Who Made What for Who

[vintagebrett]

I'd like to start a thread discussing what companies made glove for other outlets to be sold in. I see a lot of gloves that were made by Sonnett or OK MFG but they have a different company stamped on them. The Nellie Fox I posted a picture in the picture section was definitely made by Sonnett but has the Tru-Touch stampings. So, I need your guys help - lets see if we can figure out who made what for who (and not just Sonnett/OK - I want to you guys to list any companies you want) . I'll get started - and obviously this is incomplete but it's what I have so far.

SONNETT/OK made gloves for:
-Ol' Reliable
-Cardinal
-Tru-Touch
-Beyette's
-Griswald's
-Professional Model (this seems to be generic but I've seen an AK and TW)
-Berman's Hardware
-Coast to Coast Hardware
-Gerry's Sport Shop
-Rex
-Cambridge
-West Point

RAWLINGS
-Alex Taylor
-Montgomery Ward
-Nokona (Trapper gloves)
-Lowe & Campbell (?)
-Spalding
-J.C. Penney
-Worth (modern)
-Miken (modern)
-Johnny Walker

GOLDSMITH
-Alex Taylor

WILSON
-Sears / JC Higgins
-Horace Partridge
-Lowe & Campbell
-Western
-Carolina Sporting Goods
-Treman-King

DENKERT
-Newman Stern
-Rowe Thompson Hardware
-Olympic
-Monarch
-Sports Master
-Emjay
-Guardian
-Maximus
-Olympian
-Gambles
-Folsom
-Hiawatha

NOKONA
-Wichita Sporting Goods
-Seattle Athletic Company
-Reach
-Wright & Ditson
-C&S Sporting Goods
-Maison Blanche

D&M
-Bogar's
-Schultz Novelty Co.
-Diesel Sporting Goods
-Bechtes's Sport Shop

HUTCH
-American Eagle
-Davega

DUBOW
-Sears / JC Higgins
-Montgomery Ward

STALL AND DEAN
-Fairplay Co.

[rosajr]

Brett,
I have a Hal newhouser that's definetely an OK but has Bermans Hardware store from Minnesota on it.

Jim

[crackofthebat]

I have a Mel Ott (model MO) that was definitely made by Goldsmith, but it has an Alex Taylor cloth patch and Alex Taylor stampings in the palm. Also, I have a George Sisler 1B mitt with all the usual Rawlings stampings, but it has an Alex Taylor cloth patch.

[vintagebrett]

Thanks for the additions so far - I'll edit my original post as new ones are mentioned so that everything is centralized.

[softball66]

Years ago Carmi Brandis, who used to write a glove column for SCD, had a
Monte Irvin glove and very likely made by Denkert that had the private label (stamping) store name of Newman Stern on it.
Sometime after that I discovered this was the store that Actor Paul Newman's family owned in Cleveland as I heard him bring it up it on a talk show. He even worked in the store for awhile.
A few of these Newman Stern gloves have shown up in the meantime.
My personal owned favorite was a Rowe Thompson Hardware Mickey Mantle
signature glove and made also by Denkert. I think we could find a lot of Denkert made private label gloves.
The biggest glove making contracts were probably that of Wilson for Sears and Rawlings for Montgomery Ward.
I've also got another keepsake out of the Huge glove find in Wichita, Kansas many moons ago: a Wichita Sporting Goods glove made by Nocona.

[ebbets55]

This is a fun topic Brett. Off the top of my head to add to the list:

Wilson made gloves for Horace Partridge.

Nokona made gloves for Reach, Wright & Ditson, C&S Sporting Goods and Maison Blanche.

Denkert made gloves for Olympic, Monarch and Sports Master.

D&M made gloves for Bogar's, Schultz Novelty Co. & Diesel Sporting Goods.

Rawlings made a model or two for Nokona and didn't they make gloves for Lowe & Campbell?

Aren't Gambles, Folsom and Hiawatha the same company?

I'll go check my list and see if I can come up with any others.

JD

[Cowboy7130]

I think I remember .... (oooh how many dangerous conversations have been started like that! ) I think I remember JC Penney gloves being made by Rawlings in the 1960's and 1970's ... I wonder when that was begun ...

[BretMan]

Cowboy,

I finally got a chance to hit a couple of antique shows last weekend (the first weekend of the spring since March where I wasn't umpiring baseball games).

One of the gloves I picked up was a Rawlings Mike Schmidt endorsed, H-web model with one of those odd four-digit model numbers (1061). It's a fairly well-made glove, at least mid-priced or higher.

The patch on the wrist strap looks like a traditional red Rawlings patch- except for a little extra embroidery. In the upper left-hand corner is embroidered the word "BY" (as in "BY Rawlings") and in the lower right are the words "FOR JCPenney".

Pretty definite proof of the Rawlings/JCPenney connection!

[softball66]

Cowboy, me too. I've got an Elston Howard Rawlings with J. C. Penneys on it. I think I've seen a total of five or six Rawlings Penneys including Mantle.
Gotta remember that Rawlings made all of the Spalding gloves from the time Spalding bought Rawlings (late 50s thru the 1960s-some of the '70s).
And we must remember that Rawlings made the Trapper mitts for anybody who would come up with the money:Spalding, Wilson, Nocona, Reach, MacGregor. This was from the 1940s to the 1970s. The understand I think was that Rawlings had to produce the trappers, and for the most part the other companies couldn't put a player endorsement on the mitt.
Brett, this may be the Rawlings made Nokonas I don't recall other gloves/mitts in the Nokona line coming from Rawlings but I could be wrong.

[swingman]

I know rawlings today makes gloves for Worth.

[Studboy]

Add Coast to Coast Hardware stores to the made by Sonnett/OK

[MVALZ]

Pretty sure my American Eagle (Spiegle Catalog) Spahn was made by Hutch

[Cowboy7130]

Doing some research on Ted Williams gloves, I came across the concise history of Sears gloves in The Source. According to The Source, Wilson and Dubow made gloves for Sears and then Sears "re-branded" the gloves to JC Higgins models.

And, in the same informative historical essay, I discovered that Ted Williams joined Sears in 1960, after a long association with Wilson.

Now, my question: Sears/Ted Williams branded gloves look and feel different* than anything else I have ever seen. Who made them? If they were made by another major glove company, why were they made so different from the major company's gloves of the day?

*different here does not equal better Let's just say I really like those Ted Williams labels!

[softball66]

Cowboy is on target. Sears, Wilson, Dubow, all headquartered in Chicago so it was easy to connect for Mr. Higgins to get his gloves made for Sears there. Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind, it seems that MacGregor may have made some of the TW Sears gloves for a year or so.
Williams signed the biggest endorsement of all time when he went with Sears. I think Pete Rose broke that mark when he signed on with Mizuno about 1978 or so, leaving MacGregor.
I think that is "think" that Wilson made the Ted Williams gloves for Sears and then Sears went to the orient to produce them. You can look at the variations of the gloves over the years. Stiff leather generally but Cowpoke's right, very nice patch. i bought one a the flea market, a mint T W but only because the patch looked so nice on the glove.

[MVALZ]

I know rawlings today makes gloves for Worth.

I heard they make them for Miken too. I picked up a Miken Kangaroo EPS model with many Rawlings features. Sorry if in wrong catagory Mr Moderator