The Art, Business and Community of Baseball Gloves

Every now and then, we discover a Wharton Global Youth student who is using business skills to do something quite unique — and it’s just too good to pass up the opportunity to connect and learn from them. Such is the case on our latest Future of the Business World podcast. In Episode 53, Ryan Pat, a high school senior from Massachusetts, shares the story of his Instagram baseball glove shop, where for the past four years he has bought, sold, traded, fixed and designed baseball gloves. While he has generated revenues and some income, more importantly, he has grown to appreciate the value of building relationships — so much so that he has come to define entrepreneurship differently. “I’ve learned that entrepreneurship isn’t about just making money,” says Ryan. 

Be sure to click the arrow above to listen to our conversation. An edited transcript appears below. 

Wharton Global Youth Program: Hello and welcome to Future of the Business World, the podcast featuring high school entrepreneurs from around the world. I’m Diana Drake with the Wharton Global Youth Program at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Our mission at Wharton Global Youth is delivering excellent content, programs, courses and competitions to high school students — from Wharton, a world leader in business education.

Today’s episode is a little sports, a little creativity and a lot of business with a student we met in both our Essentials of Entrepreneurship and Leadership in the Business World programs. Ryan Pat, welcome to Future of the Business World.

Ryan Pat: Thanks so much for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Wharton Global Youth: Let’s start by finding out about you. Tell us about yourself.

Ryan: I live in Needham, Massachusetts, and I’m a senior at St. Sebastian School. In my free time, I like to read, watch movies and take walks around my neighborhood.

Wharton Global Youth: You run an Instagram baseball glove shop where you buy, sell, trade, fix and design baseball gloves. Tell me more. What is your elevator pitch for your business?

Ryan: I run an Instagram baseball shop, and I mainly focus on the details. It’s about finding rare gloves and getting ones used by pros, like your favorite player, or bringing beat up ones back to life — so your old gamer that you used to use. And finally, [I create] custom designs that stand out to people. I’d say it’s part business, part craftsmanship, and it’s all about connecting players and collectors with their ideal glove that fits them.

Wharton Global Youth: I want to get into all the details about that, but first, can you tell us about your origin story? How did you develop this passion? Are you already a fan of baseball? Are you a player?

Ryan: I’ve been a baseball fan since I was a kid. I started playing baseball when I was five, and obviously I’ve been a fan of baseball ever since. I still play now for our high school’s varsity team. But what inspired me to start collecting baseball gloves was in middle school, I was really obsessed with how gloves looked. I just thought they were so cool and that you could develop a relationship, because it’s the only thing protecting you from the ball that’s speeding at you at 90 miles an hour, right? There was so much beauty and detail and craftsmanship that went into each piece. And I realized a glove wasn’t just a piece of equipment. It had its own story, its own personality, and I wanted to have more of them and collect.

Wharton Global Youth: I’d love to know more about how this Instagram store operates. You say you buy, sell, trade, fix and design. Let’s start with the buy, sell and trade. Where do you buy from, and sell to, and trade? What do those transactions look like?

Ryan: Buying comes from all different places. I can source gloves from individual collectors that are in the Instagram community; baseball players that I meet in person, which has happened a few times; eBay and other kinds of second-hand sites are a good option; and finally, manufacturing retailers themselves — buying straight from the website. Those are all viable options for selling. My customers range anywhere from high schoolers to kids’ dads, who are shopping for a glove, and college players or serious collectors who are searching for a cool glove to have on their shelf. It varies with whatever you’re posting and what you’re trying to sell, but it’s from all different ages and all different kinds of people.

Lastly, trading, I think, is the most interesting part of the business, and a really big part. This is the part [that] I think is the coolest because it’s not about profit. You’re essentially giving a glove to get a glove, or sometimes multiple, but it’s about understanding what someone values in a glove and what you’re trying to get out of it and negotiating a deal that works for both people. You’re essentially one-for-one swapping a glove with someone. And often, the gloves hold sentimental value to the person, because their favorite player used it. And so that right trade means whatever both parties want.

Wharton Global Youth: How much might you “pay” for a glove that you trade?

Ryan: Gloves that I trade usually run from $300 to $600, but I’d say the price fluctuates a lot, because you’re trading a glove, right? You’re not buying it directly or selling it. And I think what makes trades work really well [is that] you have something that someone else wants, they have something that you want, and you’re swapping it. So both parties are happy. I wouldn’t say there’s a ton of profit in trading, because you’re not directly selling to the consumer.

Wharton Global Youth: We’ve talked about buying, selling and trading. Now the more creative side. Can you give us an example of a glove you have reworked, the “fix and design” that you talk about? What shape was the glove in and how did you fix it up? Give us a picture.

