Equipment in College

2013 Parent,

I think you'll find it varies by D1 program. My son's program pays for everything except a baseball glove. All uniforms and workout materials are provided by the school and washed by the school. My son can purcahse a new glove at a discounted price from a contracted catalog or he can grab one from a pile in the equipoment room that the seniors donate year after year. My son (pitcher) has selected his glove from the "senior pile" the last two years.

For my son's team, I believe if you go outside the contracted equipment companies that you'll be paying for it out of your pocket at a non-discounted price.

BTW....Our team also provides a web link (at XMas) so you can get SWAG for parents, relatives and friends. I assume this is a fairly common practice, as I've heard parents from other teams talk about this.

Good luck!

It does vary from team to team. Son said one opponents teammates that bought nearly everything, including balls. Son's team provided everything, a nice assortment of gear. He was allowed to keep gloves.

Varies from school to school, however most teams in the big D1 conferences "supply" everything including one glove a year, however if you son doesn't like the equipment supplied he's on his own and will have to black out logos. i.e. if he wants a particular Rawlings glove cut but Wilson is the supplier, he's likely buying his own glove and blacking out "rawlings" on his glove.

At the JC level my son bought all his stuff. Some larger JC's may have flexibility on gear purchases.

At a lower level D1 confernce school my son didn't have as many glove choices and had to pick from their current catalog. His ACC team supplier custom made him a glove and provided a lot of batting gloves.

Depending upon the area equipment company rep, a college player may be able to buy at the "team price", the player just needs to ask. i.e. at my son's 1st d1 school the Wilson rep sold him a glove at a discount eventhough Wilson was not the equipment supplier for his team.

Good question to ask during recruiting.

It does vary, mine was told to show up with cup and sliders. They supplied everything including name written on his gloves (because of TV coverage). Most programs that have agreements do not want you to wear or use anything else but what they supply.

It varies by position as well.

See why when you walk into a retail store you end up spending so much money on things? Those companies gotta make up for all the stuff they give away to the colleges


My senior year of college our athletic department signed a new contract with Nike. We got stuff for just over 50% of the retail price IE a $35 polo we paid $18 for. We also had the ability to order anything in their "team" catalogs at that price in whatever color, size, etc that we wanted..

Some D-2's are generous too. One glove per year, all bats provided, cleats, balls, uniforms, practice gear and sweats. No Oakley's though!

Yep, and they wash it all, too!

At my son's D3 everything is provided except glove. Some kids still augment the team's gear with some of their own. My son buys his own cleats, for instance. Also, extra team gear is made available to players and parents at a price. The profit of from these sales goes directly back into the program. We buy some sweatshirts etc. to support the program.

quote:

Originally posted by AntzDad:
Yep, and they wash it all, too!

It is like another Christmas for the players....

My son's eye's grew to twice their size when they said 8 uniforms....he was more excited then my teen aged daughter would be about a shopping spree! Free baseball stuff....does it get any better then that? All I care about is the endless supply of batting gloves I won't have to invest in come August

quote:

Originally posted by AntzDad:
Yep, and they wash it all, too!

How about Fall Ball?

quote:

Originally posted by leftyshorstop:
At my son's D3 everything is provided except glove. Some kids still augment the team's gear with some of their own. My son buys his own cleats, for instance. Also, extra team gear is made available to players and parents at a price. The profit of from these sales goes directly back into the program. We buy some sweatshirts etc. to support the program!

I believe that this will be my son's situation in his future school as well.

Gun's school provides everything. All workout gear/sweats for fall/spring, 3 colors of undergear for fall/spring, 3 hats, all unis(4), batting gloves, 2 BP tops, cleats, turfs, all catcher's gear, and individual batting helmets. The multi-position guys get their 2nd position gloves provided too.

Every player gets a wood bat and a BBCOR bat. Some get more than one, depends on the situation. Also, there is laundry too.

