Figured I'd share a clip of my Grace 12" blonde and see if you guys think couch catch without a hand in the glove is still a decent/effective way to help form the pocket. I obviously can't throw and catch at the same time lol. This is the first and only glove I've ever broken in, only had it a few weeks.
Hi, I just wanted to share my experience with Grace and some brief thoughts on the glove I bought. Just to preface, I'm new to ball gloves and not an expert or anything. I'm also missing my left hand so my needs in a glove might be slightly different than yours.
First, the ordering process was super easy. I went with a Classic stock glove in a 12". I already bought a 12.75" HoH r2g recently and wanted something higher quality and a bit smaller. There was an error with the cost to ship to Canada so I sent a message through the online chat just to let them know. They were super cool about it, honored the quoted price and told me to put in the order.
Unfortunately, there were some extra charges incurred because UPS is awful for economy international shipping. I let them know, but I wasn't expecting any sort of action on it as they had already gone the extra mile on shipping it. Kevin asked for the total of the extra charges and refunded that amount off the glove total. At this point, I'm sure they didn't even make a profit on the glove. The service they provided was unparalleled to any other company I've ever dealt with. This alone is enough for me to recommend Grace Gloves to anyone and everyone, supporting a small business that goes the extra mile just feels right.
On to the glove. This thing is STIFF! Straight out of the box, I couldn't even get my hand in it. A little worrisome as I need to be able to slip it on/off quickly for my style of play. I went to work, beating it with an 8lb weight for about 30 minutes. Forming the hinge points, working the pocket and the leather in all areas to help soften it up. That 30 minutes went a long way, I could now get my hand in (2 in the pinky) and start to stretch the stall. I wiggled my hand and fingers in the stall and worked the leather in my hand for roughly another 30 minutes until my hand was tired. I could then slip it on/off although not smoothly or quickly. This glove is overall still very stiff, I'm not sure how soft or broken in it will get but I have a long way to go.
At that point, I put the glove down for the night and slipped on my HoH r2g that I bought a couple weeks ago but have been wearing everyday to work the finger stalls for an easy on/off. The HoH felt incredibly soft now, compared to the Grace. It made me wonder, will the Grace ever get even close to this easy to slip on/off or feel this soft? I love the HoH but I'm going to stop working on it for fear that it may get too loose/soft before I've even had a chance to use it. I'm going to keep working the Grace to see how far I can take it, I know from reading on here that this process can take a very long time especially without using aggressive methods such as dunking it in water.
I have no regrets, the glove looks good and seems very well built. The company is fantastic and really cares about its customers and their experience. If you are on the fence order one. Also, I'd love to hear about your experience breaking in your Grace gloves.
I haven't owned a glove in 25+ years. My son signed up for little league and suddenly I'm obsessed! The R9 Contour is my son's but it's too big for him, Sandlot for my Wife, HoH R2G because I needed something ready to use and I wasn't obsessed with gloves yet and the Grace because I wanted something smaller than my HoH and to see what the hype was all about 😂