Gifts for lacrosse players: start with what does not need fitting.

Before you buy: what is better left to the player

Several kinds of kit are hard to buy as a surprise, for reasons the rule books and standards themselves give:

• Helmets. Which helmet is acceptable depends on the game and the body: the NFHS boys' rules require the NOCSAE standard with a visible warning label (2024, Rule 1-9-1), World Lacrosse's box book requires NOCSAE or CSA approval (2026-2028, v2.0, Rule 2.5), and Lacrosse Canada allows three set-ups. Under NOCSAE ND041 a helmet not meant to be recertified has a certification life of no more than 5 years from the date of manufacture, which the label shows, and fit is for the player and a coach. See the helmet guide.
• Sticks. Men's, women's and box sticks are built to different limits, and a stick is legal or not under the code being played. In US girls' high school play from 2027, the NFHS requires every crosse to be commercially available and listed on the USA Lacrosse website (Rule 2-2-5b). Length is a coach's question. See the stick guide.
• Eyewear and headgear. ASTM's standards for women's lacrosse eyewear and headgear are F3077 and F3137, which standard a body accepts is set by its own rule, and whether headgear may be worn depends on the body and the date: optional under USA Lacrosse rules (any headgear worn to meet F3137 from 2017; still optional in September 2021, per USA Lacrosse Magazine), not allowed for field players in World Lacrosse's 2025-2026 women's field book. See the women's kit guide.
• Chest protection and shoulder pads. USA Lacrosse says that in US play boys' and men's field players and all goalkeepers need ND200 certification, and that compliant products carry the NOCSAE lacrosse logo and the SEI mark. NOCSAE says ND200 is pass or fail with no ranking, so no certified product is presented as protecting more than another.
• Mouthguards. World Lacrosse's men's field book allows a commercial mouldable product or a custom one made by a dental professional (Rule 17.1); the women's book requires a professionally manufactured one (Rule 6.A.5). Either way it has to fit the player's mouth.

Nothing in this guide says a product is certified, safe or legal; the standard and the body's rule decide, and certification marks are checked by the officials and the governing body.

Gifts that need no fitting

Balls, bags, goals, rebounders and books do not have to fit the player. Balls are the only one of these with a NOCSAE standard: NOCSAE's ND049 covers new lacrosse balls, and after finding balls sold with NOCSAE or SEI marks that did not meet it, NOCSAE advised in June 2019 checking the maker and model against SEI's certified-product list rather than trusting the marks. Colours are changing in US play: the NCAA men's game recommends fluorescent green or yellow balls for 2026-27 and requires them for 2027-28, and the NFHS boys' game requires them from 1 January 2029. The practice gear guide has the detail.

A recall worth knowing about

Second-hand protective kit can carry a past recall or decertification. On 22 March 2012, for example, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall of one maker's lacrosse helmets because the chin bar could break. The notices found by this site's research are on recalls and decertification, which also says that finding none after 2014 is not proof there were none.

For readers

For anyone interested in the game's past, this site's history pages attribute every account to its source, and the Indigenous origins page is written from the nations' own bodies and museums: see Indigenous origins, the Haudenosaunee Nationals and the women's game. Any book's account is its author's, and accounts of the game's origins differ.

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