We are a Louisville Slugger/TPX shop so that's who provides all LCU gear and equipment.

No doubt they are spoiled.... GED10DaD

Most do not provide anything until after fall. They officially can not give you anything until your freshman fall season. Then D1's give everything including gloves and bats. Mine had to show up with his stuff then got his team stuff after fall.

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Connell:
Most do not provide anything until after fall.

Plenty of programs outfit their freshmen in the fall.

My son got one generic gray t shirt for fall ball games (tryouts)- nothing else, not even a hat. When the coach told him to report to study hall after Thanksgiving, he realized he'd made the team.

When I was in high school sneaker wars started. My high school had a contract with Converse. It was when the all leather Converse all-stars came out. Over the years I beame a fan of Rebook basketball shoes. A few years ago I bought a pair of Nike's. For me they were painful. After thinking they were defective and replacing them, on the next trip back to the store a clerk asked me if I had flat feet. I do. He said I shouldn't be wearing Nike's. They don't make a basketball shoe for low arches. So the question is ....

What happens if a kid's school supplies baseball spikes and they are too uncomfortable to wear?

quote:

What happens if a kid's school supplies baseball spikes and they are too uncomfortable to wear?

Typically the player buys whatever works for him and removes or blacks out the offending logos on the shoes.

Wanted to resurrect this thread and maybe get some updated facts about how different schools outfit their players.  I'm thinking the larger D1 schools might be handing stuff out like candy - especially an SEC type school that now has a dedicated network.

 

Not sure current gloves will finish out high school and was would hate to invest a bunch of money in a new glove senior year for instance only to have it retired the very next year.

Son is at SEC school and yes they take care of everything.  Son had a locker full of clothes and at least 4 pair of shoes.  Ordered gloves the first or second week of fall semester.  Now when he was there over the summer semester (immediately after high school), he had to use his own glove.  They did get one pair of shoes and a few shorts / t-shirts to condition in.  He has to wear Nike anytime he is on campus to workout, condition, practice or such because of the school's contract with Nike.

younggun - Any restrictions on which headphones they listen with? LOL

 

Hijacking the thread already - can you tell me what activities, both baseball and academics, your son signed up for during the summer immediately after high school?  I haven't gotten the impression that tons of kids step foot on campus that first summer but it seems like it could pay some dividends to get settled in and possibly bank a few credit hours so as to skinny up the spring class schedule.

My thoughts regarding glove...

Your son is a 2017 with plenty of ball to play between now and first fall of college.  I believe, for the most part, a majority of non-D1 schools do not provide gloves.  Even if your son is given a glove at that time, there is break-in time.  I don't think you want him competing as a freshman in the first fall with a new stiff glove that he is not yet comfortable with.

Son's school just switched to Nike this year for uniforms and apparel....but sticking with  Louisville for bats & gloves...he'll get a wood and game bat and two gloves (P & 3B).  They have gotten cleats, turfs and sandals from Nike.  A couple practice jerseys, a couple hats so far...but quite a bit more on the way from what he's hearing. 

It seems pretty common now.  Son took two classes in July and worked out on his own.  This really helped him familiarize himself with the campus.  Really paid off. Did well in classes and he wasn't lost when the Fall semester started.  He already had his dorm and spent the first week (Freshman Welcome Week with no classes) walking around like he "knew it all"  with the rest of the 2015 recruits. .  

Gloves, just because gloves are supplied by the schools sponsor doesn't mean it will be the glove your kid wants to use.  i.e. Kid might prefer a Wilson catching glove at a Rawlings school.....buy what you need before showing up at school. 

 

btw if your kid's a position player he should be playing a full summer of competitive baseball before showing up at school or risk getting cut or redshirted in favor of the current and future players that spent the whole summer playing.  Its a 365 day a year job the day HS ends.

