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Tips to Break In Your Glove
June 1, 2016 – Anthony Ramos
Bake It, Shake It, Run It Over?
While different experts have their own pet methods for breaking in new gloves, they ALL agree: Do not abuse the leather!
The “Do Not List” includes soaking gloves in motor oil, spraying, steaming, misting, baking in an oven, running over it with your car or sticking it in the microwave.
For whatever reason, players often believe breaking in gloves follows the old axiom “spare the rod, ruin the child.” Only, in this case, it’s “beat the glove until it's in shape.”
Of course, this is all done with love.
The joy of every ball player can be seen in the satisfaction of breaking in that brand new glove. All players have their own specific ways to break in their glove that they likely learned from a family member or teammate, and like with all things in life, there are the correct ways and the incorrect ways to accomplish a task.
“There are many suggested ways to break in a glove and it’s hard to know what is correct or not and most of them are not the proper way to break in a glove,” said Chip Sivak, Director of Sales and Marketing for Nokona, one of the premier glove manufactures in the United States.
Sivak recommends breaking in your glove as naturally as possible. Such techniques as oiling the glove, thoroughly working it in, and getting out there and playing with it. When done, placing a ball in the pocket of the glove and tying with shoe laces to help form a pocket while in rest is recommended. “Spraying, steaming, misting, soaking in water, letting sit in direct sunlight for hours, baking or cooking in a microwave are definitely part of the ‘DON’T category,” concluded Sivak.
Glove guru Shigeaki Aso, the master glove designer for Wilson Sporting Goods, the official glove of Major League Baseball, has broken in gloves for numerous MLB stars such as C.J. Wilson, Brandon Philips, David Wright, and Hanley Ramirez. A short YouTube video, Glove Guru Aso: How to Break In a Baseball Glove, demonstrates Aso’s techniques in the glove break-in process.
Aso’s process includes pouring a cup of hot water (between 150-160 degrees) on the glove to soften the leather, using a mallet to pound the glove in order to develop breaking points to help create a pocket, as well as stretching and squeezing the glove. There are a number of YouTube videos available online that show Aso breaking in gloves that can be very helpful in your glove break-in journey.
Fran Fleet, who runs a glove repair shop in Cotati CA, has seen it all when it comes to glove break-ins that have gone wrong. From gloves that have been soaked in motor oil, which makes the leather pliable, heavy and floppy, to gloves that have been covered with linseed oil, which causes the leather to become brittle and crack. “I’ve re-laced many gloves in my shop that have had bacon-crisp laces as a result of being oiled and put in the oven,” says Fleet on her website. “This is how food is cooked, not how to treat leather designed and manufactured to function as a tool.”
“Some players think that pummeling a new glove is the way to a quick break,” continued Fleet. “Yes, it is. It is basically the same as using the glove for many games, only much rougher. I believe the glove will be better served, and will serve better, if this extra abuse is avoided. If you just catch balls to form the glove, you are training the glove and getting your timing down at the same time. Better for you. Better for the glove.”
With all of the crazy schemes out there to break in a glove, nothing seems to beat a good old fashioned game of catch.