Gary Joseph has coached football at Katy (Texas) High since 2004. He says he’s “old school,” so he’s not too enthusiastic when asked about his players making gloves part of their uniform attire. He believes they’re a crutch.
Nevertheless, since the Tigers began wearing gloves eight years ago, Katy has lost just 11 games. Reluctantly, Joseph says there might be a correlation.
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“If it gives them confidence in catching the ball, I’m all for it,” Joseph said. “They’re not for fashion, just for confidence. … I feel that if people have great hands, they have great hands. But if they give them confidence, that’s fine, too.”
Whether it’s helping players gain a better grip, bolstering their sense of fashion, or maybe both, the popularity of gloves has never been greater. The craze began in the NFL, trickled down to the NCAA and has now engulfed high schools and even Pop Warner.
Consequently, it’s become big business, a pair ranging in price generally from $20-$50. According to Matt Powell, an analyst at SportsOneSource, retail sales were at $200 million in 2011, up from $160 million in 2010. Nike, outfitting all 32 NFL teams with gloves as part of their uniforms this year, dominates the landscape, finishing with 57% of sales in 2011. Under Armour was second with 21%, followed by Cutters (15%), the only non-shoe and apparel company in the top four, and Reebok (6%).
Adidas is lagging, but Mark Daniels, the company’s director of football, acknowledges how important gloves are.
“With today’s athlete, it’s ‘look good, play good,’ ” he said.
Under Daniels’ direction, Adidas has unabashedly tried to force its way into the conversation with its bold re-issue of classic uniforms. The Michigan Wolverines wore a commemorative jersey in their season opener against Alabama, but it was the gloves – lyrics to the university’s fight song, The Victors, scrawled on the underside – that had most talking.
In mid-August, the “TechFit” uniform for Notre Dame’s Oct. 6 game against Miami (Fla.) was largely panned on the Internet. But the gloves – the fighting leprechaun logo displayed on the palms when the hands are locked together – were a different story.
“They let you complete that uniform look,” Daniels said. “They allow you to be a little more individual to what the uniform is about. When alums go crazy because you changed the uniform, they don’t go crazy about the gloves. But that’s what resonates with the kids.”
Of course it does. Kids, at the very least, hope to look like their favorite players if they can’t play like them. The sports outfitters count on that for booming sales.
But, literally, at what cost?
“I wore Cutters in college and they were great,” said Houston Texans tight end Owen Daniels, who wears Nike. “But for me, right now, I can get a new pairof gloves every half. They’re pretty much unlimited.”
In Shawnee, Kan., Paul Marquis recommends his players use gloves.
His players are in the fifth grade.
He’s an assistant coach now, but his advice was the same last year when he was the head coach of a fourth-grade team.
“They help with performance and confidence,” Marquis said. “The cost is the least amount of any piece of your equipment, and equipment is all for protection. … It is an extra cost, but it helps prevent injury and increase personal value.
“It’s a personal choice. It’s not mandatory. … You don’t have to buy the latest and the greatest.”
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They just need to be effective.
“Certain gloves look better than other gloves, that’s for sure,” tight end Daniels said. “You have to find a pair you like, that make you feel confident. If you go out there in a pair and don’t have a good day – it’s like a putter in golf. Some guys like the belly-putter. … It’s whatever feels good.
“But most important for me is functionality. If I can’t catch the ball with them, I won’t wear them.”
Tacky is good
Once solely utilitarian, gloves were initially the next rung on the evolutionary ladder from Stick-um, the preposterously sticky adhesive NFLplayers applied liberally to their hands in the 1970s that was banned in 1981. But the leather-based gloves introduced soon after that were nothing like the varieties now available because of the monumental advances in technology.
Former Oakland Raiders wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff, whose name and Hall of Fame career is synonymous with Stick-um, can’t believe the products players have been using over his nearly two decades as an assistant coach.
“I still think it’s cheating,” Biletnikoff said. “I can honestly say in my 18 years of coaching, I’d like to have seen guys play without gloves. Those things they’re wearing are pretty tacky.”