Ryan: One of the coolest ones I did was one of my old gloves that I used as a kid. And it’s not expensive or anything cool, but it was just super dried out and beat up, and it was pretty much dead. But it had a lot of sentimental value to me, because I was the owner, and it was something I used as a kid. So, I reconditioned it, I relaced the whole glove and reshaped it using hot water and touched it up using some dyes. But, I never sold it. It’s still in my closet, but it was a glove I used when I was 12. It doesn’t have a lot of meaning to anyone else, but it was super cool to me, because I was able to fix my old gloves, and I’ll have it almost good as new.

Wharton Global Youth: Do you also have to re-lace them? What process goes on behind the scenes?

Ryan: Re-lacing only happens when the glove is super worn out or the laces literally break. The only way that would happen is if a ball goes through the lace and actually snaps the glove, which has happened to me before. But other than that, it’s kind of rare, mainly because the laces are supposed to be durable. But I’ve had to do it a couple of times, because once you use a glove for years, things get worn out. It’s just like a car – you’ve got to replace the parts.

Wharton Global Youth: Where does this fit into the spectrum of art. Do you consider yourself an artist and do you have a love of art?

Ryan: I do love art, but in the glove space. I would call myself an untraditional artist. What I mean by that is it’s more of an artistic craftsmanship where the goal is restoring and designing, rather than drawing it or building it up from scratch. So, it’s more about attention to detail and giving a glove your own flair, but the base has already been made for you, by the company or by whomever you bought it from. It’s more like building on people’s history, rather than designing something yourself.

Wharton Global Youth: You said you developed this interest in middle school. Does that mean that you started your Instagram shop in middle school? How many years have you been running it?

Ryan: I really loved gloves in middle school, but as most middle schoolers are, I was broke and had no job and no money. So essentially my passion was dormant because I couldn’t do anything. But the summer of my 9th grade year, I was very motivated and very inspired to start doing something. That’s when I explored more on Instagram and found this community, and [thought], I’ve got to be a part of this. So, I ended up getting a summer job at Shake Shack in my local community. That summer job gave me a couple $1,000, which was enough to start collecting. I built off of that. That job gave me the capital I needed to find gloves I wanted and buy them, instead of just looking at them.

Wharton Global Youth: What are your net sales and profits? And how do you price your work?

Ryan: Since the time I started tracking them, it’s been about $18,000 in revenue and about $4,000 in profit. There was a period of time when I wasn’t bookkeeping, and I’d say maybe throughout the time I’ve been collecting, [I’ve generated] $20,000 in revenue and $5,000 in profit. How would I price my work? Pricing depends on a few factors — rarity of the glove, if it’s a limited edition or player-used or signed; the condition of the glove, which is obviously how beat up it is: is it new? Is it completely dead? Is it a little used? Or the demand for the glove. So, this glove was a stock glove from 20 years ago, and it’s now super rare. That brings the price of the glove up. For restoration and custom work, usually you factor in the cost of materials, labor and the level of detail you need to fix it. So, again, how much work do I need to put in to fix this glove? But I’ve essentially stopped charging for those for two reasons. One, I realized that I didn’t collect [gloves] for the money, and it’s cooler for me just to work with leather and not make money off it, because the money isn’t super awesome anyway. And two, it avoids a lot of liabilities about people saying, ‘Oh, you didn’t do a good job. I want my money back.’ So, I realized, if I didn’t charge and did what I wanted, I’d just get to work with more leather, which I thought was fun.

Wharton Global Youth: Are you saying that you’re not generating sales from this point forward?

Ryan: Not from breaking in and restoring gloves. The part about saving gloves I’d say is almost a zero at this point for me. That’s a personal choice. Even if I did charge, the amount of time that goes into it makes the money pointless. I’d say it’s more of a cherry on top, rather than I’m making money from the restorations. I’d say more money comes from buying and selling gloves. That’s where the money is made.

“I called up Ryota, who was my friend [from my Instagram community] in Japan, and he helped me translate my ideas on a call and build this glove. Eight weeks later, I got a glove that incorporated my own drawings on it, and all my design features, and I had done it with someone 3,000 miles away.” –Ryan Pat

Wharton Global Youth: Tell me about doing all this on Instagram. Is it an important platform for your shop, and why?

Ryan: I’d say Instagram is super important for me personally, because it’s my primary marketplace. It allows me to showcase gloves visually by taking pictures, by posting them, and getting engagement from people. It’s also a great place to connect with other collectors or people who want to buy and make transactions quickly through DMs, so you don’t need to go through this lengthy process. Instead, someone can text you and then you can get the deal moving forward.

