AHI Brand a Designer Imposter??

[drasher81]

I was wondering if anyone knew the story behind AHI brand baseball gloves. I uncharacteristically picked one up for one a few dollars because something about it caught my eye. It is stamped THE IMPERIAL 5876 and when I first saw it thought it was a high end Wilson. This glove is very well made all leather no garbage and is almost an exact duplicate of a Ted Williams 2040. The only difference is that it is actually a little better in its construction with gromets on the backs of the finger lacing where as the Wilson just has plain holes. I was wondering if Wilson had any connection with AHI as an overseas branch. If they wernt the quality is very high for a japanese? import. Most of the imports I have seen are total garbage.

[BretMan]

Some of the early imports seem to be of good quality. As you said, many are junk. But then again, many of the made-in-the-USA gloves over the years have been junk, too!

I will pick-up an interesting import if it catches my eye. While they might not be the most collectible gloves out there, they are, after all...GLOVES!

I have one black "Hurricane" brand glove that looks like a knock-off of the black Nokona gloves from the late 50's.

One of my favorite import gloves is a Mizuno that, from what I can tell, seems to be a late 1950's or early 1960's glove. It is one of the oldest import Mizunos I've come across. Not having any dating references for old Mizunos makes it hard to pin down a date for that one.

One other import of note that I have: a perfectly mint, unused, with original hang-tag "World Series" Hall of Fame model. They sure got all the right baseball "keywords" in the name of that one!

This glove has thick leather, fat fingers, a single lace across the fingers, and a strange non-ergonomic feel to it that seems poorly suited to forming a pocket or catching a ball.

Pictures! I need to get the digital camera going and start posting some pictures of these unusual gloves!

While the import gloves are not considered collectible, I wonder if as the hobby grows imports might someday develop a niche status and find a market.