PRO PREFERRED RICH TAN VS TAN HOH

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Lalo1333

New Member
Are horween tan leather and Japanese tan leather options for custom orders made through retailers, such as through Chad here at Softball Fans?
 
Rous

Rous

Addicted to Softballfans
There were rumors about 6 months ago that tan Horween glove leather would be an option for customs by early spring, but it still has not shown up. I can think of a couple issues that could could have gotten in the way of the Horween option, but I don't really know what happened.
 
PROSTX23

PROSTX23

New Member
Good morning,

I'm a bit out of the loop here, but how can you tell where the leather for a current model Rawlings glove comes from? As I understand it from reading here (this site) Japanese tanned leather is indicated by a J in the model number. If that J isn't in the model #, does is mean that the leather is sourced (For HOH) from the Horween tannery? Or are there other sources for their HOH leather? Hope this isn't a silly question.
 
Rous

Rous

Addicted to Softballfans
The only Horween they are using right now is the oil tanned black and the Featherlite. I am confident that if they were using Horween for any of the other colors, they would advertise it like with the two black leathers. Oddly, the only leather on the custom software labelled as "JT" is the JT Dark Shadow. I know they have labelled gloves made with the dry black leather as JB for Japanese tanned black and we have have all heard that the tan is not Horween but Japanese tanned tan. I am not sure if Japanese Tanned leather is a location or a method.

As for the rest, I am going to guess that they source leather from different tanneries or that the source may periodically change. Nothing special enough to warrant advertizing the name of the tannery.
 
PROSTX23

PROSTX23

New Member
Rous said:
The only Horween they are using right now is the oil tanned black and the Featherlite. I am confident that if they were using Horween for any of the other colors, they would advertise it like with the two black leathers. Oddly, the only leather on the custom software labelled as "JT" is the JT Dark Shadow. I know they have labelled gloves made with the dry black leather as JB for Japanese tanned black and we have have all heard that the tan is not Horween but Japanese tanned tan. I am not sure if Japanese Tanned leather is a location or a method.

As for the rest, I am going to guess that they source leather from different tanneries or that the source may periodically change. Nothing special enough to warrant advertizing the name of the tannery.
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Thanks,

So my new HOH PROFM20GB could be sourced from anywhere then? Is there a way to tell with current model gloves?
 
beeblebobble

beeblebobble

Starting Player
David the Gnome said:
Marketing suggests that the Pro Preferred is more durable, but I think experience for most guys on here is that the Pro Preffered's on the whole do not hold up as well as the HOH's do. I feel like I'm posting this link a lot lately, but there are pros and cons here from actual professionals if you care to read.

http://www.whatproswear.com/wpw-asks-the-pros-rawlings-heart-of-the-hide-vs-pro-preferred/
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I couldn't help but to laugh reading the article, its the same anecdotes that we get on these forums. Some guys say HoH gets floppy fast, some guys don't like the PP cause they take too long to break in, black leather PP is the best PP leather, Mocha is POS. LOL

For the OP, I find the Jtan to be really soft, on my Don Morton's PRO1000 Jtan you could easily bend the fingers back and forth out of the wrapper (And I've bought and sold about 5 of em and it was the case with each one.) Until Horween becomes available again, my money is with PP Rich Tan, I don't mind the break in time, Pittards feels great, so far its holding its shape, I'm confident making the play with the leather and it looks friggin great. In a vacuum I'm sure you'd be happy with Jtan but side by side with tan horween and kip rich tan its just not in the same league if a solid glove thats going to take effort to break in is your thing.
 
S

SplendidSplinter

New Member
PROSTX23 said:
Good morning,

I'm a bit out of the loop here, but how can you tell where the leather for a current model Rawlings glove comes from? As I understand it from reading here (this site) Japanese tanned leather is indicated by a J in the model number. If that J isn't in the model #, does is mean that the leather is sourced (For HOH) from the Horween tannery? Or are there other sources for their HOH leather? Hope this isn't a silly question.
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I am not sure that Rawlings uses the "J" designation to denote Japan/Japanese Tan. I could be wrong, but, I think that people on this site use "JTan as a short hand for Japan Tan as you might write HOH instead of Heart of the Hide. You do not see Rawlings use HOH to refer to its Heart of the Hide leather.
 
Felks32

Felks32

Addicted to Softballfans
SplendidSplinter said:
I am not sure that Rawlings uses the "J" designation to denote Japan/Japanese Tan. I could be wrong, but, I think that people on this site use "JTan as a short hand for Japan Tan as you might write HOH instead of Heart of the Hide. You do not see Rawlings use HOH to refer to its Heart of the Hide leather.
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I think it's both. Certainly people on here refer to the HOH Tan as JTan, but also Rawlings does designate their dry black leather as J. So like on the PRO303-6JBT - you have a 303 model HOH with Japan-tanned (J) Black leather and Tan binding and lace.

Edit: I see that Rous said the same thing above about the J Black leather, great minds think alike, LOL.
 
