Advanced flat knitting technology is now poised to revolutionize the sport of lacrosse. Lacrosse is a contact team sport played between two teams using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick sometimes called a ‘crosse’. The head of the lacrosse stick is normally strung with loose mesh designed to catch and hold the lacrosse ball and it is this mesh which is being replaced with the engineered flat knit.

Sportswear and sports equipment giant New Balance has launched The Warp, a lacrosse stick incorporating an engineered flat net knitted on a Stoll CMS flat knitting machine, which is designed to catch and hold the lacrosse ball.

Each knitted pocket consists of 2,536 knitted rows, takes 1,604 machine carriage strokes with 513 stitch transfers, and is knitted in one piece with every single stitch engineered to specification. So there is no need to adjust strings before the game, between whistles, or on the sidelines. In fact, there are no more strings.

The pocket comes game ready. Unlike mesh that comes flat and hasn’t been created specifically for the head, the warp’s pocket shape is engineered with a three-dimensional knitting process, molded directly into the head. This means the pocket works in perfect unison with the entire head.