Home of 'broken-in' baseball gloves and softball gloves by Master Glovesmith Dave Katz
By Lawrence Mohr | Spring 2011
Some 600,000 new businesses are launched in the United States annually. Quinnipiac Business took at look at four diverse alumni businesses––from baseball gloves to new media marketing––in various stages of growth. We asked our alumni how they got started and what they can share about being entrepreneurs.
David Katz ’75 is to baseball gloves what Stradivarius was to violins.
The marketing major and owner of Katz Sport Shop in Meriden since the mid-70s knows how to break in a glove properly. For nonplayers, “breaking in” is taking a stiff piece of leather and making it supple, an extension of a player’s hand.
“I have developed my own Katz line of premium-quality gloves for serious players. I break in each glove completely by hand before it is sold,” Katz says.
He also offers a break-in service for existing gloves. Although he markets mostly to a youth audience, he has worked his trade secret process for players and celebrities, among them professional sports agents Seth and Sam Levinson; Hollywood producer Gary Ross; and Caroline Kennedy (for her son).
Some years ago, I bought a small sporting goods store from my brother and his friends. As an active baseball player, I focused primarily on a large inventory of baseball gloves. Having broken in my own gloves for years, I assumed everyone knew how to do it. As an experiment, I decided to break in a few gloves prior to selling them, and everyone loved them. Over the years I’ve become something of a “wellknown secret” and have developed a loyal following encompassing the state of Connecticut as well as parts of Massachusetts and New York.
I don't know if it’s unique, but it’s how I would like to be treated. I insist on doing business the old-fashioned way—personto- person with a minimum dependence on technology. I have a website (www.katzgloves.com), but customers are asked to call me for the right glove. They cannot order on the site; they have to talk to me first. I refuse to be just another Internet “superstore.” I treat each glove as if it were my own.
I get to meet some great people who love to talk baseball and sports. On the flip side, I have difficulty with rude people who take cell phone calls during a conversation.
Try to do something that you really enjoy and something at which you’re reasonably good. But mostly, be true to yourself and your own values.