When it comes to sticks, there’s a lot more than meets the eye.
So there’s no one better to develop them than lacrosse players themselves.
Enter Riggers transition player Zach Currier and forward Wesley Berg, who have been working with Warrior Lacrosse to develop the Warp – a stick which includes a head that doesn’t have to be strung.
Currier has taken on a full-time role as Product Development Engineer with Warrior, and is currently focused on developing the pocket of the sticks through testing different materials and knit techniques to find what’s best suited for different situations.
“It’s amazing, I get to work a lot with Wes, him and I develop the stick together,” Currier explained.
“Most of my job is developing pockets for pro players, and incorporating their feedback into our retail products.
“Being able to work with pro players like Wes, Curtis Dickson, Tyler Pace, and everybody out there that’s testing out the Warps is awesome, I’m having a lot of fun with it.”
The work doesn’t come without its challenges, though. Plenty of lacrosse players have specific preferences on how their twig is strung, and creating models that meet those needs across the board means a lot of trial and error.
“Every day there’s a new problem we’re trying to solve,” Currier said. “It took me a while to figure out what happens when you tighten up certain areas in the Warp compared to stringing, and trying to figure out what impacts different areas of the stick.
“Now it’s just trying to find out what components can mimic the stringing components of a stick the best.”
But the process is definitely worth it, as a string-less stick comes with a range of benefits – the biggest being consistency.
“If I break a stick I know I’ve got a new one that’s the exact same,” Currier said. “I don’t have to worry about stringing up another one and it being a little different, I know I have the same product every time.”
Most recently, Warrior, Currier, Berg and the numerous pro athletes working with the company have been kept busy launching the new Burn Warp Pro.
And there’s plenty more developments on the way, too.
“That was the past couple of months of work for us,” Currier explained. “We’re still continuing to develop that pocket, along with a bunch of others throughout our line… We have another one coming out for the next generation Evo as well, so we definitely have a ton of things we’re working on.”
