Button on older gloves

[Catch2575]

Does anyone have buttons on their gloves that seem to bring up more questions than they answer? I am asking because a glove I have had a jean maker button installed on it. Do any factorys that made gloves have anything to do with jean companys that anyone knows of? (Lee's)

[BretMan]

I seem to recall Lee being one of the companies that issued "premium" gloves as give-aways with a purchase of their clothing products, much like the gloves from Buster Brown shoes, Popsicle or Baby Ruth candy bars.

The Vintage Glove Source book lists a "Lee" brand as a "private label" glove- one made by an established sporting goods company, then re-labeled with the branding of another company (for example, the gloves that Rawlings made for Montgomery Ward or that Wilson made for Sears under the J.C. Higgins logo). The only listed endorser for "Lee" gloves is a "Tom Spencer". The only Tom Spencer I can find who ever played in the Majors played in a handful of games for the White Sox in 1978- can't be the same guy.

Maybe somebody just took a button off an old pair of jeans to replace one that tore off of their glove!

Another quirk with glove buttons is that during the war years, with rationing in full effect, sporting goods makers seemed to take anything they could get. The result was that gloves from different companies could wind up with the exact same buttons as other companies, making the button design useless for identifying the glove. I wonder if, under rationing, a glove maker might have had to make due with buttons that were originally intended for clothing?

[softball66]

Brett's right about interchangeability of the wrist buttons. Also correct about World War II's effect on the glove alterations.
On the buttons in that 1940 to 1945 period I've seen "train logo" buttons such as the zephyr, airplane buttons, etc. These are collectible in themselves.
I saw the old "shank button" application machine at Nocona years ago. You can accomplish the same thing with the shank and the button with a hammer.
And I don't think the Lee button likely had anything to do with Lee Jeans/Lee Gloves. Because a Lee Jeans shank button will work on a glove wrist button. If you need a button go to the cloth stores where they sell the jeans buttons.
Also disappearing during WWII were the buckles for buckle back gloves.
Buckles wen into the military for backpacks, and myriads of military use.
Ever wonder why the horsehide glove leathers went away. Horses were replaced on the farms by gasoline tractors for the most part. Hence no slaughtering of old draft horses.