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Is it just me, or does Rawlings - which is owned by MLB, by the way - make it really hard to identify and find their top of the line catcher’s mitts?

All-Star and Wilson are not as difficult.

When I was a kid, Rawlings was the standard for fielding gloves IMHO. But it seems like things have changed.

If you go to the Rawlings site and look up catcher’s mitts today, you would be shocked at the search results.

Maybe custom design is the only option to get a high quality professional grade Rawlings catcher’s mitt?

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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.

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.

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.....

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