Helmet having magnetically coupled cheek pads

A helmet, comprising:

• a protective shell;
• an inner protective layer disposed within the protective shell to cover at least a portion of a user's head;
• a cheek pad releasably coupled to the inner protective layer and disposed within the protective shell, the cheek pad comprising:
• an emergency release strap,
• a padding layer, and
• a pad back plate comprising a first riser with ramped sides;
• a helmet back plate coupled to the protective shell between the inner protective layer and the cheek pad, the helmet back plate comprising a second riser with ramped sides corresponding to the ramped sides of the first riser;
• wherein the first riser, the second riser, or both comprise at least one embedded magnet magnetically coupling the helmet back plate to the protective shell;
• wherein the pad back plate decouples from the helmet back plate when the pad back plate is pulled in a direction toward a bottom helmet opening at an angle steeper than a ramp angle of the ramped sides of the first riser or the second riser;
• and
• wherein the cheek pad is removable from the inner protective layer of the helmet while the inner protective layer covers at least the portion of the user's head.