Resource Guide | How To Break In A Glove

How to Break-in a Glove

New baseball gloves could often be considered stiff gloves and not yet ready for game performance. Even gloves that are made specifically for your playing style, such as custom baseball gloves or custom softball gloves need to be broken in before they’re ready to take the field.

Many players wonder how to break in a baseball glove, and what methods to avoid. Below, we’ll walk you through best practices, things to keep in mind, things to avoid and even show you what the pros do.

Traditional Methods

Purists use traditional methods to break in a new baseball or softball glove. They simply play catch with their gloves for multiple hours over several days and weeks until the glove is broken in.

Though this process may take longer, it naturally breaks in your glove better than any other method. All things considered, no matter what you do to break in your glove, the more you can play catch and practice with your mitt, the faster it will break in. 

Baseball Glove Oils and Conditioners

When considering how to break in baseball gloves, one way is to lightly apply a thin coat of glove oil or conditioner. Glove oil will come in a liquid form while conditoner will look like a paste. Apply about a dime-sized amount of product to a sponge or cloth, then apply the oil to the entire glove. Using a sponge or cloth will assist in making sure that the oil is applied evenly over the entire glove.

Oils and conditioners maintain the health of the glove by moisturizing the leather and preventing it from becoming hard/brittle and cracking.

Oils will deeply permeate the leather of a glove and a good portion of an oil will remain within the glove long after the application. On the other hand, conditioners will mostly evaporate off the glove's leather shortly after they have been applied. Because of this, many folks believe conditioners allow a glove's leather to get moisturized while not adding excess weight as an oil will often do (however, conditoners may have to be applied more regularly than oils).

We sat down with professional glove repairman, Chris Petroff of the Glove Lab. He explained to us that he prefers the use of conditioners over oils due to the ease with which the conditioners evaporate off the glove. As well, he commented that due to an oil's inability to easily evaporate, it can cause a glove's leather to go rancid. Watch Chris discuss oils and conditioners below...

One should consider continuous application of a conditioner to their baseball or fastpitch glove even after it is broken in, Applying conditioner a few times throughout the season and at least a time or two during the offseason would be wise (players in drier environments may have to apply conditioners even more frequently). 

And if one still prefers to use an oil, we would recommend applying it to the glove less frequently than we would recommend applying a conditioner. Since a good amount of the oil will remain in the glove after it is applied, you don't want to oversaturate the glove with oil and further increase the risk of the glove leather going rancid (per Chris Petroff's suggestion).

Work the Rigid Parts

Many players are also unsure how to break in a glove when it comes to physically working it. One of the best ways is to apply some work to what some will call the "break points" in the glove. The two most common of these sections is where the pinky and thumb meet the palm of the glove. It is helpful to pull these parts of the glove towards and away from each other. This helps to loosen the leather to allow the glove to squeeze and catch the ball with ease. It’s also helpful to pull and move the other fingers in the glove. How much you work on the fingers should change depending on how tight or loose you prefer the fingers of your glove to feel. It is best to do a little at a time, play with the glove to see how it works, and then do more if needed.

Soften and Shape the Glove

A wooden mallet is often used in softening and shaping a glove. Pounding the pocket  with a mallet can help form the shape of a ball in that section of the glove. Thus, it will be more attune to holding a ball. You can also pound other parts of the glove to loosen the leather and prepare the glove for play. For best results, put a ball in the pocket to gauge the size and shape, then use a wooden mallet to continue softening and shaping the leather in the pocket area of the glove.

Important Points to Remember

• Excessive glove conditioner/oil can make the glove heavy and possibly damage the leather.
• After applying oil/conditioner, allow the product to absorb into the leather for 24 hours in an area set to room temperature.
• Play catch daily until the glove is ready for gameplay (although playing catch is not an instant solution for breaking in a glove, it is the best method)
• Attempt to add an even coat of oil/conditioner to the entire surface of the glove.
• At the end of the season, gently apply glove oil/conditioner to keep your glove from becoming brittle.
• Store your glove in a dry place with a ball in the pocket to maintain shape.
• Oil/Conditioner application is best done with a sponge or cloth so that it is evenly added to the entire surface of the glove.
• High-quality leathers (leathers like what is on a Heart of the Hide or A2000) will likely be the most difficult to break in.
• Do not use an oven or microwave to break in your baseball or softball glove. This will damage your glove beyond repair.
• Do not leave your glove outside or in your car to try to break it in.

Another Method

Many people like to look to the pros when considering how to break in a baseball glove. A professional ball player will sometimes break in a glove in a way that will contradict what glove manufacturers recommend. This method is not always endorsed by glove manufacturers because if it is not performed correctly, it could irreparably damage the glove. Please know that professional ballplayers usually receive multiple gloves free of charge, so they are not as worried about the break in process of one glove being botched. However, we understand that some players who are not professionals also consider a quick break-in as more important than the longevity of the glove, so we will let you know how a good number of professional ballplayers break in a glove.

First, they will pour hot water over the surface of their glove and within the hand slot (usually a handful of pours over the glove). They won't submerge the glove in water, but will get it wet enough so that the leather becomes softer and more pliable. 

Next, the player will begin to work the glove in the break points. The two big ones will be where the thumb and pinky of the glove meet the palm of the glove. They will also roll the heel of the glove and pull apart the fingers of the glove. Then they will pound the pocket of the glove with a wooden ball mallet. 

Finally, a step that we might add to this method is to lightly add some oil or conditioner to the glove after you're done working with the break points. Some of the water that was poured on the glove initially will be absorbed into the glove's leather. As that water evaporates from the glove leather, we'll want the oil or conditioner to take it's place in the glove and prevent it from excessively drying out. Look below to watch a video of a form of this professional break in process in action:

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