Some of the blame can be directed at Jeff Beraznik, founder of Cutters. As a football player at Canada’s Ottawa University from 1992-96, Beraznik didn’t wear gloves. But after he injured his hand, he had to don gloves to keep playing. None was to his liking. On a whim, he tried on a pair of glass-cutter gloves and loved the fit. He finished his career wearing them.
After Beraznik graduated, he received calls from former teammates asking about the gloves. Sensing an opportunity, he and his wife launched Cutters out of their apartment in Phoenix in the late 1990s.
Despite not being one of two NFL-approved brands – league spokesman Greg Aiello says the only logos that can be visible on gloves are those of Nike and UnderArmour – Cutters has gained an incredibly loyal and devoted following. To avoid censure, players either tape over the Cutters logo or fold over a flap on the glove to conceal IT.
“Everything – the fit, the comfort, the tack inside, the grip – is crazy,” said Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Anquan Boldin, who met Beraznik and his wife while a member of the Arizona Cardinals. “I’ve been wearing them for six or seven years. Definitely, they work.”
And that, says Chris Miller, sales manager at Cutters, is what has set the company apart “from Day 1.”
The grip or basic material used on Cutters’ gloves is C-TACK, developed by Beraznik, who sold the company in June to Shock Doctor but remains strategically involved. The grip is part of the glove and not an application, unlike their competitors’ products. When the grip wears down, the options include simply wiping down the glove or tossing it in a washing machine. They’re very durable, appealing to the company’s main demographic of high school and college players.
“People have tried to imitate it,” Miller said. “It’s a trade secret.”
Others have their technology, too.
Nike has Magnigrip CL. Under Armour has GrabTack. Reebok is featuring Griptonite 2.0. Adidas, according to an online product information description, features “a seamless, double-coated, high gloss silicone palm (that) instantly stops ball rotation.”
Making a fashion statement
The science is all well and good, but mostly, it’s about comfort.
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Walking off a practice field recently at the Seattle Seahawks’ trainingfacility in Renton, Wash., wide receiver Sidney Rice had a pair of gloves tucked into the front of his pants while wearing another.
Asked why two sets – both Nike – were necessary, he shrugged. Was the pair stashed in his waistband, which featured a striped pattern on the palm, perhaps necessary to combat the elements in the rainy Northwest? Rice shook his head.
Eventually, he raised his covered hands, exposing an all-blue print.
“I just like the solid on the inside,” he said, a grin forming on his face.”They just feel better.”
He paused.
“It’s an appearance thing.”
And then there’s the curious case of Teddy Bridgewater, a sophomore quarterback at Louisville who hails from Miami.
When Bridgewater enrolled early during spring 2011, the Floridian found it still cool, almost wintry in Kentucky. Losing the feeling for the football, he decided to throw on the Adidas gloves the Cardinals use.
Even on his right, throwing hand.
Bridgewater completed 65% of his passes while throwing for 2,129 yards and 14 touchdowns, earning Big East Rookie of the Year honors.
“I don’t care about how the gloves look at all,” said Bridgewater, who wore gloves divided into portions of white, black and red in Louisville’s 32-14 season-opening rout of Kentucky. “I just wear them to help my team, to deliver nice passes. Fashion means nothing to me at all.”
Possibly, but the shoe companies – and Cutters – know better.
“Why is the graphic a growing trend? Because everybody wants to look cool,” said Edward Giard, Under Armour’s vice president of accessories.
Historically, no one has known this better than Nike.
“Your favorite player has the option to represent the logo, the spirit and tradition of your team – right on the palm of their gloves,” Nike spokesperson Brian Strong said. “That’s where we are in the evolution.”
Because the evolution is televised, every impression counts.
“While you’re watching the preseason or as the season gets into full swing, you see gloves more than you see footwear,” Giard said. “Linemen need gloves – and they want to look cool, too. It’s performance first, but we don’t want to forget the aesthetic.”
And, of course, the bottom line.
“They’re a great billboard for the goals we’re trying to achieve,” Adidas’ Daniels said.
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