But I think the coolest part about social media is it’s an awesome place to build a community. People engaging with posts or sharing feedback on my work, or even requesting help to design a glove. And it’s grown to the point where us glove collectors, as I’d like to put it, have a group chat, which has about 100 collectors. There are more people who browse and follow, but for people who are actively collecting, there are over 100. I thought that was something that you can’t get through eBay or Mercari or any second-hand sales, because the point there is purely to sell a product, which I wasn’t trying to do, right?

Wharton Global Youth: I want to know more about this community, though. It sounds as though it’s global. Can you tell us some stories of people you’ve met and how you have connected with them?

Ryan: Yes, it is global. I’ve done deals in five countries — Taiwan, Japan, some countries in South America, Canada and the U.S. And I think the global community is a lot bigger than people realize, and it’s been a chance to connect with people from all over. I became close friends with some college kids across the U.S. I have one friend who collects gloves at UCLA and another at Purdue. I’ve also had the privilege of connecting to people internationally. One of my closest glove community friends is someone who works in the Tokyo International Airport in Japan, which I thought was incredible. And I’ve done a few deals with him, and he’s helped me with a lot of projects. I think it’s really cool how a shared love, or a passion for gloves, has connected me with with people worldwide.

Wharton Global Youth: Have you met any of them in person?

Ryan: Not yet, but mainly that’s due to distance. If I’m ever in the area, I might try to meet up. But for now, it’s just been online stuff.

Wharton Global Youth: Tell us about your inventory. I think I saw a picture on your Instagram with this huge pile of baseball gloves. Do you have them around your room? What does your collection look like, and what does your inventory look like right now?

Ryan: For that post, I pulled all of the gloves I had together and made it like that, although I wouldn’t keep them like that normally. What happened was I used to have them strewn around my room, but I eventually hit the point of having 20 or 30 gloves and [needed to do something about it]. I had to make a change. So, I stole an old IKEA shelf that my parents weren’t using and used that to organize them, and bought some boxes and stored them in there, as well. I’d say now it’s a lot more streamlined, especially given the volume of gloves that I have.

And for deciding what gloves to sell, it’s more of a spontaneous thing, where someone will text me if I post a glove they want, and we can begin discussing if I do want to sell it, or if I want to keep it, or what the price point is and what they can afford, or what I want to give them. And it varies by the day. I’ve had weeks where I’ve sold 10 gloves, and it’s been crazy. I’ve had to run to the post office twice a day. And [I’ve had] months where I didn’t sell anything because I wasn’t posting something, or I didn’t want to sell anything, or it didn’t work out. It varies by what people are looking for and what I’m also looking to sell.

Wharton Global Youth: What’s your ultimate goal for your baseball glove collection and even your Instagram shop?

Ryan: It’s going to be a little hard going to college next year, but long term, I’d love to expand the business by collaborating with a brand, or developing my own custom glove line. More than anything, I want to keep growing the community and helping people find gloves that they want and that are meaningful to them. Going on to a college campus next year, I might not be able to sell and trade and collect as much as I do, but I’ll still be able to help people find what they want. And I think that’s much cooler than making a little bit of money.

Wharton Global Youth: It sounds like you feel as though you’ve developed an expertise?

Ryan: Yeah, I’d say so. It’s been four years in the making, so why not?

Wharton Global Youth: And where are you headed next year? Do you mind me asking?

Ryan: I’m not sure yet. I haven’t gotten anything back, and I think most of my stuff comes out in March and April, so we’ll see.

Wharton Global Youth: What do you feel you’ve learned through this process, about creativity-inspired entrepreneurship, or buying and selling — building a business. What are some of your big takeaways?

Ryan: I think I’ve learned that entrepreneurship isn’t just about making money. Actually, if your success is only profit-driven, you’re going to do worse. I think it’s more about problem solving and being creative and having a passion for it, and developing relationships. I think the relationships I’ve developed by not searching only to make money have made me more money, ironically, than if I was selling for pure profit. So I think finding ways to add value also through your work, customizing or restoring, and telling a story makes the business a lot more meaningful than just selling products and trying to make a quick buck.

Wharton Global Youth: Four years in the making, you said, tell me a day that was a highlight of your glove trading or selling or whatever you were doing. What was one big highlight for you?

Ryan: My personal biggest highlight, especially from the creative side, was I wanted to make a glove that was fully customized, down to the pattern and every detail. And I also wanted to incorporate some of my own literal art. So, I drew a sketch that I wanted to put on my glove. It was of a ghost. I was searching for a company that would let me do that. Eventually, I stumbled upon a small company in Japan called Two-way Player, but they didn’t speak any English, so I was devastated. I thought, I have all these cool ideas, but I can’t do them. And that’s when I called up Ryota, who was my friend in Japan, and he helped me translate my ideas on a call and build this glove. Eight weeks later, I got a glove that incorporated my own drawings on it, and all my design features, and I had done it with someone 3,000 miles away. We had collabed on a call, and it was a completely international deal that I was able to draw myself. I thought that was super amazing.

