Rawlings Catcher’s Mitts

Custom Rawlings mitt is best option. You get a name on it, and the web site is easy to use. Just takes 6-8 weeks. Doesn’t seem to impact the overall cost…likely high end generic, non-custom gloves will fade away…

aren't the higher end rawlings the HoH and PP?

Rawlings is being crushed by supply chain issues. Their top mitts are very difficult to find. Because of this I ended up grabbing an All-Star for him. Hands down the best leather he’s owned. Noticeably better than the Rawlings Pro Preferred.

@TerribleBPthrower posted:

Rawlings is being crushed by supply chain issues. Their top mitts are very difficult to find. Because of this I ended up grabbing an All-Star for him. Hands down the best leather he’s owned. Noticeably better than the Rawlings Pro Preferred.

that must impressive. the pro preferred products i have seen over the last 10 years or so are not lacking in quality. 

Kid had Rawlings from age 6 to 12 basically because I was a Rawlings guy and that's what I bought him. At 13, he wanted an All-Star mitt and that's what he used for the last 5 years. Now he wants to switch to Rawlings for the deeper pocket. That's a 180 because he wanted All-Star at 13 for a shallower pocket.

Most of the guys he's catching now are 89-93. Maybe that's the reason why? Maybe velo allows for using a deeper pocket?

@old_school posted:

that must impressive. the pro preferred products i have seen over the last 10 years or so are not lacking in quality.

I think the difference is the toughness of the leather. Allstar takes FOREVER to break in and stays harder longer. But there's basically just one high end Allstar model. It's the $400 mitt. (Maybe $450 now?) Everyone uses the same one because it's just the one model.

Rawlings has different levels. I think only their custom ones will reach $400+. Then they have ones closer or below $300 and others closer or below $200.

$300 is still a lot of money for a mitt. But, I think - but I'm not sure - that the $300 Rawlings breaks in faster and will get softer sooner than the top of the line Allstar.

Literally, the Allstar will take 4 to 6 months to fully break in where it's 100% where you want it.

My son broke his All-Star in within a few weeks. I'm not sure how as I've heard they take forever. His Rawlings HoH Perez model seemed like it took over a year.

He still has a Perez 32.5 HoH that is pretty much brand new as a backup and the All-Star is the gamer. On the fence on whether to buy another All-Star for a backup.

@old_school posted:

that must impressive. the pro preferred products i have seen over the last 10 years or so are not lacking in quality.

If you haven't checked them out you should. I was very hesitant to switch because my son is very particular (as most C's are). He loves the feel and says he feels faster with transfers.

i think the HoH are stiffer leather than the PP.  take much longer to break in.  My son took a year to get it to where he actually likes using it.  They seem to last forever, though.

As always, it comes down to whatever the player is most comfortable playing with.  For what it is worth, my son used an All Star top line glove for years, switched to a Mizuno Pro Select model (made in Japan) for several high school/travel years, and now has gone to a Wilson A2K, 33.5" for the past two years (D1 & D2) at the suggestion of a friend of his who is a MLB starting catcher.  (Deserved or not, I think he gains confidence in knowing this player, who is of similar physical stature, is excelling with this glove.)

He has a well worn A2k that is his gamer, and a newer A2K that he has been breaking in for a while.(!)          FYI, he is VERY old school/superstitious and does nothing extra to work in gloves besides catching bull pens or the occasional pitching machine.  He has great All Star glove that is worked in, but feels it is smaller than his A2K.

IMO, I do feel that All Star gloves seemed to break in fairly quickly - not much longer than other gloves.

My son has used all the big names except for Rawlings (I have just never been a fan). Allstar has been his favorite. We were extremely surprised by the quality of his new 44 glove. Took a long time to break in but, works great. Tried it out since a custom glove is only $185. Son is loving it.

Son has been using Wilsons for 7 years now. He got the A2K M2 33.5 back in late 2018, and immediately declared it the best he'd ever used. Unfortunately, they went out of production, and the replacement versions didn't have super skin or the index finger good. Custom A2K options didn't have the finger hood either, and was $200 more.

So we've been keeping an eye out online for new ones for sale. One popped up in May of 2020 that we grabbed, and he's currently using that one. And lo and behold, another popped up in Hawaii last week that I got for an early Xmas present.

Hoping the current one + the new one will get him at least 2 more years.....