Felks32

Felks32

Addicted to Softballfans
beeblebobble said:
I couldn't help but to laugh reading the article, its the same anecdotes that we get on these forums. Some guys say HoH gets floppy fast, some guys don't like the PP cause they take too long to break in, black leather PP is the best PP leather, Mocha is POS. LOL
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I love my mocha pp.
 
S

SplendidSplinter

New Member
beeblebobble said:
I couldn't help but to laugh reading the article, its the same anecdotes that we get on these forums. Some guys say HoH gets floppy fast, some guys don't like the PP cause they take too long to break in, black leather PP is the best PP leather, Mocha is POS. LOL

For the OP, I find the Jtan to be really soft, on my Don Morton's PRO1000 Jtan you could easily bend the fingers back and forth out of the wrapper (And I've bought and sold about 5 of em and it was the case with each one.) Until Horween becomes available again, my money is with PP Rich Tan, I don't mind the break in time, Pittards feels great, so far its holding its shape, I'm confident making the play with the leather and it looks friggin great. In a vacuum I'm sure you'd be happy with Jtan but side by side with tan horween and kip rich tan its just not in the same league if a solid glove thats going to take effort to break in is your thing.
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Your experience is interesting because David the Gnome is suggesting ( I paraphrase) that the experience of most of the forum members is that the HOH keeps its shape longer and is more durable than the Pro Preferred.

Personally, I do not mind taking the time to break in a glove if it looks great and does what it is supposed to do.

Beeblebobble when you say that the HOH in JTan "....side by side with tan horween and kip rich tan its just not in the same league...." I wonder if you could flesh out your answer in more detail and explain what are the perceived flaws in the HOH in comparison to the tan hoween or the kip rich tan of the Pro Preferred. I am simply looking for information and not making any judgements here.
 
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SplendidSplinter

New Member
By the way does anyone want to chime in on the extent of the color variations in Rawlings' Tan and/or Rich Tan? I am willing to invest in the extra money for a Pro Preferred if I thought the color would be generally a yellow golden color and that it would hold up at least as well as the HOH because that inside lining of the PP is like "butter" :D
 
Jchap

Jchap

Active Member
SplendidSplinter said:
By the way does anyone want to chime in on the extent of the color variations in Rawlings' Tan and/or Rich Tan? I am willing to invest in the extra money for a Pro Preferred if I thought the color would be generally a yellow golden color and that it would hold up at least as well as the HOH because that inside lining of the PP is like "butter" :D
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Rich Tan is not going to be yellow golden.
 
beeblebobble

beeblebobble

Starting Player
SplendidSplinter said:
Your experience is interesting because David the Gnome is suggesting ( I paraphrase) that the experience of most of the forum members is that the HOH keeps its shape longer and is more durable than the Pro Preferred.

Personally, I do not mind taking the time to break in a glove if it looks great and does what it is supposed to do.

Beeblebobble when you say that the HOH in JTan "....side by side with tan horween and kip rich tan its just not in the same league...." I wonder if you could flesh out your answer in more detail and explain what are the perceived flaws in the HOH in comparison to the tan hoween or the kip rich tan of the Pro Preferred. I am simply looking for information and not making any judgements here.
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Well I feel the innards used in current retail HoH now just aren't the same quality they were a few years ago and don't come close to those used in pro preferred. I find the Jtan leather on the DM PRO1000HC's to have a bit of a plasticky feel and the fingers bend back straight back with out much effort which is a quality/durability issue. In the past 18 months I've ordered 2 PP custom and 1 HoH custom, exact same model and the HoH had smaller heel pad and thinner thumb/fingers. I'm sure if the only glove I saw was the jtan dm pro1000hc I would be happy and just figure that's how gloves are now, but when I get one as described and I have PP gloves and I have previous horween incarnations to directly compare it to, its a big let down in quality and in the performance for me. I like a solid glove that holds its shape and so far I haven't found a jtan model I trust to break in and use beyond playing a few rounds of catch/grounders.

And I think that's kind of the point of the article he posted. You ask 15 guys, you'll get 15 answers. And with so many factors at play, best you can do is go with a consensus and give things a try. I will say that if you're coming in this cold, definitely go to a store or order from a place that takes returns and get your hands in some. I wore out justballgloves buying, trying and returning.
 
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Felks32

Felks32

Addicted to Softballfans
Not sure if this helps but I have 2 custom Rawlings PRO302-6's. One is HOH JTan, the other is PP Mocha. They are 2 of the nicest gloves i've ever owned, and great examples of the quality Rawlings can reach. For that matter, my 2 HOH DCT's are of the same quality as the 302's. My HOH Timberglase 504 trails far behind.

The PP Mocha is a slightly tighter handstall and feels slightly shorter. This could all be chalked up to manufacturing differences for each individual glove though.

I prefer the feel of the Pittards when brand new, but don't have any experience with one that has some years of usage on it.
 
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