Wharton Global Youth: Was he the member of the community that you mentioned before?

Ryan: Yeah, he was. I had done a few deals with him before then, and I was thinking, I need a translator. I hope a translator could help me do this. I sent him a text and said, ‘Hey, I have this really cool idea, but I can’t speak Japanese. Would you mind translating for me at ABC time and helping me make my dream a reality?’ And he [agreed]. It was super amazing, because obviously he has a job and everything, but he was able to make time to help me make a glove that I thought was important to my life.

Wharton Global Youth: I bet you still have that glove in your collection. Am I right?

Ryan: Yes.

Wharton Global Youth: Let’s end with our lightning round. Try to answer these questions as quickly as you can.

Something about you that would surprise us?

Ryan: Something that would surprise a lot of people is I actually do art on the side. So, I love ceramics, and this year, I’ve made a Snoopy figurine, and I’m working on a Jordan One replica. It’s just been something I’ve been doing throughout middle school and high school.

Wharton Global Youth: In a sentence, how would you describe the intersection of art and business?

Ryan: I asked a similar question to my friend once, and I thought she had a great response, and I’m going to base it off that. I think art and business have a very symbiotic relationship. What I mean by that is the creative space of art allows businesses to thrive and grow, but business also allows art to be a feasible profession; a livable endeavor. You need business and you need money to sustain your life, but the creativity of art is also what allows businesses to be unique.

Wharton Global Youth: Who is your favorite baseball player?

Ryan: I have two answers to this, and they used to play for the same team, but I loved Nolan Arenado, who still plays, and Troy Tulowitzki, who retired. And the reason was one, I love their gloves. And, they were really good defenders, so they played their positions well, and that was cool to me. When I was a kid, I do pitch now, but I dreamed of being an infielder, and they were my two favorites from the [Colorado] Rockies.

Wharton Global Youth: What is your most memorable moment from Leadership in the Business World?

Ryan: I’m going to give you one that’s in class and one that’s out of class. We talked a lot about branding and how that affects how U.S. consumers view products. Mike, our instructor, decided to prove this to us by doing this blind taste testing with RC Cola, which is a generic product, Pepsi and Coca Cola. He would blindfold students and give them a [taste] of three and to prove that it was mostly marketing, he’d [ask us to] tell him which was which. I think nobody got all three, or maybe only one person. It was interesting, because everyone says they can taste the difference between Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi, all the things, right? But when you take away that sense of sight and that branding, almost no one could differentiate what it was, even though half the class said, RC Cola sucked.

My favorite out-of-class moment was, Philadelphia was a really cool city. I’ve made a habit of taking a lot of walks, because I think it’s very therapeutic. So, a lot of my favorite memories were taking long walks with a friend at night and exploring the city. I really enjoyed that.

Wharton Global Youth: Something you’ve learned in the past six months that you want to share with others?

Ryan: one of the most important things is that no matter how experienced you are or how long you’ve done something, you’re not always going to succeed and you’re going to fail. But that failure doesn’t mean that you’re any less prepared or any less successful. It’s just the way the world works. One of the most important things is building on that failure and moving on. So an example was, I’ve been doing this glove thing for a long time, but sometimes, I still get scammed by someone. I pay them for a glove and they don’t send it. So, it’s a lot of money and it hurts. But that doesn’t mean you’re any less of a businessman. You’re just going to have to move on and learn from your mistakes. Not being rattled by things that happen, because nothing’s perfect and moving on is really important.

Wharton Global Youth: You are starting a business-themed talk show. Who is your first guest and what is your first question?

Ryan: I would invite Shaq, Shaquille O’Neal. And the reason is, I think he redefined what it means to be an athlete-entrepreneur. You see him on TV, and he’s this big dumb guy. Yeah, he is a doctor, actually. But, he went from this big, dumb persona to investing in everything from fast food to his own shoe line and tech. And my first question would be: if you had to build a business from scratch today with just your name and no money, what’s the first move you’d make? I think that branding is a super powerful thing, and I would want to see how he used his own personal image to build his businesses.

Wharton Global Youth: Ryan Pat, thank you for joining us on Future of the Business World.

Ryan: Thanks so much for having me. I had a lot of fun.

Conversation Starters

Ryan Pat believes that art and business have a “symbiotic relationship.” Do you agree? How would you describe the intersection of art and business?

What does Ryan Pat’s Instagram baseball glove shop teach you about entrepreneurship? He has come to appreciate connections more than profits. Would you still describe him as an entrepreneur? Why or why not?

Do you run a unique business on Instagram? Share your story in the comment section of this transcript.

Hero Image Photo Credit: Curated Lifestyle, Unsplash