Soccer mom must-haves: the sideline kit that outlasts the season

The must-haves list

At a lot of youth soccer fields the sideline is open grass: no bleachers, no roof, no trees. Everything you sit on, shade under and drink, you carry in from the parking lot, sometimes to a field at the far end of the complex. Here's the kit, in the order it matters.

• A sideline chair you'll keep. The one item that takes real wear: opened, closed, thrown in the trunk and left in the sun every weekend. Rated capacity with headroom, a written warranty and a weight you can carry. More below, and in our best sideline chairs for sports parents.
• Shade you bring. A clamp-on umbrella for the chair you own, or a chair with its own canopy.
• A second, lighter seat. For a sibling, a grandparent, wet grass, or the odd field that does have bleachers.
• A way to haul it. A folding wagon, or at least chairs with shoulder straps so your hands stay free for the cooler and the ball bag.
• Water, and more of it than you think. The CDC's heat advice is to carry a water bottle and drink and refill it throughout the day.
• Broad-spectrum sunscreen, SPF 15 or higher, reapplied after two hours or after sweating (CDC).
• A hat with a brim all the way around, and sunglasses that block UVA and UVB (CDC).
• Layers and rain gear. Fall and spring mornings can start cold and turn warm, and games often go ahead in light rain.
• A blanket. For the grass, for a cold lap, or to wipe down a wet seat.
• Snacks and a small cooler, for the player after the game and the siblings during it.
• A small first-aid kit and an instant ice pack. A spare in the car covers the scraped knee at the far field.
• The spares bag: hair ties, a spare pair of socks, a towel and a trash bag for muddy cleats.

Only three of those are furniture, and those are the ones this site scores. For everything else, buy whatever is convenient; none of it needs to last ten years.

The chair: buy it once

A sideline chair lives a harder life than a campsite chair. It gets opened and closed several times a weekend, carried across parking lots, dropped in a trunk under a ball bag and left in direct sun for hours. Wear and sun are exactly what the warranties exclude. ALPS's limited lifetime warranty excludes UV damage and wear and tear. Kijaro's 1-year warranty excludes UV damage. GCI says sun damage and extended exposure to the elements void its 3-year warranty. None of that is a reason to skip a warranty; it's a reason to pick a chair built with margin, and to bring it inside between games instead of leaving it in the car.

What “built with margin” means on paper: a maker's rated capacity comfortably above your weight, a heavier fabric where the maker publishes one (600D polyester is the mark our score rewards), a warranty in years rather than months, and parts you can actually buy. Our top-ranked sideline chair, the ALPS King Kong, is rated to 800 lb by ALPS with 600D polyester and a limited lifetime warranty, but it weighs 13 lb. If your walk from the car is long, that weight is the trade-off, and it's why two of the picks below are lighter chairs.

Seat height matters more than it sounds. Soccer parents are up and down all game, and a seat at 17 inches or higher means less distance to rise. The Kijaro Dual Lock lists a 20-inch seat height; the Helinox Chair One publishes no seat height and stands 25.5 inches tall overall, a short chair with no head support.

Shade: bring your own

On an open field, shade is the thing you'll wish you'd packed. The National Weather Service notes that heat index values assume shade, and that full sunshine can raise the heat index by up to 15°F. You have three ways to bring shade:

• A clamp-on umbrella for the chair you already own. The Sport-Brella Versa-Brella's clamp opens to 1.5 inches and fits round or square tubing, per its dealer listing, and it weighs 1.8 lb. Check your chair's frame tubing before you buy; we can't confirm the fit on any specific chair.
• A canopy chair, with the shade built in. The trade is durability evidence: the best-known one, the Kelsyus Original, has no maker spec sheet or published warranty, and the Sport-Brella Recliner carries 1 year and a 250 lb rating. Our best canopy chairs ranks every one we could document.
• A pop-up canopy for the whole family. It's the most shade, and the most to carry and set up; check your club's sideline rules before you bring one.

For the full heat plan, including the warning signs to watch for in players and siblings, read how to stay cool on a hot sideline.

A second seat

A second, lighter seat covers the grandparent who comes to one game a season, the sibling who won't sit on wet grass, and the field that does have a few rows of bleachers. Two ways to do it:

• A roll-up floor seat. The Crazy Creek HEX 2.0 Original weighs 20 oz, rolls to a 4-inch diameter and sits on grass or a bleacher bench. Crazy Creek rates it to 250 lb and backs it with a limited lifetime warranty.
• A folding stadium seat. GCI's BleacherBack weighs 2.9 lb, has an adjustable backrest and a 250 lb rating, with a 3-year warranty.

Both are ranked, with the hooked and armed alternatives, in our best stadium seats for bleachers.

What to look for

Before you buy any of the furniture on this list, check five things on the maker's own page:

1. Rated capacity above your weight, with room to spare. Ratings are the maker's claim, and you load a chair harder when you drop into it after chasing a toddler than when you sit gently.
2. A warranty in writing, and its sun clause. Read what it excludes. Nearly every chair warranty we've read excludes wear and tear, and several exclude UV or sun damage outright.
3. Parts. Does the maker sell a replacement seat? Helinox does for the Chair One; most sideline chair brands don't.
4. Carry weight and fold. Lighter is better for a long walk; our portability score drops a step above 3, 5, 8 and 12 lb. A chair that locks shut or has a shoulder strap is easier with a child by the hand.
5. Seat height. 17 inches or more if you're up and down all game or have stiff knees.

Our picks

On durability evidence the Helinox Chair One scores 7.2 and the Crazy Creek 7.0; the Kijaro scores 5.2, held back by its 1-year term, and the Versa-Brella 4.6. The Kijaro is here because it's the tall, lockable sideline chair in the group. If you'd rather have the most durable chair regardless of weight, the King Kong tops our sideline roundup.

The rest of the bag

None of these need a product recommendation, but a few details come straight from public-health guidance and are worth getting right:

• Sunscreen: the CDC recommends a broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 15 or higher, put on again if you stay out more than two hours and after sweating or toweling off. It also notes that in the continental US, UV rays are strongest from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daylight saving time, so plan on reapplying if you're out through midday.
• Water: the CDC suggests carrying a water bottle and refilling it through the day, and limiting drinks high in sugar, caffeine and alcohol in the heat.
• Clothes: tightly woven fabric protects best from the sun, per the CDC, along with a hat that shades your face, ears and the back of your neck.
• Little ones: the CDC lists infants and young children among the groups at higher risk in the heat. If you're bringing a baby or toddler to a hot game, shade comes first.