Catchers Gloves

A catchers glove, like most other baseball gloves, are normally made from leather. One manufacturer, Nocona, makes a glove highly desirable by baseball catchers. They are known for rich, soft gloves that seem like they are already broken in when you take them off the shelf. That’s because they use a combination Kangaroo hide along with the traditional cow hide. On all gloves, you will find some reinforced areas made from steel rivets, brass closures and maybe some nylon thread, but the rest of a catchers glove is leather and that is assuming that you purchase a quality glove.

Leather comes from cow hides and these need to be tanned before it can be of use in a catchers mitt. This tanning is a chemical process giving leather its ability to flex and bend without breaking or flaking. Manufacturers have for years tested other fabrics, some synthetic, but nothing can beat leather for a quality catcher’s mitt.

After tanning, the pieces of processed leather are die cut into the necessary sized shapes. This is similar to a stamping process where all the pieces are cut out the same. Usually four gloves per hide are what you get when making baseball gloves.

After cutting, the lettering is either etched or burned into the leather before the sewing process starts. This ensures branding and is how autographing from your favorite players is done. You didn’t think these guys sign every glove with a pen did you?

During the actual building of a catchers glove, the leather is sweated, or whetted to promote flexibility and to assure an even pattern. The worker takes a mold, looking much like a human hand and places the glove on the mold. Finger slots stay open and the shape of the final product begins.

When looking for quality notice the padding in the heel of the glove. Is it flexible right off the shelf? If so, it probably has two sets of pads inserted instead of one. This hinging ability makes it easier to break in.

Padding in a glove is not synthetic and comes in layers. At least it does in quality gloves. High end gloves use leather in the palm area which is also stitched together. A catchers mitt has 5 layers of padding, where as others have two layers.

The final steps of the building process include adding nylon or metal eyelets, reinforcements and then finally, the pieces are sewn together. All catchers gloves are hand sewn after sitting on the shaped simulated hand, assuring everything fits and the pockets are opening properly.

Isn’t it an interesting process? If you study baseball mitts even further you will run into quirky antidotes and insights about some of baseball’s legends.

Bob Clevenhagen, the master designer at Rawlings gives us a look into professional baseball players and their glove of choice. Through him we learn that most players are using a glove design they’ve had for years. In some cases since high school or college. By the time they arrive in the big leagues, they know what is working for them. Many of the same gloves you are using every day are the same gloves used by the pro’s. Except for the autograph that is.

Except for minor changes, baseball glove builders aren’t too quick to reinvent what already works. Some enhancements will see some of the new catchers mitts, which now have a fluorescent rim, giving the pitcher an even better target. You will also see padding disbursements in the catchers palm, making the glove easier to use. The basic shape though is not going to change in the near future.