Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

Timothy Eaton bought out an existing dry goods store in 1869 and expanded the operation into a general department store in the Toronto area. The retail store was successful on its own for walk in traffic and the mail order catalog sales were booming. Because of the strong catalog sales to the western areas of Canada, Eaton opened a warehouse in Winnipeg in 1905 for easier distribution to the western provinces. The warehouse soon expanded to include a retail store and became the most successful department store in the world. It was touted that the residents spent 50 cents out of each dollar they made at the department store. Eaton's thrived for most of last century but due to changing economic situations, they filed for bankruptcy in 1999. Sears bought the assets and continued the Eaton name for a few years but eventually dropped it and renamed the stores as Sears.


Eaton's carried the WinnWell brand of baseball gloves in addition to a house brand. The house brand was interesting in the pocket stamping "Guaranteed Top Grain Stamitanned Leather". That was a new one for me. below is a 1936 catalog page




Here are a couple of Eaton gloves from the 1936 time period.
Bill Jurges model below


Jo Jo White model below


An Eaton 1" web model below. Obviously an earlier glove than the previous examples. I like the light blue tag. Maybe someone could post a close-up of it.

Hi Mike, actually knew little to nothing about this brand nor company, it being Canadian based. Wonder who made its gloves: Wilson? I'm surprised it lasted so long into the
20th century, perhaps being the giant it was and controlled much of the retail life in Toronto, much like a Wal Mart does across cities in the U.S. Also interested in the Sears connection (Chicago) which bought the Eaton firm. Hard to name many department stores in U.S. that have lasted that long: Macys and of course Sears and Penneys. Long time since I've been in a
Sears store. Still sell baseball gloves? Well, a thought provoking post. Thanks Mike!

Eaton's was a giant in it's day.
It's catalogues were the only way many people in rural Canada were able to shop. Getting the new Eaton's catalogue was a big deal.
The brand holds a special place in the hearts of many Canadians to this day.

Now I know this isn't a baseball film, but it's iconic up here and speaks to Eaton's in a special way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgydkfnUEi8

Fascinating stuff, guys. Thanks for the great thread, Mike!

Bruce

Nice vintage baseball counter/advertisement.