The Great Lacrosse Equipment Dilemma

To review or not to review

Sometimes when you’re writing something, you begin with good intentions but you end up scrapping the entire thing in frustration.

I was going to post an entire review of [redacted] this week. It’s deep, nerdy and - I decided - wholly unnecessary.

Let me tell you why.

I think we have peaked - in terms of design - when it comes to almost every piece of lacrosse equipment available. The days of wild offsets and funky sidewalls are long past. The 2010 head rule changes all but ensured this outcome. We are entering an era that will be defined much more by the inclusion of innovative materials and construction than design. Which…is both good and bad.

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, the best material to design construction when it comes to lacrosse heads is the original Brine Edge. People think that head changed the industry because of the offset - and it did. But what it also did was set a standard for durability that has never EVER been matched by modern head construction.

So, a product released in 1995 is the best? No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that it is, so far, the best fusion of design and durability. The Edge wasn’t made to break; it was made the break the game. And it did. People hated it at first. The little teeth, the squared-off scoop, the weird hole in the middle of the indented bottom rail - it was poo-pooed like a gimmick.

Then everyone used it.

We aren’t going to get that again. The design and technology goals aren’t the same as they were in the 90s. They’re not the same as they were in the aughts, either. Lacrosse heads aren’t made to last forever. The issue isn’t breakage, it’s more warping and structural integrity that define the most common struggle of usage. But that is where the improvement can be made almost immediately.

Manufacturers: I’ve seen all of your heads. I speak your design language. I have been lucky enough to test a good amount of them. Through my own personal use or the use of players that I coach, I see what you’re doing with your marketing. Brilliant, by the way. Love the hustle.

But sequelization and social media plaudits have made you soft. Everyone is scared to tell you what they really think of your product because if they say one negative thing they get booted from the seed list. Which is funny because you’re only giving the heads to people that barely play the game anyway. String. Post. Sell. Repeat. The content wheel you created in lieu of paying for ad space is broken; hoisted by its own petard.

Making the same head with minor design tweaks that are spiritually akin to reversing the play you just ran on Madden to the opposite side is going to get found out - if it hasn’t already.

Okay, so you don’t want to take a risk by making a new head without a lineage to help sell it. I get that. What you could do instead is take your best-selling head and make it with proven materials that cost more. A few companies have done this - STX and ECD spring to mind - with varying degrees of success.

Look - I love gear. I always will. I get a rush out of dialing in a new head, or throwing on a new pair of pads. But upscaling pricing for lacrosse gear is out of control and the product is not better. Something has to change.

Which one of you is going to do it?