Glove Re-lacing & Moulding
Glove Relacing
Our resident expert Ron is a master at taking your favourite old glove and making it perform as new again.
Glove Steaming
If you have a brand new ball glove for your upcoming baseball season, you will be anxious to have it broken in and ready to use as quickly as possible.
There are several ways to slowly break in your glove and it can take up to 3 months to get your glove just right, but if you are in a hurry, and as long as your glove is made of leather, the break-in period can be reduced by using a combination of steam and pressure.
The Mizuno glove steamer is designed to efficiently distribute steam into the glove’s leather and seams, making your glove game-ready in minutes.
Your glove will first be pre-treated with a leather conditioner that seeps into the pores of the leather to prevent it from drying out. The leather will be pre-treated on all surfaces, including the laces, palm and seams.
The temperature inside the Mizuno ball steamer is between 65-67 degrees Celsius. In order to allow the steam to reach all areas of the glove, it will be placed into the steamer with the pocket facing down. Depending on the type of leather as well as the type of glove, it will be steamed for 3 to 6 minutes. Typically catcher’s gloves take a little longer, as do gloves that are made of mid-level leathers; the more supple the leather is to begin with, the less time it will need to be steamed.
Once the glove is steamed and feels pliable and soft, it is placed on a leather pad and pressure is applied by hitting it with force, using a rounded wooden mallet, concentrating on the stiffer areas of the glove which are the palm, thumb and pinky areas. The glove will be folded several ways to optimize the effects of the force, and allows us to shape and mold the pocket and hinge points in the seams to custom fit your hand and preferences.
Depending on your playing position, the glove can he shaped in different ways; infielders may want a shallower pocket to find the ball quicker and pull the double play, while an outfielder would want a deeper funnel pocket to catch those pop fly balls.
By putting the glove on your hand and opening and closing the pocket and tossing a ball into it while the leather is still warm, the custom fit process is continued. Once you have used your glove on the field a few times, it can always be steamed again to further adjust it to your hand.