Just so I don't look like a cheapskate, he has his eyes on a really nice 11.25 pitching glove.  Sort of looks like the glove his younger brother played with in t-ball.  For the price I want the 12.75 glove - probably contains twice as much leather.  

 

But seriously, the small glove is the right balance for him while pitching and provides the necessary protection on the come-backs.  When factoring in the two summers I guess he does need a glove that will hold up pretty well.

Atone D3 that recruited son, everything was supplied, from Cleats to batting gloves.At the one he attended, each year packages were offered, His Freshman and Sophomore year the packages he chose were not too bad, but they did not include a glove. He went through two Gloves in college. One new the spring of his Freshman year and another the spring of his senior year. We received a discount but still was not cheap.  

Funny story, kinda made the coach look bad a little. Coach vouched for son, son sent a check, it BOUNCED. Money was in the account, we could not figure it out. It was quite a snafu. End result was the bank had misprinted the checking or routing number on the check, so as far as they were concerned the account did not exist. To resolve it we had to close the account and open a new one. 

At the D2 university my son was at they provided everything (uniforms, hats and cleats) except his glove.  Nike was the sponsor so everything came from them.  If a player had a non-Nike item such as Adidas, they had to blank out the name with marker. 

 

JuCo was the same as I recall.

 

The school also provided a warm up jacket and hoodie, but those had to be turned back in if I recall correctly.

Son at non-power D1, just came home with 3 teammates, they received multiple T-Shirts, DriFit long/short sleeves, shorts, hoodies, trainers, sneakers, mitt/gloves, caps, backpacks, baseball bags, bats, etc.

Nice stuff

 

I went to a D3 school in the south and every year we were provided with:

-practice shirts

-practice shorts

-practice pants

-multiple hats

-bp top

-bp jacket

-sweatshirt

-sweats

-cleats

-turfs

-individual helmet

-travel bag

-baseball bag

-belt, socks, etc

-team bats

 

We also had a rep from Wilson and Oakley come once a year to showcase gear that we could get at a discount of like 40% of something. It really just depends on the school.

I hope my kid would know better than to ask me for a Wilson glove because the team only offers Rawlings.  If he didn't know better than there is a good chance he would be choking on my foot I inserted up from his backside.

Screwball, son took 6 credit hours over the summer. The reason was that is the minimum you can take and have access to trainers and weight room. It certainly got him familiar with campus, where cafeteria was and things like that. He also was able to train with the trainers and prepare for the conditioning test that must be passed like the 2nd Monday of fall semester. The PC didn't want any of the incoming pitchers to throw over the summer, so it was a no brainier for us. HC even called him in for an "exit interview" at the end of summer to see what son thought about coming in early and would he do it again. Son very glad he did. By the way, he crushed the conditioning test, so it helped there as well.

Lefthooks JC provides everything except glove, the do provide a couple of team bats but most players buy their own

If at a program that appears on TV with any regularity, expect this practice to be prohibited. The manufacturers are wise to this and put the schools on notice that it can jeopardize their contract with them.

What's so ironic about this is this was a D2 university where the baseball games were never broadcast on network or cable TV so the only ones to see the "Nike" name are those in actual attendance or those who watched via webcast.

I know a kid playing major conference ball who stitched the provided glove logo on his personal glove. He was caught and suspended from the team.

When I was in college at a smaller DI school, our football program had a New Balance contract. But none of the players liked NB shoes so many of them wore Nikes. Our head athletic trainer all but banned players from wearing adidas shoes because they were so difficult to cover up with tape! It was also funny because they wore adidas jerseys that simply had a New Balance logo sewn over any adidas logo that showed.. 

My son is at a small D3 in South.

Only in Fall ball, but they get to try out dufferent bats

Nothing is provided right now, son still wears his own pants...had to buy his own shirts from school store, bought his own cleats, wears his old hat from travel ball.im sure they get a couple uniforms in the spring supplied, but i think thats about it along with some team bats and team helmets, and maybe a practice shirt or 2.