Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

Why is the Sonnett patch upside down on this particular T6TG? ebay item 160198190695

There was a T6TG on ebay back in Dec with the Sonnett patch "right side up" Glove Of the Week Dec 3 - Dec 9

All my Sonnett patches are sewn the other way but Rob M. has a similar glove to the one on eBay with the patch upside down - maybe it's a left handed thing or possibly factory error:

http://www.baseballglovecollector.com/gallery/index.php?album=sonnett&page=4

I've always wondered about those "upside down" patches that pop up on various gloves from time-to-time. It would be cool to know for sure if they were intended or errors.

I spent the last 25 years in the manufacturing industry, and often some of the parts we made would be left/right mirror images of each other, much the same as you have with a left or right-handed glove. I can recall many times over the years where this caused some confusion on the manufacturing floor. Despite all the inspection and quality controll we had, sometimes one of these errors would slip out the door.

One thought strikes me, from a manufacturing standpoint. Given how gloves are cut from dies and sewn together, you could cut identical wrist straps that would fit either left or right-handed models on the same die. That would be a logical and sound manufacturing practice.

The patch could then be sewn on with either a left or right-handed orientation, and that might be done before the wrist strap is ever sewn on to the rest of the glove.

If that is the case, these oddities could be produced not from sewing the patch on upside down, but rather from sewing a wrist strap intended for a right-handed glove on a left-handed model.

That theory still begs the question: Was this done intentionaly or in error?

Another possible wrench in that theory: Does the T6TG glove even have a wrist strap that is sewn on- with a welted seam- or is the strap one piece, integral with the shell of the glove? It's hard to tell from the photos. What looks like it might be a welted seam could also be the stitching for the left side of the patch.