How long did Rawlings manuf Spalding gloves?

[84bbchamps]

Does anyone have any history on this topic?

Looking for the cross match between Spalding and Rawlings gloves (ie..Is ee that he Spalding 42-XXX looks very similar to the Rawlings XFCB17's etc..)

If anyone knows the cross ref or has a place I can ref on the web/in a book that would be great..

(I have this info from BretMan so far:
Thanks for your email and question!

From what I can find, Spalding purchased and owned the Rawlings company in 1959. Shortly thereafter, they were forced to divest in Rawlings due to governmental antitrust action. The combined company simply controlled too much of the sporting goods market. I am not certain exactly which year this took place. Rawlings, then operating as a separate entity, continued to produce gloves for Spalding on a contractural basis through the early 1970's.

You are right that many of the Rawlings and Spalding gloves of this era were virtually identical, except for the stampings and tags.

That's about as much as I can tell you about the merging of these two companies or the similarities between gloves they offered. This would be a good question to post on one of the discussion boards dedicated to glove collecting (which you may already be familiar with). I'm sure that the guys who frequent those boards can help fill in the blanks!)


Thanks,
Mike in Detroit

[softball66]

Good job by Brett as usual.
I "suspect" Rawlings was making gloves for Spalding as early as 1954 and continued through at least 1973 based on catalog glove comparisons. Jay Rawlings (no relation) told me that when he was with Rawlings as equipment designer (later many years at Nocona) that the Spalding warehouse was directly across the street from Rawlings in Ava, so the product went right over there for shipping.
Could be that Rawlings continued after 1973 but I'll have to find those later Spalding catalogs.
Major Leaguers, endorsing with Spalding were cross using the Spaldings and Rawlings gloves. For instance, Sandy Koufax used the Colavito model and also the Rawlings XPG6 the comparative glove.