8 Steps On How To Build A Baseball or Softball Glove

Every day of summer, there will be fastpitch, slow pitch and baseball players slipping gloves onto their hands. But how many of them will ponder the origin of that glove when they pull it on their glove hand? We bet that very few will be thinking about how Wilson, Mizuno, or Nokona actually built what they are wearing on the diamond. The process of how to build a baseball or softball glove is quite fascinating and for those that have competed on a ballfield, we think you’ll enjoy learning about the process that goes into building arguably the most iconic symbol of America’s Pastime: a ball glove. Enjoy the fanastic imagery provided by KC Mack of Mack Provisions to help illustrate a number of the steps.

How To Build A Baseball or Softball Glove

To educate you as simply as possible on the building process, we’ve broken it down into the following 8 steps:

1. Selecting the Leather
2. Cutting the Leather with Dies
3. Stamping & Embroidering the Leather
4. Stitching & Welting
5. Shaping the Glove’s Outer Shell
6. Outer Shell & Hand Liner Are Put Together
7. Lacing the Glove
8. Factory Break-In

Now let’s take a more detailed look at each step!

1- Selecting the Leather

The importance of this step cannot be understated as the quality of leather will be the defining characteristic of a glove as seasons pass (i.e. whether it holds up or not). Manufacturers will use their highest quality leather hides for crafting their top-quality gloves (this is typically stiffer leather). If they are building a lesser-quality glove, they will look for leather from a hide that is not quite as high quality (this is usually a softer-feeling leather). If the manufacturer is building a glove with a unique colorway, this is the step where they will select leather that has already been dyed in a certain color. 

2 - Cutting the Leather with Dies

Manufacturers will take the hide (or hides) they will be using to create a certain glove and use cutting dies to create the specific shapes that will be needed to create the glove. There will typically be 20+ shapes of leather that need to be cut to make a single glove. In the image below, you'll see all the pieces of leather used by Mack Provisions to craft a glove shortly after they were cut with dies:

3 - Stamping & Embroidering the Leather

Once the pieces of leather have been cut with the dies, manufacturers will heat stamp their logos and glove information on the palm leather piece. Below you'll see the "A2K" stamp employed by Wilson on their gloves. As well, if there is any embroidery that needs to be done, it will occur during this same step. If you buy a Mizuno Custom Glove or Rawlings Custom Glove and choose to embroider your name on the glove, this is when that embroidery is added!

4 - Stitching & Welting

The outer shell of the glove and the inner hand lining are actually going to be made separately. Within this step, the Outer Back Shell and Outer Palm Shell of the glove will be stitched together inside-out to create one outer-shell piece. Then the outer shell will be flipped to the correct, inside-in orientation. Also during this step, the shell will get welting added so that the stitching is protected from the wear and tear that occurs while playing a baseball game. KC Mack of Mack Provisions is shown stitching together a baseball glove's outer shell and hand stall below:

5 - Shaping the Glove’s Outer Shell

After the outer shell of the glove has been flipped to the correct, inside-in orientation, the shell’s fingers and thumb are placed on a heated mold (the mold looks similar to a human hand). Along with the assistance of manual work, the mold helps give the glove more of its finished look. You can see an image of how the mold looks in the cover of the Nokona video below:

6 - Outer Shell & Hand Liner Are Put Together

Simply put, the manufacturer will slip the inner-hand liner of the glove into the outer shell during this step. In many cases, the manufacturer will add adhesive in the palm area between the inner-hand lining and outer shell so that the liner and shell are securely attached. Oftentimes, this step is accomplished by using a mold similar to the one shown in the cover of the Nokona video above. The inner hand stall will rest on the mold while the outer shell is pulled over it.

Also, during this stage, binding will also be added to the unfinished edges of the outer shell and inner-hand lining. 

7 - Lacing The Glove

During this step, leather lace will be used to securely fasten the outer shell and inner-hand lining together. As well, the lace will be used to attach the web to the glove. A Mack Provisions glove can be seen getting laced up below:

8 - Factory Break-In

Newly built ball gloves will be extra stiff, especially if the glove being built is made from high-quality leather. Manufacturers will implement different methods to make sure that the leather is softened up a bit so that the break-in is shorter for a customer. Nokona’s “Pounding” Machine shown below helps soften the leather of their gloves before they are shipped to customers.

Some of these softening methods will also remove “bubbling” of the leather (especially in the palm area). Many  manufacturers will even add a conditioning product to the glove at this stage to help moisturize the leather before it gets delivered to a customer.

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Those are the 8 basic steps that manufacturers use to build a ball glove. It really is an incredible process and one could dive even deeper into these 8 stages listed above.

If you're looking to buy a baseball glove that was made in the United States, then be sure to check out the selection of American-made gloves from Mack Provisions.

If you have any other baseball glove or softball glove-related questions, our Glove Experts are always available to help via phone at 866-321-4568, email at experts@justgloves.com, or live chat. Don’t forget, we’re here for you from Click To Catch!