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"Baseball Gloves for the Serious Player"
The
Elite Series is our stock line of gloves made to the same demanding standards as the Custom Elite. There is no other stock
glove in America that compares to the Elite Series. Remember these gloves are made from Curried Retanned Steerhide for durability,
so there is a break-in period. There are no shortcuts to perfection.
Our Elite's are produced
in such limited quantities we are able to bend cut the entire glove: the shell, the lining, and the lacing. The bend area,
which is the back section of the hide; is usually the thickest, cleanest, and has the most consistent fiber structure of a
hide. By contrast every other glove on the market uses the bend area for the palm of the glove. The neck and shoulder areas
are used for the webs because the leather is strong. Unfortunately, the neck tends be wrinkled and scared; the weaving and
stitching that most webs receive mask these imperfections. The bellies are the least dense part of the hide these are usually
used in backs and linings because the leather tends to be softer. After the Elite's are cut they are then pattern split.
Splitting thins down the leather by slicing through the underside of the leather; generally glove backs are split to a uniform
thickness. With our Elite's we leave the stress areas, around web holes and finger tops, full thickness while thinning
down the rest of the back of the glove. We never split the palm of any glove. Why not leave the back at full thickness? Two
reasons, first splitting the leather makes the gloves more workable which allows for better craftsmanship; second, splitting
takes out unnecessary weight. Why don't others pattern split? Splitting is done with a machine that takes no skill to
operate. Pattern splitting by contrast is still done by machine. But, the machine must be set with much more precision than
normal. Also, the operator needs to be skilled and know the nuances of both the machine and the leather they are working with.The
Elite's back welt is triple stitched; this adds firmness to the glove. Like all gloves our Elite backs are welted together
with a small piece of leather but unlike others we go another step and triple stitch them. After the back pieces are welted
together we then glue down our specialized reinforcing stabilizers over the welted seams and then sew these down. These stabilizers
increase the rigidity and enhance the overall durability of the glove.
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