MacGregor Willie Mays Japan KWM

[breakin]

Hi.... I found this glove on Ebay. I thought it looked a lot like one of the Willie Mays personal models....the pics were pretty horrible and the seller never showed or made mention of the model# in the listing, but may have helped me out as I picked it up with very little competition....it says "personal model" on the glove and IT IS endorsed by Willie Mays. It is made in Japan. The model is KWM. I was told it might be a Kangaroo Willie Mays but as far as the person knew, they didn't make Kangaroo gloves in Japan during that time. The tint is quite different than all my other gloves. It does feel different as well. Any thoughts would be great! It's not listed in Joe Philips source book. THANKS a BUNCH!
Steve C.

[okdoak]

Wish I had an answer, but I'm in the same boat. I've wondered if my Hank Aaron KHA is a kangaroo hide also or if it's just made from a particularly supple piece of leather. There have been a few Macgregor kangaroo models on ebay over the years, but I can't remember if those were clearly stamped as such. I've also seen some gloves with a picture of a kangaroo stamped in the pocket, but think they may have been Nokonas. From what I've gathered from the Source Book, Macgregor only used kangaroo for their top of the line Pro Models. Anybody else have more info?

[Number9]

I can't tell you if your gloves are kangaroo or not, though the model numbers would suggest that they are. However, you should be able to tell the difference by the leather characteristics. Kangaroo has a very tight grain like horsehide but is much lighter in weight.

Take two gloves that are similar in size, one horsehide and one cowhide; the horsehide glove should feel a few ounces lighter. You'll notice that same weight difference between horsehide and kangaroo.

[BretMan]

I also have a KHA Aaron like the one pictured above and it doesn't strike me as being kangaroo at all. After handling quite a few Nokona kangaroo gloves, the difference in leathers is quite apparent.

This is total speculation on my part, but I wonder if these may have been gloves designed for sale in retail outlets other than established sporting goods stores, since these models do not appear in the Macgregor catalogs.

There is a precedent for that. For example, the many gloves that Rawlings made exclusively for sale through the K-Mart chain of stores. All of those gloves had a model number starting with the letter "K" and none of them appear in Rawlings catalogs.

The MacGregor gloves seem to pre-date those Rawlings gloves by just a few years (mid-to late 60's compared to the early-to-mid 70's). Perhaps K-Mart had changed their glove supplier around 1970.

[okdoak]

Thanks for the input Number9 and BretMan. I'm guessing that it's not a kangaroo glove after all. It is a high quality model, but not top of the line and their catalogued kangaroo models were all top of the line. The leather on the glove is just exceptionally nice, but that may have more to do with how it was cared for or conditioned by the original owner. Now I'm curious to see if there were "K" models for some of their other endorsers.

[breakin]

Hi! Thanks for the posts!

The fella that I spoke with, through Joe Phillips did say "not all Mac's beginning with K's are Kanga's." Joe's initial thoughts when I told him it was a K was "it's a kangaroo willie mays". I originally thought the K was an X but dismissed it as thoughts of "gamer" entered and I knew it "couldn't be!".