For this episode of Lax County Choppers the guys at Stylin Strings trick out their first pro sponsored stick. Jake Byrne won 2 national championships at Hopkins and now plays on the LXM Pro tour. Jake contacted SS with an idea of an Irish theme with an inside out type dye.
The entire outside of the stick would be white, and only the inside dyed on his Warrior Evo 2.0. With this in mind Dustin went to work on another creative approach that would include a 6 color dye composed of different shades of green. He prepped stickers of all different sized shamrocks from off of the SS Irish trucker hat.
The first task was to tape the edge of the head so that the rest of the outside could be totally covered
with massive amounts of glue to ensure no areas could leak green. The first layer of stickers was applied after Dustin gave the stick to Johnny R. to dye the lightest green. Over 275 shamrocks were strategically placed all over the head in between multiple stages of custom green mixtures with the darkest green being the last.
A very extensive and time consuming glue peel revealed a centralized shamrock on the top center stroked with two outside colors and given some space between the blanketed print that gave Mr. Byrne’s stick more luck than his Simpson’s counterpart.
The Pocket: Jake read thru the list of SS pockets and decided on a Trax, which is like the Mesh-x but a traditional middle. He liked the natural high pocket. It was strung all white to keep it clean and less noticeable except for some green sidewalls so it blended into the dye job.
Jake Byrne Bio-
High School
Landon School
-All time leading goal scorer. 2nd in total points.
-All-Metro Attackman
-All American Attackman.
-National Champions ’01,’02
College
Johns Hopkins
-National Champions ’05,’07
-2 x All American ’05,’07
-2 x Captain ’06.’07
-All Tournament ‘07
Professional
-San Francisco Dragons Attackman ’07,’08
-Western All Star ‘08
-Washington Bayhawks ‘09
-LXM Pro ’10,’11
St. Pauls
-Offensive Coordinator ‘10
-MIAA Champs ’10 season
Stylin Strings Trax Testimonial from Jake Byrne:
When we're talking pockets were talking about the overall success of your game. If you don’t have the $150.00 gloves who cares? The most important part of your equipment is your pocket. You could have the “worst” head in the game but if its strung up the right way everything is perfect.
The Trax pocket by Styling Strings has given me the best feel for the ball because the leathers give and move with the ball. After a short break in period, the ball now rests in its “Hammock”-(4 Diamonds just below the bottom shooter).
The accuracy of the Trax Pocket is undeniable due to the channel created by the two middle leathers. The Trax Pocket by Stylin Strings has allowed me to play with even more hold without increasing the sticks whip. Since it is a (traditional) pocket, the ball has more feel and will release even if I have cranked up the hold in the pocket.
The ball releases much quicker out of a Trax pocket then your run of the mill Mesh pocket. Mesh grabs the ball and becomes “sticky”…with a standard stringing this is never an issue since the leathers give with the ball and allow the ball to quickly exit the head.
Stay tuned for more from the guys at stylinstrings.com and their Facebook Page.