 6.0 continuing education units every three years to keep the credential. Some employers write it into the job: Auburn's description lists AEMA certification as required, or to be obtained within 2 years of hire.

Other credentials. CPR, AED and first aid certification from the American Red Cross or the American Heart Association is a sensible addition for anyone working practices and games. Each helmet maker's fitting guidance is worth studying closely for the models a program issues.

Skills that matter on the job.

• Fitting protective equipment to manufacturer guidelines and spotting wear before it becomes a failure
• Laundry and fabric care for performance materials, plus basic stitching and hardware repair
• Inventory software, purchase orders and budget tracking
• Working knowledge of league, conference and governing-body uniform and equipment rules
• Calm, fast problem solving on the sideline

Physical demands. Auburn's description rates the job on physical demands including standing, walking, lifting and climbing, and on working conditions including extreme heat, extreme cold, wet and noise. Expect long days, weekend and holiday work during seasons, and overnight travel for road games.

The federal data does not track this job on its own. BLS codes athletic equipment managers to Locker Room, Coatroom, and Dressing Room Attendants, an occupation O*NET puts at 16,000 employees in 2025, with about 4,000 job openings a year on average projected over 2025-2035. Those figures describe the whole occupation, including coat checkers and fitting room attendants, so they say little about how many equipment manager jobs open in athletics.

The profession's own salary survey speaks to the job directly. The Athletic Equipment Managers Association's 2023 survey reported a national average salary of $60,519, up from $52,575 in 2018 and $59,917 in 2020, which the survey describes as a 15% increase from 2018 and a 1% increase from 2020. By position, average pay was $51,940 for assistant equipment managers, $59,780 for head equipment managers, $71,912 for directors of equipment and $73,247 for associate or assistant athletic directors for equipment. The survey counted 24 salaries of $100,000 or more and a highest salary of $225,000. Its figures include overtime where applicable but exclude bonuses and benefits, and it went to AEMA members, while its author also asked an XFL equipment manager to share it with counterparts.

We found no pay figures published by professional clubs for their equipment staff, so the survey's self-reported professional average is the public figure we found for that level.

College athletics after the House settlement. For schools participating in the House settlement, the College Sports Commission lists sport-by-sport roster limits that replaced NCAA scholarship limits, including 105 for football and 15 each for men's and women's basketball. With limited exceptions, only athletes on a sport's submitted roster may take part in athletically related activities for the rest of the academic year or the end of the playing season, whichever is later, and Designated Student-Athletes identified in summer 2025 do not count against the limits. For a football equipment room at a participating school, the submitted roster sets which players need to be outfitted.

Where the jobs are. The AEMA survey broke out pay for equipment managers in high schools, junior colleges, NCAA Division I, II and III, NAIA and professional sports, which shows how wide the employer base is. Region mattered in its results too: the highest district average was $68,045 in District 7 (Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas), and the lowest was $55,244 in District 2 (Delaware, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia). The career ladder runs from assistant to head equipment manager, then to director of equipment or an assistant athletic director title in larger departments.

Building a case for promotion. The practical moves are the ones the job description already rewards: earn AEMA Certification, learn the fitting systems for the helmet models your program issues, keep issue and recertification records that another manager could pick up cold, and volunteer for travel and postseason work, where the equipment room's planning is on display.

Dear Director of Athletic Equipment Operations,

I am applying for the Assistant Equipment Manager opening in your department. I have spent the last three seasons in the equipment room at a mid-sized university, first as a student manager and now as a full-time equipment coordinator for football, baseball and women's lacrosse, and I passed the AEMA Certification exam this spring.

My days start with laundry and end with an inventory check. During football season I handle helmet and shoulder pad fitting for our skill-position players, keep the sideline cases stocked, and run the visiting locker room setup on road trips. Last year I rebuilt our issue log so that every item checked out to an athlete is tied to that athlete's record, and our end-of-season gear collection went from a week of chasing people to two afternoons.

I care about the safety side of the job. I keep a running list of every helmet's recertification date, schedule shipments to our reconditioner the week after the season ends, and pull anything I am unsure of before it reaches practice. When our head equipment manager was out for a month, I placed our spring apparel order, confirmed sizing with the vendor rep, and had uniforms numbered and hung before the first home series.

I would bring the same habits to your program: organized records, quick sideline repairs, and a calm approach on the long days that travel and doubleheaders bring. I would welcome the chance to visit your equipment room, walk through how you run game day, and talk with your staff about the role.

Sincerely, Jordan Ellis