6 ms·

A reality check: the retail price of a Nokona kid's glove is $170 to $280. Gloves by Rawlings, Wilson, et al go for $40 to $60, with the top of the line at $10

A reality check: the retail price of a Nokona kid's glove is $170 to $280. Gloves by Rawlings, Wilson, et al go for $40 to $60, with the top of the line at $100. [Source: Baseball Warehouse .com]

chasely 9y ago
Yep, I always wanted a Nokona glove when I played, but couldn't justify the cost. They were somewhat of a status symbol in my high school playing days.
mc32 9y ago
As mentioned on another part of the thread, baseball gloves can be somewhat like Japanese schoolchildren's randoseru. You buy it once and maintain it well. It lasts forever and it's part of your identity.
- nabla9 9y ago
  mc32 is correct. The extra price is not the product. They buy identity. It's sad but true. There is a fear that millennials become smarter than their parents and don't need to consume to build their identity.
  - LeifCarrotson 9y ago
    That's not at all how I read the parent comment. Buying into the product, and into the quality of that product, is how they can get a glove that will last long enough to become a part of their identity. A cheap glove that gets replaced every season does not result in the same identification. You have the causality reversed.
    - JohnBooty 9y ago
      I feel like I'm going mad as I read these comments. Kids outgrow their baseball gloves every few years. How in the world is one supposed to buy some kind of "lifetime" baseball glove for a kid? I absolutely and unsarcastically adore the concept of buying things for life. I really do. When I read this article, my first thought was: "I want one of those gloves." However, that concept seldom makes any sense when it comes to anything that a child wears. I'm pretty sure most of the people expressing the "buy your kid a quality baseball glove for life!" sentiment have no experience with (a) baseball (b) baseball gloves (c) children.
      - LeifCarrotson 9y ago
        I'm thinking of my high school glove, and the glove my dad used to play with me - his was from his high school days. I still have mine, and will play with my son (who is outgrowing his salvation army clothes as fast as we can buy them) when he's old enough. And when he's old enough, I'll teach him to take care of his glove, and when he's grown, I'll get him a good one.
- JohnBooty 9y ago
  That's utterly impractical for a baseball glove that a kid will outgrow in a handful of years. Kids' baseball gloves last as long as they need to: a few years. Because that's how long it will take for your kid to outgrow it. Investing megabucks into an heirloom-quality glove for an 8 year-old kid is insanity. Now, maybe a baseball glove could be a treasured thing you hand down from kid to kid in the family or the neighborhood. But hand-me-down baseball gloves are a little nasty. Your hand, which is invariably covered in lots of unsavory stuff (dirt, sweat, spit, sometimes sticky substances from the baseball bats) gets stuffed inside the glove for loooong periods of time, during which it sweats profusely. Being "gifted" with an "heirloom" baseball glove as a kid would have grossed me out. I would have enjoyed such a gift about as much as a hand-me-down jock strap. I also hate to say this (because I like the idea of buying American) but unless you're playing a hell of a lot of baseball, $50-$100 gloves made in China also last a loooooooooooooooooooooong time if you oil them once a year or so. Unless you're playing baseball full-time, you do not need to spend hundreds of bucks to get something that will last you decades. Making a baseball glove is not rocket science. It's leather. Made into a glove.
  - Prefinem 9y ago
    I had one my father passed to me. It was 20+ years old and worked fine. (Needed a few leather threads) I used it when I was 10 and before that, I had a cheap glove. It wasn't gross. It was broken in, comfortable and much easier to use than a new glove. Also, a cheap glove doesn't last as long as you think.
    - JohnBooty 9y ago
      Yeah those leather ties also go before anything else, haha. My experience is that if oiled (I like mink oil, though some say it's too heavy) any reasonable grade of leather glove, stored indoors, will last at least a decade of occasional use. My Ken Griffey Jr. glove (Wilson? Rawlings? I forget) has lived such a life. I think I bought for around $40 in 2001; I remember it being roughly one tier up from the cheapest glove you could buy. I've admittedly not played a ton of ball with it, but the leather's in great shape, no cracking anywhere... this thing might outlive me unless I get off my butt and join an old man's league every summer. Recently threw out some gloves I owned as a kid in the 80s. The leather was dry but not cracked; I was tempted to oil them just to see if they could be brought back to life. What's your experience been? Not saying you do this, but I think a lot of people store their gloves in their garages or some other place where they bake in the summer and freeze in the winter. That'll kill a glove for sure and while ultra-high-quality leather will surely survive this kind of treatment longer than cheap leather, it's no way to treat a glove of any kind. I'm sure that inexpensive gloves that see plenty of honest use (2, 3, 4+ practices or games a week) don't live forever either.
brew-hacker 9y ago
As a newly ex-collegiate player, professional quality gloves are all priced typically the same -- doesn't matter if it Wilson, Rawlings, Nokona, etc. You will still pay out $300-$400+ depending on what you want. As for kids gloves I used the same gloves from when I was 10 until I graduated high school. If you take care of your gloves most quality leather will withstand yearly wear and tear. Moral of the story: take care of you stuff. Doesn't matter if you pay $170 to $280. Invest in quality.
- vacri 9y ago
  You don't see a difference between $40 and $170 for a family that lives paycheck-to-paycheck?
  - p4lindromica 9y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Vimes#Boots_theory_of_socio-economic_unfairness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Vimes#Boots_theory_of_soci...

