Patent ID: 12185776

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Baseball gloves are normally stitched inside-out and then turned prior to lacing and forming. Gloves are sewn in the traditional way with welting piping & turning. In order to turn them without teating seams, when the leather is stitched together, welting is sewn in-between the leather components to make the seams stronger. This method of stitching requires a significant amount of skill and results in the need to perform significant shaping and forming after the glove is turned as a result of the leather being “disrupted” during turning. It also limits the type of leathers that are used in baseball gloves (normally softer chrome-tanned tanned leathers vs. more structured/stiffer veg-tanned leathers) or delicate/exotic leathers because they are not possible to turn or turning results in excessive creasing and damage to the leathers. Turning also hides the stitching or seams, which is common amongst glove-makers for many decades.

Baseball gloves can now be made without welting/piping and without turning so that edges and stitching are exposed and unique leathers can be employed. Some unique leather beyond bovine and kangaroo include, but are not limited to elephant, stingray, alligator/crocodile, snake, or any other material known in the art both organic and synthetic. As the glove does not have to be turned, the material does not need to withstand the turning process. Baseball gloves produced with outside stitching and without the need for turning, eliminate the need for welting and the difficulty associated with training operators to acquire the necessary skill to stitch baseball gloves. This method of construction reduces the amount of disruption/creasing to the leather and the amount of forming and shaping required. It also allows for use of leathers otherwise not possible in baseball gloves, such as veg-tanned, exotic and delicate leathers. This construction method results in unique opportunities in glove design, highlighted stitching that was previously not visible or highlighting edges created by exposing color on the back-side of leather or through edge painting. The edges may be painted to emphasize the look and to otherwise protect the exposed untanned internal leather.

As shown inFIGS.1-10, a fielder's glove10, as those familiar with gloves will recognize based on its size and shape, fielder's glove10is a standard fielders glove. Fielder's glove10has an outer shell16composed of a front surface, or palm12, and a back surface14. Outer shell16has an opening25at the lower portion of fielder's glove10to receive a hand. Front surface12and back surface14are joined together at various parts by stitch44, to form a glove with exposed edges. Glove10is not turned and allows for the edges40of the glove to be exposed as they are when the die is cut to expose the interior material of the leather used. Outer shell16is shaped to form a pocket30, fingers20, and thumb22. A web region28is located between finger portion20and thumb portion22. Glove is made of a palm12as die cut that is sewn together with back14to form a shell. A liner18is set within the shell to provide for contact with the worn hand. Heel24of glove10is preferably laced with lacing26, while the remainder of the perimeter of the shell is stitched with edges exposed. Hinge32is set between thumb and fingers aside the heel. Joints42similarly includes exposed edges of the leather material.

Joints in the martial are preferably formed by panels of material. Each panel preferably includes at least one finished surface. The surface may be finished by polishing, painting, glossing, tanning, etc, or as known in the art for ball gloves. Each panel also includes an edge that may or may not be painted or finished. When tanned, the edges may include the tanning stains. In the construction of a single glove, it may be preferable to include panels of alternating, or multitude of different species, such as a glove with a stingray panel, a snakeskin panel, a kangaroo panel, an elephant panel, or other substitutions to create a unique combination of panels of the back side of the glove. Each panel may be joined at a joint line. The panels may be joined on the back surface or back side of the glove to form the fingers. Each panel may form a half finger, or be shared as half of two adjacent fingers. Otherwise, the panels may span multiple fingers. In some embodiments, the back of the pinky finger may be made of a half finger panel along the outer edge, and a half of the panel shared with half of the adjoining ring finger. Similarly, the ring finger may include portions of two adjacent panels, with one panel shared with the pinky finger, and the other panel shared with the middle finger. The panel may be shaped in a U-shape, with the side edges formed with adjacent panels to form a joint line on the back, preferably along the center back, of the fingers. In a preferred embodiment, joint lines are set on the back sides of the pinky, ring, and middle fingers, wherein the panel of the forefinger extends to cover a portion of the middle finger on one side and joins with the webbing on the opposing edge. When a multitude leather sources are used, each finger, or portion of a finger, or adjacent fingers may include a separate species of leather.

Panels90form joint lines142between the finger. Additionally, joint lines143may appear between fingers. A further joint line242may appear on the thumb. The joint lines expose the edges of the panels, and may be stitched over, or a stitch may be set through the panels near the edge to join two adjacent panels and curve the edges outward to form the exposed joint lines.

