I remember years ago when we got Mackenzie's first catcher's mitt and began to break it in.... We had a lot of well meaning advice given to us. We were told to run over it with our car or truck a few times, bake it in the oven after applying a spray treatment or shaving cream, put it in a tub of water overnight, beat it with a bat, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few tips...
After a lot of trial and error as well as breaking in a few gloves, I have come up with some ideas on breaking in catcher's mitts. It's important to understand how gloves are made and what they are made of. Catcher's mitts in particular are unique in their construction. Besides the obvious outer leather shell, there are one or more thinner layers of leather (inner liner) inside the glove as well as either leather or other types of padding to cushion and reinforce the glove. There are also several layers of felt for the palm, thumb and pinkie finger padding as well as plastic reinforcements in the thumb and pinkie felts. (Below are pictures of the felts and a cross section illustrating the layers and reinforcing plastic...)
Glove manufacturer's all use their own specific adhesives when assembling the gloves as well. So with all this stuff inside your catcher's mitt, it's best to be particular on how you break in your mitt so that you don't damage it and get years of use out of it. It's not a good idea to plop it in the oven as laces are susceptible to drying out and weakening. While products can be applied to "renew" the laces to some degree, they cannot reach the portions of the lace inside the mitt. Baking the gloves or otherwise applying excessive heat can damage the adhesives, break down the felts and weaken the plastic reinforcements in the thumb and pinkie sections. Once these weaken or get brittle, they break easily and the glove is ruined as the glove will fold over when any pitch not in the pocket is caught. (Or attempted to be caught)
Below is the pinkie reinforcement out of one of the DD's old mitts. We wondered why so many pitches got past her. Video revealed she was catching them, but the glove gave way!
So please don't throw your glove in the oven, run over it or beat the side pads. Soaking it in water can also damage internal adhesives and shrink the felts causing them to pull away from key areas of the glove. So soaking in a tub of water is not recommended either.
Just what can we do to break in our catcher's mitts? My friend Casey has a term called "sweat equity"... That is, throw a ball into it and play catch. This method can be sped up with a mallet designed to break in gloves such as those offered by Vinci and Buyfastpitchgloves.com. If you need to really accelerate the break in process for an upcoming tournament, the glove can be steamed in a professional steamer for a very brief period. Please don't steam your mitts at home as it is easy to over do it and damage the glove. Trained experts at sporting good stores can safely steam your mitt. Once again, I don't suggest this unless you just must have the glove ready for use in a big fat hurry. Glove conditioners such as those offered by Vinci and Nokona are very helpful in the break in process. A light application followed by playing catch or otherwise pounding or throwing a ball in the pocket speeds up the process. I'm not a big fan of thinner glove oils as it's easy to overuse them and saturate the leather and felts. Overuse of oils will break down the adhesives and plastics in the glove and cause the glove to feel "heavy."
Quality glove leather will take longer to break in... It will also last longer and have a much louder "pop' as the pitch is received. We have witnessed first hand just how intimidating a loud popping pitch can be to batters as the pitch is received. While there are many many opinions on how to best break in a glove, these are the methods that we have found to work the best on catcher's mitts over the years. I hope to have a video out soon illustrating how we go through the break in process.
-Chaz
After a lot of trial and error as well as breaking in a few gloves, I have come up with some ideas on breaking in catcher's mitts. It's important to understand how gloves are made and what they are made of. Catcher's mitts in particular are unique in their construction. Besides the obvious outer leather shell, there are one or more thinner layers of leather (inner liner) inside the glove as well as either leather or other types of padding to cushion and reinforce the glove. There are also several layers of felt for the palm, thumb and pinkie finger padding as well as plastic reinforcements in the thumb and pinkie felts. (Below are pictures of the felts and a cross section illustrating the layers and reinforcing plastic...)
Glove manufacturer's all use their own specific adhesives when assembling the gloves as well. So with all this stuff inside your catcher's mitt, it's best to be particular on how you break in your mitt so that you don't damage it and get years of use out of it. It's not a good idea to plop it in the oven as laces are susceptible to drying out and weakening. While products can be applied to "renew" the laces to some degree, they cannot reach the portions of the lace inside the mitt. Baking the gloves or otherwise applying excessive heat can damage the adhesives, break down the felts and weaken the plastic reinforcements in the thumb and pinkie sections. Once these weaken or get brittle, they break easily and the glove is ruined as the glove will fold over when any pitch not in the pocket is caught. (Or attempted to be caught)
Below is the pinkie reinforcement out of one of the DD's old mitts. We wondered why so many pitches got past her. Video revealed she was catching them, but the glove gave way!
So please don't throw your glove in the oven, run over it or beat the side pads. Soaking it in water can also damage internal adhesives and shrink the felts causing them to pull away from key areas of the glove. So soaking in a tub of water is not recommended either.
Just what can we do to break in our catcher's mitts? My friend Casey has a term called "sweat equity"... That is, throw a ball into it and play catch. This method can be sped up with a mallet designed to break in gloves such as those offered by Vinci and Buyfastpitchgloves.com. If you need to really accelerate the break in process for an upcoming tournament, the glove can be steamed in a professional steamer for a very brief period. Please don't steam your mitts at home as it is easy to over do it and damage the glove. Trained experts at sporting good stores can safely steam your mitt. Once again, I don't suggest this unless you just must have the glove ready for use in a big fat hurry. Glove conditioners such as those offered by Vinci and Nokona are very helpful in the break in process. A light application followed by playing catch or otherwise pounding or throwing a ball in the pocket speeds up the process. I'm not a big fan of thinner glove oils as it's easy to overuse them and saturate the leather and felts. Overuse of oils will break down the adhesives and plastics in the glove and cause the glove to feel "heavy."
Quality glove leather will take longer to break in... It will also last longer and have a much louder "pop' as the pitch is received. We have witnessed first hand just how intimidating a loud popping pitch can be to batters as the pitch is received. While there are many many opinions on how to best break in a glove, these are the methods that we have found to work the best on catcher's mitts over the years. I hope to have a video out soon illustrating how we go through the break in process.
-Chaz
