A conversation with a certain North Central native will change the way you look at baseball gloves. The tired, floppy ones especially. Chris Petroff and his dad, David, bring them back to life with skill and a little bit of old-fashioned magic.
Chris Petroff played baseball as a kid in Phoenix. “My trusty Wilson A2000 had served me well, but the laces had loosened and the leather was in bad shape,” he recalled. “My dad relaced it for me and conditioned the leather. I watched as my old glove came back to life and was hooked. I started reconditioning my gloves and my kids’ gloves here and there. It was always so cool to see the difference I could make in them.”
After a career in economic development, Petroff and his dad founded The Glove Lab in 2019. “Yes, there is a Lab involved,” he said. “He’s a Labrador Retriever called Louie, after the Louisville Slugger all baseball players know and love. And there’s a ‘Lab,’ which is where we work, in our garage in the 12th Street and Northern neighborhood.
“Our kids are part of the operation, running gloves between our house and my parents’ house, here in the neighborhood. They ride their scooters and haul the gloves in big blue Ikea bags hanging on the handlebars. It’s quite the efficient operation,” he added.
What started out as a hobby is now a business that refurbishes and repairs gloves for Little League and professional players all over the map.
“We work on some really special gloves, getting them into top shape for the pros as well as for the beginners” Petroff said. “Every glove has a story, and it’s really fun to get to know those stories and add to them.”
Petroff’s skills have been challenged over the years by gloves chewed by family pets, by a glove rescued from a house fire, and gloves left in the rain or in hot cars in Phoenix summers.
“Dogs are a big fan of baseball gloves – they see them as chew toys and that’s a disaster for the gloves. Some of them require such extensive repair that we essentially rebuild the glove with new leather,” he said. “The sentimental value of many gloves prompts an owner to seek us out, to bring the glove back to life. Those are especially meaningful projects.”
The Glove Lab has been featured in Sports Illustrated, Men’s Journal and other national and local media and podcasts. About 70 percent of The Glove Lab’s business comes from out of state, although Petroff says his home state of Arizona “is a big baseball state, not just for the pros and spring training, but also for the youth teams.”
Petroff enjoys teaching the young players how to care for their gloves. “They will last a lifetime if you do some simple things to maintain them,” he said. “Keep them out of the heat – you can leave your gear bag in the garage or the car, but take your glove into the house,” he advises Arizona players. “Heat and sunshine dry out the leather. So even when you protect them from the summer temperatures, they need a light coat of conditioner like Ball Player’s Balm or any number of conditioners on the market. And when you put a glove down, don’t do it palm down. That ‘pancakes’ a glove and that is hard to reverse.”
Some of his customers send their gloves to The Glove Lab every 12-18 months for tightening and conditioning. “And others wait until their gloves are all but worn out. We’re happy to work on any of them,” he said.
Besides conditioning and repairing gloves, Petroff has a passion for providing gloves to kids who don’t have them.
“We take donations of gloves in any condition, and share them with kids through an organization my buddy founded. There’s tremendous power when two people play catch, and I love to think of these donated and reconditioned gloves making that possible.”
Anyone wanting to donate a glove is encouraged to contact Petroff through his website, www.theglovelab.com, or his Instagram account, @azglovelab.
“We’re glad to get them in any condition, of any quality. We’ll fix them up and get them to kids who will enjoy them.”
And Louie? “He has no interest in the gloves, thankfully,” Petroff said. “But baseballs? He’ll chew one without remorse.”
