I do not want to sound like a whiner, but I have a dilemma that I am upset about. Back in September, I purchased a new glove for my daughter. The manufacturer’s name is well known and the cost of the glove was higher than I thought I’d pay. The last glove that I purchased was for my son back in 1997. My daughter used his glove for 2 years (about 130 games) before the purchase in September. Yesterday, while having a catch indoors with an indoor ball, the laces of the new glove broke. She may have only used the glove a half a dozen times. I called the manufacturer’s customer service department and was told to ship the glove to them and they would re-string it,which is the right thing to do. My problem is that I have to pay for shipping to the manufacturer. It just rubs me the wrong way that I have to spend money on a product that essentially broke down quickly. Believe me this is not the case of “Buy Cheap, Get Cheap.” Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel that I should not have to pay to get something fixed that was a manufacturing defect. By the way, my daughter is now using her brothers’ glove again. I guess they do not make them like they used to. Any opinions? Thanks for the input. Coach D’E
Glove Question
- Thread starter coach D'E
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Any chance the brand name starts with the letter "A"? The reason I ask is that I repair a lot of gloves and in the past few years I've had three from this maker brought to me to fix broken laces on almost brand-new gloves. That's not something I've dealt with for any other brand.
It is nice when a company stands behind their product and offers some sort of warranty. Unfortunately, many do still require the item to be shipped back at the customer's expense. That is a fairly common practice nowadays. Was the company's warranty spelled out at the point of sale? If so, this should have been covered and you should have been aware of it.
Besides the unusually high number of broken lace repairs for the one particular company I mentioned, about the only other time I see broken laces on almost new gloves is when the owner used a particularly harsh break-in method on the glove. Excessive heat or moisture can make laces brittle and more prone to breaking.
With leather laces being a natural material and having some variation in the mmanufacturing process, it is possible that a "bad" lace can slip into production. When I buy bulk bundles of laces to relace gloves, it isn't uncommon to find one with a thinner area, one that is miscut in some way or has some other flaw. It sounds like you may have just been unlucky and happened to have got a glove with a weak lace straight from the factory.
While it's natural for laces to stretch with use (and a good idea to have them tightened every season or two if they do) no laces should be breaking after a half dozen times of normal use.
The cheaper solution would be to fix this yourself. If you've never relaced a glove before, that can be intimidating! But the replacement lace you can buy for $3-$4 at your local sporting goods store is often far superior to what is used on new gloves. Even on fairly expensive gloves, many makers seem to skimp on the quality of the laces to save a few cents per unit.
If this is something you would want to tackle yourself, I offer free advice through my website (see link below). Just drop me a line at my personel email address and I would be glad to answer any of your questions!
It is nice when a company stands behind their product and offers some sort of warranty. Unfortunately, many do still require the item to be shipped back at the customer's expense. That is a fairly common practice nowadays. Was the company's warranty spelled out at the point of sale? If so, this should have been covered and you should have been aware of it.
Besides the unusually high number of broken lace repairs for the one particular company I mentioned, about the only other time I see broken laces on almost new gloves is when the owner used a particularly harsh break-in method on the glove. Excessive heat or moisture can make laces brittle and more prone to breaking.
With leather laces being a natural material and having some variation in the mmanufacturing process, it is possible that a "bad" lace can slip into production. When I buy bulk bundles of laces to relace gloves, it isn't uncommon to find one with a thinner area, one that is miscut in some way or has some other flaw. It sounds like you may have just been unlucky and happened to have got a glove with a weak lace straight from the factory.
While it's natural for laces to stretch with use (and a good idea to have them tightened every season or two if they do) no laces should be breaking after a half dozen times of normal use.
The cheaper solution would be to fix this yourself. If you've never relaced a glove before, that can be intimidating! But the replacement lace you can buy for $3-$4 at your local sporting goods store is often far superior to what is used on new gloves. Even on fairly expensive gloves, many makers seem to skimp on the quality of the laces to save a few cents per unit.
If this is something you would want to tackle yourself, I offer free advice through my website (see link below). Just drop me a line at my personel email address and I would be glad to answer any of your questions!
- Jan 15, 2009
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I've paid $5 to have gloves restrung at a local shoe repair store. They have the tools that make it easy and usually they are putting in as good or better quality lacing than the original manufacturer used.
Ironically I've had the same experience from the same manufacturer that Bret mentions (starts with "A"). I too paid good money for the glove only to have my daughter complain about the laces. I've managed to fix the glove with the existing laces a couple of times but maybe I should pop for it to be restrung.
-Tom
-Tom