As shown inFIG.11, the die cut pieces of the shell16and liner18include edges that have stitch holes50set therein and lace holes52, each to receive a stitch or lace. No welts are required in the combination of the unturned glove, leading to a lower overall weight removed from the fulcrum (wrist) of the user, the lighter weight accommodates easier lifting and gripping/closing, of glove. No piping or other treatment is required to reinforce and/or provide ornamentation over the turned edges. Panels90may be used to form portions of the back surface of the fingers. Each panel90may include a half side of a finger, causing a joint line to appear on the back of the finger (see above142) and optionally at the joining or between the finger (see143above). Otherwise, the panels may be shared between two adjacent fingers, with the first panel forming the outside of the pinky, the second panel forming the inside of the pinky and outside of the ring finger, the third panel forming the inside of the ring finger and outside of the middle finger, and the fourth panel forming the inside of the middle finger and the entre back portion of the pointer finger. Fingers. The panels may be joined on the back side with a an exposed joint, exposing the edge of the panel outzyard from the back surface of the glove.

Exposed edges manufacturing does not require glove turning which eliminates a step in the process and process, reduces the need for shaping and forming that normally takes place to offset the effects of turning. Eliminating the step of turning, eliminates the need for stitching leather welt or piping into the seams, which is normally needed to maintain the strength of the seams during turning. Not only does this eliminate the need of a raw material (welt or piping), stitching without welting requires less skill. This reduces the amount of training required, especially in the process of “closing” the glove where the palm is stitched to the back components.

The most difficult part of stitching a baseball glove is closing and the most difficult part of closing it stitching the crotch of the fingers. Stitching the crotches without welting allows for increasing the distance or space from one side of the crotch (one side of the finger) to the other (opposite side of the finger). This is not possible with welted gloves because the space between the fingers after turning becomes too great, risking a ball going through the glove (fingers) or requiring additional lacing to prevent that from happening. Stitching with exposed edges results in a greater surface area of leather being exposed to the ball and therefore allows for narrowing of the fingers or increasing the gap in the crotch to make it easier to stitch in the crotch area.

Stitching with welting or piping requires the gloves to be stitched inside-out and then turned, which makes it difficult for the stitching operator to detect stitching mistakes until after the glove is turned. When stitching mistakes are found at this point, the glove needs to be turned back and the correction made before re-turning again. With edge-exposed stitching, the stitching operator gets immediate feedback, can correct in the final form.

Stitching with exposed edges also allows the detection of “flanky” or poor-quality leather earlier on in the process, whereas with welt-stitching (lanky leather in the palm is often only identified after the glove is turned, again resulting in the glove having to be turned back and all the stitching taken out in order to replace the leather palm and stitch and turn again. This is both a cost and quality issue.

In terms of improvements to the final product, because turning is not required when exposing the edges, the gloves result in more consistent shape and size from one glove to the next. With welt stitching, the glove size and shape is more greatly impacted by the thickness/bulkiness of the welt after turning.

Further, by avoiding turning, the leather is disturbed significantly less, resulting in smoother leather with fewer creases. Leather components can be trimmed less, so less material is needed for seam margin as is required when the gloves are turned. This results in less bulky and more streamlined seams and gloves for any given size.

As the leather is disturbed significantly less, alternative leathers, typically not possible as a result of turning can be used. This applies to a wide range of exotic and specialty or delicate leathers as well as highly structured leathers that are very difficult to turn. These exotic materials may be used to comprise the entire palm to provide a one or two-toned theme wherein the palm and back are of different leather/material types.

There is also ornamental value in exposed edges that create a unique look with options to: (1) expose raw edges: (2) color or paint them as an added design feature; (3) highlight them with contrasting stitching that is also exposed; and (4) expose color that goes through the leather and is visible through the exposed edge that is normally not visible with welt stitching.

Exposed edge construction results in lighter weight gloves (which is considered a performance benefit) because welting is eliminated as well as less leather being used as a result of the ability to trim the components compared to a glove with welt construction for any given size glove.

Exposed edges on the ends of the fingers are less rigid and allow for easier “scooping” or fielding of ground balls compared to finger tips made with welt construction that are more rigid and can cause a ball to hit and bounce off the end of a finger more easily.

As for manufacture, there are a number of steps in the manufacture of gloves. Often these steps are sequential, meaning they have to be performed in a specific order. The prior art method of manufacture is amended as follows:1. During stitching the liner and shell, welting is no longer required. No spine is needed in the stitches or joints. The shell can be constructed by joining the palm piece and back piece(s) without welts.2. While malleting and aligning the pieces is a painstaking, and difficult process requiring strength, without turning the pieces are easier to align with proper die cuts.3. Finally, the glove layoff is minimized as the leather can be set in an appropriate relative orientation when stitching and requires less forming/shaping. Similarly, the finally break-in process of beating the palm is significantly reduced as the shape of the die cut can include features that will manifest in three dimensional form (e.g. more palm leather near where the thumb meets fingers under the webbing) so the final product is manufactured in a broken-in form, as is known in the art.

Finally, there is another benefit to not turning the gloves when it comes to personalization (which has become a significant tread in recent years)—adding hard embellishments (e.g., metal) is not feasible when turning the gloves without causing damage to the leather. Stitching with exposed edges allows for easy addition of hard embellishments to be sewn on the glove as personalization or design. The hard embellishments may be added before or after die cutting, and prior to stitching.