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Wilson’s Wheelhouse Special Report: 2011 Nike Lacrosse

There has been some recent buzz on LeBookface, the Twittlez and on the streets regarding Nike’s entrance into the lacrosse world.  When they released their first college level head, the Nike Legacy, people started to really take notice.  After receiving one of the heads in the mail as a gift, I went a step further and became a tentative believer.

Nike also released gloves last year and players from UNC, Johns Hopkins and Syracuse could all be seen rocking these bad boys.  The gloves seemed to function well enough (although I still haven’t tried them so I really can’t vouch for the quality) and the looked good.  But more importantly, they looked NIKE.  Nike, the brand, has a certain look and appeal to their design and this has definitely transferred over to their lacrosse line of products so far.

The newest products from Nike are no different in that they take classic concepts, clean them up a little and then make them pop.  The Lakota head looks like a Warrior product in that it has very little excess plastic and has a lot of holes for stringing.  However, with the Nike heads so far, you don’t see “teeth” to grip the ball or recessed sidewall holes that offer no benefit.  A lot of lacrosse companies try to employ the gimmick approach and it’s nice to see Nike bucking that trend.

It also leads me to believe that 10 years down the road people will look back at some of the current products and tech advances and laugh.  They’ll look back and laugh like I do anytime I think about something like the Brine Edge-X with the blue rubber fingers.  Or any number of cheesy gimmicks that manufacturers thought would sell. Nike has stayed away from this 100%.  The gloves are gloves and they look good.  The customization options should be pretty solid as well.

Nike has added their dry-fit tech to the inside of the glove, which isn’t a gimmick because they put it in lots of stuff and it actually works.  And in their head and their new glove, they came up with a sleek, modern design that pays homage to classic approaches.

If you played for the Woozles, you could even dye that spoon pink!

I haven’t tried any of this stuff out so I really can’t say if the product is any good or not but when I get my hands on some I’ll actually be able to let you know whether it’s worth buying.  For now though, you know it looks good and that’s like, what, 10% of the battle?

Peep the LAS Vapor Elites we just photoshopped:

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About the Author: Connor is a life-long lacrosse player who doesn’t know when to give up on the game. He played and coached at Wesleyan University and now plays for the Southampton LC in NYC. Connor lives with his fiance in Brooklyn and thanks her for allowing him to keep the dream alive.

Contact him at connor@lacrosseallstars.com.