Hero Mesh
Hero Mesh is East Coast Dyes' signature performance mesh line. I tested several pieces of the semi-soft Hero Mesh over the past few months in a few different sticks with a few different pockets. A few of my friends tried it out as well in sticks that I strung up for them. Stringing up the Hero Mesh was a breeze in every stick I strung it in. It quickly breaks in (less than 10 minutes of wall ball) and performs quite well.
Starting with the look, Hero Mesh is one of the nicest looking meshes on the market and is available in a slew of different colors as well as striker patterns. I really like the striker patterns as they give a splash of color to your stick without going overboard with a full colored piece of mesh. The full color pieces also look great, with bright, vibrant colors. All the color options really allow you to customize the look of your stick. There are also a few limited edition color ways including a USA striker and Joe Walter's black with white striker color way (which looks sick!).
The performance of Hero Mesh is also quite good. The semi-soft variant is nice and soft giving you a ton of feel on the ball in your pocket. The mesh is quite lightweight and has a nice texture to it that gives you even more hold and feel. The hold you get with Hero Mesh is one of my favorite things about it, as you get a really nice grip on the ball. It is also very responsive so the pocket moves with the ball in your stick, shifting a bit with the ball.
Hero Mesh is also quite consistent. Passes and shots always seemed to be pretty dialed in with the Hero Mesh. This combined with the hold gives you a ton of control while playing with the mesh. When catching, the Hero Mesh felt as though it stretched a tiny bit as the ball went into the stick, giving almost a spongy feeling. I really liked this property of the mesh as you could really feel the ball going into the pocket and staying in the stick.
Hero Mesh is also a great option for faceoffs. It is soft while still having a ton of grip on the ball. It also pops in and out easily on the pinch and pop.
For the most part, Hero Mesh performed decent in all weather conditions. I noticed it wasn't the best when completely soaked in rain as it bagged out a little bit but was still playable. I had no issues with it in light rain or other conditions and even when it bagged out it still stayed quite consistant.
Hero Mesh is very durable. A few of the sticks I strung with Hero Mesh have been being used for a while (more than a season of use) and none of the pockets have had any issues. None of the mesh teared and barely any adjustments had to be made.
Overall, I'd highly recommend Hero Mesh to anyone who likes a semi soft mesh.
Hero Strings
Hero Strings are ECD's performance strings that go along with the Hero Mesh line. I'm not the biggest believer in performance strings but there were a few things about Hero Strings that really impressed me.
Included in the Hero Strings kit are: five sidewall strings, three shooters and two shooting cords.
The sidewall strings are a bit thicker than standard sidewall and have a much more textured feel. They also feel a bit stiffer. Stringing with these sidewalls was a breeze. It felt easier to get the knots tighter and they seem to hold the knots consistently over time much better than standard sidewall. They also are more abrasion resistant than standard sidewall, keeping your pocket consistent longer.
The shooters are nice, very soft laces. They feel very similar to most other cotton shooters and feel nice when shooting and passing.
The shooting cords are my favorite part of the Hero Strings set. The cords are different than any others that I have tried in the past, as they are the size of a normal sidewall-type cord but have a soft cotton like shooter feel to them. I'm not a big fan of using shooter cords all that often but really loved these. Most other cords gave me too much of a snap when shooting and took away from the smooth release. When you put these in your stick they give you a smooth release with a tiny bit of extra snap. I make sure I have one of these in my gamer stacked on top of my top shooter.
I really liked the Hero Strings set and would recommend them to anyone looking for an upgrade over regular sidewall strings.