J.A. Dubow Mfg. Sporting Goods

[mikesglove]

Jacob Dubow immigrated to the U.S. and established Dubow Glove Co. in Chicago in 1912. The company manufactured work gloves and were popular enough for the company to expand their operations in 1918. This coincided with their foray into the sporting goods market. The company eventually changed its name to J.A. Dubow Mfg. The sporting goods division came into its own in the 1920's and produced some quality baseball gloves. The company was able to gain the endorsements of some of the star baseball players of the day.

Here are some ads from the mid 1920's:






The Dubow "Johnny Mostil" glove below is on a lot of collectors want lists. It is well made and stylish with the "Protecto Seams" at the crotch of the finger stalls. The grommet web and thumb reinforcement wrapping around the thumb just adds to the desirability.



I owned two different Dubow "Guy Bush" model gloves. The first had a really unique sliding strap connecting three fingers. I have never seen anything like it again.

The second "Guy Bush" glove was picked up at the Cow Palace show in the City. One particular memorabilia dealer was beside himself that I found this gem after he had scoured the aisles during move-in day.



In the 1940's, Jacob Dubow patented his design of a curved finger glove to give a ready formed pocket. It was similar to a Wilson patent and involved an outward seam on the back of the finger stalls. I like the Dubow design as more elegant than Wilson because the Dubow's seam is rolled and more finished and polished looking. You can see the rolled seam running up the middle of the finger stalls on the Dubow glove below. Dubow licensed the use of this design to other manufacturers such as Hutch and OK Mfg.


This 1949 Dubow catalog advertises the "Pelican" line of gloves. The pelican's large bill and ability to scoop-up appealed to Dubow as a marketing strategy.


A "Pelican" model. Note the Peilcan stamped in the pocket.


I traded an antique dealer a beat up low end DiMaggio glove for the Pee Wee Reese glove as shown below. I would have done that trade all day long. The "Reese" was one great glove.


Here is a nice 1950's "Enos Slaughter" model with a seldom seen Dubow cloth patch.


Here is another 1950's model with a rare original box


Dubow stopped making gloves by 1960 due to the influx of cheaper import models. J.A. Dubow Mfg. is still in business however. During WWll, Dubow supplied the military with leather flight jackets and now they are in the business of manufacturing reproductions of those same jackets.

[softball66]

How cool that Dubow is now making replica "bomber" and WWII flight jackets! Way to go. I've just listed the different titles for the three finger gloves of the 1940s-50s like the Playmaker, Haymaker, Triple Play, Ball Hawk 4, because I'm listing a Hutch Magnet three-finger.
For team glove collectors Dubow became a source of hard-to-locate Brooklyn players on USA made gloves like Jackie Robinson and Don Newcombe, Carl Furillo, Ralph Branca, Billy Cox but also for many other toughies such as Mike Garcia, Mel Parnell, Sid Gordon, Bob Lemon, Ray Boone, Brooks Lawrence, "Whitey" Kurowski, Bob Porterfield, etc, etc.
I recall the Johnny Mostil endorsement advertisement and discovered later that Johnny just missed being on the 1919 Black Sox year but came along later for a fine career for the gutted White Sox during the 1920s.

[okdoak]

Very cool stuff as usual, Mike. I have what looks to be the same model Ki Ki Cuyler and it's great to see the ad for it. Tough to see the signature in my picture because it's a bit worn and doesn't really stand out. The Dubow pocket stamping is long gone This photo of Ki Ki with Rogers Hornsby and Hack Wilson is a favorite. His glove looks like it has the same early Dubow tag as the one that was in Brett's collection. Thanks for posting!

[johnmilner]

Wow! It seems that my Marathon Johnny Mostil is actually a Dubow Johnny Mostil!

[Rickybulldog]

Those Mostil gloves were built like tanks. Mostil's endorsement was on both Marathon and Dubow. The last 2 I had I was talked out of them by one of his relatives. Glad they went to a good home.

[johnmilner]

Did the Marathon Mostils have the Protecto seams?

And that's pretty cool about your Mostils, Ricky!

[Rickybulldog]

Yep, the models are identical.

[mikesglove]

A lot of my info on Dubow came from Joe's issue #8 TGC. Joe writes that Dubow made private label gloves for Sears, Montgomery Wards (Marathon), Western Auto, Walgreen Drugs and others.

[mikesglove]

here is a photo of a Marathon "Johnny Mostil" model 4240 I once owned

[mikesglove]

I saw this cool Dubow "Bill Lee" model for sale online. They don't get much better than this. At $289 it is a little pricey but an interesting style. I like the partially laced fingers

[larjoranj]

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[Jerry J]

Mike, great info. Here is a glove I came across in March of 2010 Dubo 368 Duke Snider. I couln't find out to much info on so I e-mailed Joe from glove collector and he let me know some of the history of Dubow. I have not cleaned it up since I am looking into restoring gloves and will try do some research on to which is the best way to do that. I have tried somethings on a Rawlings G600 Martin Marion glove and am happy with the results.

Thanks, I will see if I can figure out how to post some pics.

[okdoak]

Good to hear from another guy who likes Dubows, Jerry. If you're having trouble posting pictures, you can always sign up with Photobucket and post them from there. It's free, and a big help to low-tech guys like myself who don't know (and frankly don't care to know) how to change file or image sizes.

[Jerry J]

Here is the cleaned up version of the Duke Snider Dubow Mdl 368.

[mikesglove]