Breaking In Your Glove

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Akadema Gloves

Glove Hammer

Coach JP's TEST:
I recently broke in one of our New Pro Stock Akadema infield gloves using the following method. WOW! Did it work! I was shocked! In 4 days, that glove was almost GAME-READY! and had just a bit of moisture at the ends of my fingers inside the glove! That absolutely impressed me and I recommend this method to you.
Check it out, print it out and email it all around!!

PS: After you try it, let me hear from you. Please send comments to coach@baseballtips.com

Here is "the recipe" as it was sent to me...
Important Note! There are some glove-types where I don't recommend using the process:

1. Synthetic Gloves – Please don’t buy them… better to save up or buy something used that’s made of real leather.
2. Pre Oiled Gloves – These are fine if this is your preference…but do note that pre-oiled may be pre-broken down. Some can be heavy and lack “feel” and historically, this has allowed some glove makers to produce gloves of less-than-perfect hides which covers blemishes under certain colored oils or etc.
3. Exotic Hides – I have no experience and figure this should work just fine but I will welcome your comments if you do try this water method. coach@baseballtips.com

Hello JP,

After 30+ years of playing & coaching baseball I have tried many different methods of breaking in a glove. In my opinion, the steps listed below will speed up this seemingly forever process. Please keep in mind this process should be used on high quality gloves made of 100% leather, like your Akadema Pro Gloves, as this process may shorten the life of cheap synthetic materials.

1. Fill up your sink or a bucket & completely submerge glove in room temperature water for approximately 3-5 minutes.
2. Put a baseball or softball deep in the pocket & try to stretch glove around a baseball forming a pocket.
3. Tie up glove tightly, forming the pocket around the ball using a belt or string fingers facing up, to help the water drain.
4. Keep tied up & let glove dry naturally out in the sun or in the attic a couple days or in any warm part of the house. Do not place on any HOT surface.
5. Untie & throw in the clothes dryer (even if still wet) on hot for 15-20 minutes. This will help "beat up the leather."
6. Remove from dryer & start working it in. The more time you spend bending down on the fingers & forming the pocket the better the end result. Once completely broken in I prefer an occasional application of inexpensive shaving cream (just the white foam kind with lanolin and no fragrance) when glove gets a little dry.

Update: I have found it increasingly difficult to find shaving cream with lanolin, so note that a good alternative is to purchase a small bottle of Rawlings Glovolium, which seems to be readily available in many sporting goods stores. (Just remember to add in small amounts...you don't want your glove to be soaked and/or heavy!)

Remember, the cow that your glove came from certainly spent most of its life outdoors, so a little water shouldn't affect your leather. However I would not use this method with any of those chemically pre-oiled gloves that you sometimes see. They are chemically broken in and, in my opinion, will not last as long and tend to turn into rag dolls way before their time.

Best regards,

Coach Tonto Genovese
Fayette Yellow Jackets
Fayette County, GA

Shortcut#1 Consider investing in the BaseballTips.com Glove Hammer. I designed its shape and size so that you should be able to cut down the break-in time by around 20-30%. It is so much easier and more efficient than throwing a ball into the pocket by yourself because you can accurately work the leather exactly how you want! Just don’t pummel the glove night after night…just get it broken in.
Our Glove Hammer should get you and your new glove in the game quicker.

Shortcut #2 Consider buying our inexpensive Glove Stuff Liquid. This may be the best stuff on the market for cleaning and softening new or older gloves. Remember, this leather was once part of a living breathing steer so it does have need for feeding and moisturizing…just never soak any glove…you can always add more…later!

Click here to buy our Glove Hammer & Glove Stuff
(you’ll save on shipping and I absolutely recommend it).

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