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Reebok 6K Lacrosse Head Strung with Traditional vegetable leathers
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Traditional Thursday: Vegetable Leathers

Two weeks ago I wrote The Truth About Lacrosse Leathers, and while I talked about “vegetable leathers:, I did not go into nearly enough detail about them. But fear not, Brian Kimmel, the man behind MinLax Leathers, is here to set the record straight. Direct from my email to your eyes. It’s info sharing in the modern age.

First, Brian shared a note with me, which you should see:

Aluminum tanned leather isn’t technically tanned, it’s just a chemical process without any tanning agents. The aluminum salts used will wash out when wet and the leather will revert to its natural state.

That would be terrible for a lacrosse pocket! So it’s good to note that if you’re using alum tanned leathers, you will want them to be waxed or you will have to treat them yourself. I used baby oil on raw or “natural” alum tan leathers.

Here is what he sent me on vegetable tanned leathers:

The Truth About Vegetable Leathers

by Brian Kimmel

The first thing most kids exclaim when they see one of my pockets is “Why are your leathers so funny looking?” Well, they’re funny only in that they haven’t been seen before. Kinda like the first kid who showed up on a practice field with a mesh pocket not too long ago.

truth_about_leathers

Our game has been dynamically changing both on and off of the field recently and it’s interesting to watch the adaptations as they unfold. In recent years, a lot of attention is being given to the various waxed and treated meshes as well as the fibers they are made from and this has lead to some interesting improvements as well as some ideas that just didn’t quite pan out.

One aspect that has remained relatively unchanged is the traditional pocket. With all the attention kids are paying(not to mention money) on the type of mesh they use to make them the best possible lax player(try more practice instead) I’m surprised at just how little attention is paid to the leathers and the complete lack of development with them in general.

Most kids that dislike a traditional pocket are using a poorly strung traditional pocket. This can be the result of a lackluster stringing job or more likely, the quality of the leather. Have any of you ever given any thought to your leathers either when stringing or when receiving a strung traditional pocket? Since forever(modern day lax anyway), lacrosse leathers have been 1/4″ wide and 8oz in thickness.

Leather thickness is measured in ounces and 1oz of leather is about 1/64th of an inch thick or about 0.4mm thick. Doing the math, an 8oz leather is about 1/8th of an inch thick or about 3.18mm thick. Recently, some retailers have started selling a thinner, 7oz leather instead of the 8oz standard. These thinner leathers will bunch up, stretch unevenly and perform even worse in the rain. These thinner leathers are also the main reason you might dislike your traditional pocket. Most sporting goods stores carry the 7oz leathers because they are primarily used for restitching the webbing on a baseball glove. Most stores do more baseball business than lacrosse business so they just order what they will sell more with most of them not knowing there is a difference. Some stores know the difference and sell it because the thinner leather is slightly cheaper and they assume that the customer(YOU) won’t know the difference. Let me be the first and hopefully the last to tell you there is a huge difference.

Being dissatisfied with the quality of leathers available I spent a lot of time looking for a better option. I found nothing. Most places couldn’t even tell me what kind of leather they sold, let alone why it was better than a competitor’s leather strips. Armed with absolutely zero new knowledge from my research, I decided to make my own leather strips. What began as a way to reduce my own cost and guarantee consistent quality for the heads that I was stringing has now grown into the only source for wider, thicker and custom cut leather strips for lacrosse, not to mention the good old fashion CONSISTENT 8oz 1/4″ wide leathers. Wider and thicker lacrosse leathers have many advantages that cannot be replicated by the standard leather strip. Combining different widths can also create a more pronounced pocket and release point. Increasing the thickness of the leather results in a more durable pocket for any weather.

I like using a 9oz leather(slightly thicker but a little goes a long way) and using a combination of widths. The three most common widths I cut are 1/4″, 3/8″ and 1/2″. Anything over 1/2″ can be a bit of an overkill unless you’re going with a three leather setup instead of four. In that case, a wide leather for the center track and two less wide leathers for the outside will result in a great channel for your release and a nice snug hold on the ball while cradling and dodging. For a narrow head, I like to use the wide leathers(3/8″ or 1/2″ wide) for my inner two leathers and a step smaller in width(1/4″ or 3/8″ wide) for my outer two leathers. On a narrow head, this provides greater grip in the pocket and a very accurate release point. On a wider head, I do the opposite.

I like to put the two wide leathers on the outside and the more narrow two leathers on the inside. On a wider head, this significantly improves grip on the ball by making the retention area more narrow. This also creates a pronounced channel for improved accuracy on release. I also use both sides of the leather in my pockets, the Grain(smooth, finished side of the leather) and the Flesh(rough, underside of the leather) to enhance grip and release at the same time.

minlax_vegetable leathers

(One of Brian’s recent string jobs. Yes, those are camo leathers.)

If you were looking at your stick and the pocket was facing you, I use the Flesh side of the leather for my outer two leather and the Grain side of the leather for my middle two leathers. The Flesh side of the leathers provides more grip than the Grain side so I want those as my outer leathers to grip the sides of the ball when cradling and dodging. Grip is awesome but not when you want to release the ball. I use the Grain side of the leathers in the middle because at the release point, the ball isn’t touching the outer leathers(no more benefit from their enhanced grip) and I want as smooth as a release as possible. The Grain side is best equipped for the last bit of contact you have with the ball. To further enhance grip, I don’t pull my outer leathers as tight as most people do and this results in more of the rough, Flesh side of the leather contacting the ball when I need
it most.

Contact equals grip.

I like the 9oz and 10oz leathers more than the standard 8oz because of durability. I created(by created I mean I started cutting leather. I’m not doing anything funny with the cows) the thicker and wider lacrosse leather in Minnesota which has some of the worst lacrosse weather this side of the Arctic Circle. I needed something to hold up during monsoon/lacrosse season and on the preseason snow covered practice fields. Sometimes the fields were snow covered in season as well. Those of you in the Midwest will understand what a real rain storm can be like; the kind where your goalie can’t really see midfield, let alone see what his team might be doing with the ball or if a fast break was coming his way. It get’s a little wet around here and that’s where the thicker leathers stand out. The slight difference in thickness really adds a lot of strength and durability to your pocket, not to mention increased resistance to the elements. I oil all of my leathers to decrease water absorption and to increase their durability.

Ok, I love the sharing of opinion, time tested methodology and reasoning, and I appreciate Brian sending this over. Hopefully it has you thinking, and you can find the leather that works the best for your game.