The Story Behind the Brand

As a young man, I enjoyed the game of baseball both as a participant and a fan. As a dad, I have enjoyed coaching my son and his friends from tee-ball until they reached the age to play school ball. One thing that I noticed was that kids had trouble finding a glove that fit well and that would stay on their hand. Standard gloves require special tools and skill to and you can only adjust the glove about 1/4 inch. Velcro strap gloves work well day 1, but then the Velcro gets dirty and does not stick anymore. So after years of witnessing this problem, I designed the G-Lock glove. With up to 25 micro-adjustments, a child could quickly and easily tighten or loosen the glove for a comfortable and secure fit that was better than any other solution in the market.

Starting a ball glove company, one of the things that I realized was that the baseball and softball gloves made by all the bigger brands did not have that rich traditional leather scent that was so nostalgic. Instead the material used by the bigger brands actually smells like it was doused in harsh chemicals. As we researched, we discovered that over the last 20 plus years, the bigger brands have their gloves made in China and other Asian countries and they developed a newer leather tanning method that uses Chromium and a lot of other harsh chemicals. The process is actually much quicker for the factories but the result is that baseball glove leather from the bigger brands is low quality compared to leather that was tanned the old fashioned way. We have worked hard to capture the traditional leather tanning methods perfected by Native Americans over centuries and even though it takes an extra 45 days for us to prepare the leather the old fashioned way, everyone that experiences a Relic-MXT glove from Resilient will instantly know that this is the type of leather that their parents and grandparents fell in love with.

I was blessed to have two grandmothers who influenced my work ethic and provided a colorful and rich backdrop for the future “why” behind this effort. My grandmother Bengs overcame the adversity of helping to raise her nine siblings while in high school. She attained a teaching degree during the Great Depression, all while hitchhiking to a neighboring town to attend class. Her husband was drafted in World War II and later killed, leaving her a young widowed mother. She persevered and became a beloved school teacher to many and eventually the grandmother who would pass along this story of challenge and triumph through her chosen medium of quilting. This artful storytelling impacted me greatly as a young man and served as a dynamic source of inspiration as we contemplated the name and concept of the new company.

My other grandma McGuire also played her role in the powerful story of women’s history. She took a job during World War II building bombers at Douglass Air Field in Oklahoma City, filling the role of a real-life Rosie the Riveter.

Resilient Gloves launched in March 2022 and as a tribute to my grandmothers, we are on a mission and willing to go the extra mile to build our gloves with traditional Native-tanned leather materials, consistent high-quality craftsmanship, and use innovation to deliver the highest quality and highest performing ball gloves to the next generation.