Jack White has become a partner in Warstic – an independent sporting goods company that makes wood and metal baseball and softball bats.

He joins founder and former minor league baseball player Ben Jenkins, as well as Detroit Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler.

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“I discovered the Warstic company through my love of design,” he said in a statement. “I was drawn to what Ben Jenkins was doing at Warstic by the simplicity and harshness of the designs. Most baseball bats and equipment in the sports world do not impress me much, but I think that there is a lot of room to explore aesthetic ideas in just baseball alone that can bring beauty and purpose to the weapons that athletes use to accomplish their goals. This can be accomplished not only through form following function, but also to bring in outsider ideas into the zone of athletics steeped in history and sometimes bogged down by its own weight.

“Warstic is incredibly inspiring to me in this fashion, and I think we can make beautiful objects for not only professionals, but also young children just beginning to understand how important the tools of the trade are to their passion for competition.”

Last year, White got his own baseball card commemorating his 2014 first pitch at a Tigers game.

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Meanwhile, White has announced details of a live acoustic album and DVD taken from his first acoustic tour.

It being released as part of the Vault package series, released by his label, Third Man Records.

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.