The evolution of multiple adiabatic shear bands was investigated in stainless steel (different grain sizes: 30 and 140 μm), titanium, and Ti‐6Al‐4V alloy through the radial collapse of a thick‐walled cylinder under high‐strain‐rate deformation (∼104 s−1) and different global strains(up to 0.9). Ti and Ti‐6Al‐4V displayed drastically different patterns of shear bands. The shear‐band spacing is compared with one‐dimensional theoretical predictions based on perturbation (Ockendon‐Wright and Molinari) and momentum diffusion (Grady‐Kipp) concepts. The experimentally observed spacing reveals a two‐dimensional character of self‐organization, not incorporated into the existing theories. A novel analytical description is proposed, in which embryos(potential initiation sites) are activated as a function of strain (greater than a threshold) according to a Weibull‐type distribution. The model incorporates embryo disactivation by stress shielding as well as selective growth of shear bands. The imposed strain rate, emb...