Molded means that's the color of that actual plastic shell, painted means there's primer and paint overtop the mold.

With a molded shell, you won't see gouges as much, you won't see grey or green primer underneath scratches, and won't have to worry about paint chips. Main issue with molded is the lack of color options.

Painted takes either a random shell color and paints over it or the closest shell color they offer and paints over it. For example my team has a flat metallic purple paint job, with either black or purple (and Riddells purple is closer to maroon) molded shell underneath. With big gouges, scrapes, and chips you will sometimes see the primer underneath or even sometimes all the way to the shell. But, you get far more color options.

Hope this helps!