A reality check: the retail price of a Nokona kid's glove is $170 to $280. Gloves by Rawlings, Wilson, et al go for $40 to $60, with the top of the line at $100. [Source: Baseball Warehouse .com]

chasely 9y ago

Yep, I always wanted a Nokona glove when I played, but couldn't justify the cost. They were somewhat of a status symbol in my high school playing days.

mc32 9y ago

As mentioned on another part of the thread, baseball gloves can be somewhat like Japanese schoolchildren's randoseru. You buy it once and maintain it well. It lasts forever and it's part of your identity.

nabla9 9y ago
mc32 is correct. The extra price is not the product. They buy identity. It's sad but true. There is a fear that millennials become smarter than their parents and don't need to consume to build their identity.
- LeifCarrotson 9y ago
  That's not at all how I read the parent comment. Buying into the product, and into the quality of that product, is how they can get a glove that will last long enough to become a part of their identity. A cheap glove that gets replaced every season does not result in the same identification. You have the causality reversed.
  - JohnBooty 9y ago
    I feel like I'm going mad as I read these comments. Kids outgrow their baseball gloves every few years. How in the world is one supposed to buy some kind of "lifetime" baseball glove for a kid? I absolutely and unsarcastically adore the concept of buying things for life. I really do. When I read this article, my first thought was: "I want one of those gloves." However, that concept seldom makes any sense when it comes to anything that a child wears. I'm pretty sure most of the people expressing the "buy your kid a quality baseball glove for life!" sentiment have no experience with (a) baseball (b) baseball gloves (c) children.
    - LeifCarrotson 9y ago
      I'm thinking of my high school glove, and the glove my dad used to play with me - his was from his high school days. I still have mine, and will play with my son (who is outgrowing his salvation army clothes as fast as we can buy them) when he's old enough. And when he's old enough, I'll teach him to take care of his glove, and when he's grown, I'll get him a good one.
JohnBooty 9y ago
That's utterly impractical for a baseball glove that a kid will outgrow in a handful of years. Kids' baseball gloves last as long as they need to: a few years. Because that's how long it will take for your kid to outgrow it. Investing megabucks into an heirloom-quality glove for an 8 year-old kid is insanity. Now, maybe a baseball glove could be a treasured thing you hand down from kid to kid in the family or the neighborhood. But hand-me-down baseball gloves are a little nasty. Your hand, which is invariably covered in lots of unsavory stuff (dirt, sweat, spit, sometimes sticky substances from the baseball bats) gets stuffed inside the glove for loooong periods of time, during which it sweats profusely. Being "gifted" with an "heirloom" baseball glove as a kid would have grossed me out. I would have enjoyed such a gift about as much as a hand-me-down jock strap. I also hate to say this (because I like the idea of buying American) but unless you're playing a hell of a lot of baseball, $50-$100 gloves made in China also last a loooooooooooooooooooooong time if you oil them once a year or so. Unless you're playing baseball full-time, you do not need to spend hundreds of bucks to get something that will last you decades. Making a baseball glove is not rocket science. It's leather. Made into a glove.
- Prefinem 9y ago
  I had one my father passed to me. It was 20+ years old and worked fine. (Needed a few leather threads) I used it when I was 10 and before that, I had a cheap glove. It wasn't gross. It was broken in, comfortable and much easier to use than a new glove. Also, a cheap glove doesn't last as long as you think.
  - JohnBooty 9y ago
    Yeah those leather ties also go before anything else, haha. My experience is that if oiled (I like mink oil, though some say it's too heavy) any reasonable grade of leather glove, stored indoors, will last at least a decade of occasional use. My Ken Griffey Jr. glove (Wilson? Rawlings? I forget) has lived such a life. I think I bought for around $40 in 2001; I remember it being roughly one tier up from the cheapest glove you could buy. I've admittedly not played a ton of ball with it, but the leather's in great shape, no cracking anywhere... this thing might outlive me unless I get off my butt and join an old man's league every summer. Recently threw out some gloves I owned as a kid in the 80s. The leather was dry but not cracked; I was tempted to oil them just to see if they could be brought back to life. What's your experience been? Not saying you do this, but I think a lot of people store their gloves in their garages or some other place where they bake in the summer and freeze in the winter. That'll kill a glove for sure and while ultra-high-quality leather will surely survive this kind of treatment longer than cheap leather, it's no way to treat a glove of any kind. I'm sure that inexpensive gloves that see plenty of honest use (2, 3, 4+ practices or games a week) don't live forever either.

brew-hacker 9y ago

As a newly ex-collegiate player, professional quality gloves are all priced typically the same -- doesn't matter if it Wilson, Rawlings, Nokona, etc. You will still pay out $300-$400+ depending on what you want. As for kids gloves I used the same gloves from when I was 10 until I graduated high school. If you take care of your gloves most quality leather will withstand yearly wear and tear. Moral of the story: take care of you stuff. Doesn't matter if you pay $170 to $280. Invest in quality.

vacri 9y ago
You don't see a difference between $40 and $170 for a family that lives paycheck-to-paycheck?
- p4lindromica 9y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Vimes#Boots_theory_of_socio-economic_unfairness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Vimes#Boots_theory_of_soci...