Nike was once a large player in the MLB Glove Market, signing many high profile pitchers to contracts to use their typically awesome gloves. Yet, Nike has slowly been leaving the glove market over the past few years, and two of their more well-known signees have recently left Nike for other companies.
Jon Lester and Marcus Stroman, both proud Nike users at one point, have dropped Nike for Wilson and Rawlings, respectively. But while they made these glove brand switches, the designs of their newest mitts aren’t much different than the Nike ones they used in past seasons.
Marcus Stroman
Stroman, after using the same Blue Jays’ Blue Nike glove for multiple seasons in a row, has a trio of new Rawlings gloves for the 2018 season and beyond. And these gloves accomplished a tough feat, too: being both sexier and more customized than his prior Nike Diamond Elite Pro Mitt.
All Stroman’s gloves have modified trap webs with the Brandon Phillips/Wilson DatDude-style dual welting which always looks great. One is Royal Blue with Baby Blue accents, a Baby Blue glove with Gold accents, and a Black glove with Gold accents. All of these gloves share Gold Labels, the number 6 on the thumb, and Stroman’s “HDMH” (“Height doesn’t measure Heart”) slogan as the thumb embroidery.
Here are the links to these gloves via Rawlings’ custom builder:
It will be interesting to see which model Marcus Stroman uses in his first start, though all the gloves are simply beautiful.
Jon Lester
Jon Lester’s new Wilson Glove didn’t change too much, either, as he is now using essentially the same exact colorway that he used on his Nike glove. It combines a black base with blue stitching, red embroidery, and gray and red logos to form a simply nice glove design.
Lester’s glove will be part of Wilson’s Glove Lineup this fall, as the Chicago Tribune reported that Lester will receive his own Game Model and join the likes of former teammates Mookie Betts and Dustin Pedroia in having a Wilson model in their namesake.