Hutch #21

[mittmutt]

I've got this old Hutch model 21 I'm wondering if anyone can help me with. It is a one inch sewn web and about 8"x8". The only other marking says genuine cowhide. I'd like to know if it would be considered a childs model? Also, it has thin padding in the palm with no padding whatsoever in the fingers or thumb. Would this be the way the glove was made originally? Thaknks for any help, Lee

[BretMan]

The 8" X 8" dimensions seem about right for a vintage youth-sized split-finger glove.

There isn't much catalog data available for Hutch. From what little there is, and based on a the Hutch gloves in my collection, that model number is likely to designate a youth glove.

One pattern to Hutch model numbers I've seen is that they would use a two-digit number with the first digit being either a "2", "3" or "4".

Gloves starting with "4" would be the top-line models. Gloves starting with "3" were their mid-priced gloves and those starting with "2" were usually youth models.

Their gloves made under contract for American Eagle carry this same pattern, except the digits "70" are added to the model number, for example "7042".

I like Hutch gloves as they were one of several Ohio-based glovemakers during the hey-days of USA glove making, along with Goldsmith, MacGregor, OK and Sonnett.

[fuzzydogg22]

Bret,

So does that mean your 7024 is a youth model?

[BretMan]

Good catch, Fuzzy!

That glove proves to be an exception to the rule. The AE 7024 is a large, thick adult-sized glove.

Since last posting, I've dug around for photos of old Hutch gloves and found another top-line glove with a model number of "56" and a small kid-sized glove numbered "19".

That kind of expands the range of two-digit Huth model numbers, though they generally seem to have higher numbers on higer-quality gloves. The Vintage Glove Catalog Book has only one year of data from Hutch. The rest is empirical evidence gathered from vintage glove photos and my own collection.

[mittmutt]

Bret, thanks for the info.Which leads to another question. I'm curious to know about vinyl piping and liners. Any guesses on who and when they were first used. All the very early gloves were pure leather but it didn't take too many years for someone to find a way to cheapen things up.

[BretMan]

It seems like vinyl trim came into use right about the time plastics began making their way into other consumer products. The first commercial uses of vinyl date to around, or just prior to, 1930 based on a patent by tiremaker B.F. Goodrich. The first vinyl products marketed were golf balls and shoe heels.

A few such gloves in my coleection look to be early 30's designs with vinyl trim and lining. They are small and obviously inexpensive youth-sized gloves.

Even though gloves from "back in the days" are regarded as being better made, from the beginning of baseball glove history glovemakers have had cheap alternatives to their top-line models, which were aimed at the youth market.

"Vinyl" gets equated with cheap gloves and it certainly isn't as appealing or durable as leather. But even before vinyl was routinely used, cheap, mass-marketed gloves with other cost-cutting features were common. Thin buckskin leather, little or no padding, cloth-covered trim and cotton shoestring-like laces were all used to cut corners.

Another cost saver seemed to be recycling older glove designs for the cheaper models. I notice a lot of vintage kid's gloves that have lace patterns or web designs about a decade behind their contemporary full-sized models.