It’s a known fact: basketball and sneakers go hand in hand–or rather foot in foot.
Long before you even see the court, you can hear the crispy sounds of spit-slathered Nikes tearing up the hardwood. To ballers and sneakerheads alike, basketball shoes are more than sports equipment. They’re fashion statements, wearable art. They send a message. Aside from pure ability, they’re one of the only ways a player can differentiate themselves.
The symbiotic relationship between basketball and sneakers has resulted in generation after generation of sneakerheads, each bringing with them new tastes, materials, colors, and technology. If we look carefully, this contrasting interaction between fashion and athletics has not limited itself to basketball.
In football, the same trend has proliferated in terms of uniform.
Take a look at this progression:
In track and running, sneaker culture is burgeoning in a similar fashion as basketball shoes.
But of course, baseball, a sport that is already struggling to gain popularity, decides to center its sports-fashion fusion culture around the humble leather glove.
Though a vital component of the game, the baseball glove provides little practical or stylistic function beyond the diamond. Like could you imagine:
Yet among players, the glove represents a metaphysical extension of their body, a sense of true connection to the game. In this blog, I will attempt to analyze baseball glove culture: what made me and many others so obsessed with them, the finest specimens, the latest styles and trends, and the unwritten rules surrounding this sports-fashion subculture.
My first baseball glove was a kid-sized mitt my mom bought me for tee-ball. It has since been lost to the depths of my basement, but that tiny, faux-leather excuse for a glove started my twelve year long baseball journey and incited a lifelong obsession for the sport.
My current glove is one that I’ve had for years. It’s kind of floppy, and I need to get a new one soon, but I’ve used it every season of high school baseball and I’ll admit, I’m a little attached to it. This brings us to my current situation: trying to find a replacement ball-glove.
Like any well-informed consumer, I did my research, and unknowingly became immersed within a dynamic, ceaselessly evolving side of the sport.
Shopping for gloves is addicting–there’s endless styles, colors, and patterns to choose from. Typically, baseball glove culture revolves around infield gloves, which are generally smaller and lighter than other mitts. Since the infield is also where the most eye catching plays happen, these gloves tend to be the most visually appealing as well.
Before we slide in to the details, there’s a few rules you should know about handling ball gloves.
Rule Number 1:
Never put your hand inside another person’s glove without permission.
This is probably our community’s biggest taboo. Though some ballplayers are comfortable letting others evade their gloves with sweaty, grimy, misshapen hands, most enthusiasts will have a ball (pun intended) if you do this. That’s because a broken-in glove has been custom formed to an individual player’s hand. Any foreign invasion will only disrupt the idiosyncrasies that make one’s glove a unique extension of their body.
Rule Number 2:
Don’t do to your glove what you wouldn’t do to your jewelry.
This includes: steaming it, microwaving it, baking it, freezing it, running it over with your car, sticking it under your mattress, or rubbing shaving cream on it.
Instead, consider more acceptable methods of glove care and break-in. For instance: playing catch, using a mallet, or applying glove conditioner made from Red Sea mud extracted from the very path Jesus himself parted and ambulated across (petroleum jelly would work as well).
Rule Number 3:
If your glove is white, gold, or bright red, then you better be the best damn player on the field.
A flashy glove means you make flashy plays, so if your glove is the first thing people’s eyes are drawn to, each error you make in the field will translate to a 50% increase in the opposing team’s confidence.
With some housekeeping out of the way, here’s the good stuff: the top of the line models from the biggest brands in baseball such as Rawlings and Wilson. These gloves are made from unicorn leather sandwiched between the tanned hide of a championship bull-riding bull. The webbing and shape of these gloves are designed with inspiration from vegetation in tropical regions that funnel rainwater towards their roots. The gloves thus enable players to efficiently funnel the ball from the ground and into their throwing hand in one swift motion.
The Air Jordans of the glove world are the Rawlings Heart of the Hide Series and the Wilson a2000 Series infield gloves. These gloves are what the pros, the best high school players, and the most spoiled Little Leaguers use. They take a while to break in, but once they’re game ready, they can last season after season of abuse. Most notably, Troy Tulowitski, a former shortstop for the Rockies, allegedly used the same glove for ten MLB seasons. In fact, he was wearing it when it broke during the middle of a game.
Lately, baseball glove trends have shifted towards customization. Companies such as 44ProGloves offer complete customization–down to the color of the thread that stitches each glove together. They have captured a significant portion of the US glove market by offering affordable gloves that gives players a sense of identity.
However, it also means that sometimes, people make gloves that look like this:
Another modern glove trend has been spurred on by the globalization of baseball. Now, many American baseball players are adopting gloves designed after models made popular by Japanese or Dominican baseball players. For instance, Wilson’s new line of 2020 gloves includes an infield glove with a web and palm pattern reminiscent of the finest Japanese mitts.
Personally, I think Japanese gloves look a little questionable, but it’s whatever floats your boat.
Perhaps my favorite trend is in glove technology. Synthetic materials including mesh, engineered leathers, and even carbon fiber have made their way into many newer models and have transformed the way gloves look and feel.
Take a look at Nike’s Vapor baseball glove. It’s made out of Nike’s Hyperfuse synthetic leather and laced together with their Flywire. This allows the Vapor to be around 20% lighter than a traditional leather glove.
Unfortunately, the Vapor was not very successful on the market due to durability concerns, but the idea of synthetic materials has persisted. Rawlings currently offers what they call a Hypershell option on many new gloves. It’s a carbon fiber layer that increases the strength and reduces the weight of the glove as a whole.
Finally, there’s this monstrosity: a $14,100 baseball glove made by Hermes.
It looks like a horrible baseball glove in every way. The leather looks better reserved for a luxury car interior than a dusty baseball field. It’s more of a leather sculpture than a baseball glove. Mitts are functional tools, so at the end of the day, how it plays matters far more than how much it costs.
Here’s some of the most expensive mitts on the market today that people actually use:
So what’s the verdict? Why should you care about baseball gloves?
Though they definitely aren’t a fashion accessory, gloves make up a lesser known subculture of baseball and sports in general that only people who play the sport will understand. Baseball glove culture serves as a testament to the power of sports to transform, unite, and fascinate. It’s a way for players to express themselves and develop their game. So the next time you’re watching a baseball game, try to suppress your urge to get up and leave for something more exciting, and instead, maybe consider the nuances that continue to make this sport our national past-time.