First, you want to soften the glove so it is most pliable...

Many of today’s gloves, regardless of price, seem to be available at retailers in a presoftened form. While this may cut down on some of the work and time required, it probably doesn’t mean you can’t and shouldn’t do more to train a new glove so it is most effective in helping you perform in the field. Let’s face it, your glove is one of the most personalized pieces of sports or baseball equipment you’ll ever use, so it’s worth taking the time to work the leather so its just right for you a customized companion worthy of all the tender loving care.

In thinking about what you should ultimately want to happen as a result of breaking in a glove, it comes down to three fundamentals. First, you want to soften the glove so it is most pliable, allowing a player to easily wrap and trap a ball firmly with maximum control. Second, you want to develop and train the glove’s pocket as both the natural resting place for caught balls and an easy access point for transferring the ball to the throwing hand. Last, you want to extend a glove’s durability and playing life.

Breaking it in: there’s no myth to the shaving cream

Just about everybody actively involved in the game will tell you the best thing you can do to break in a glove is to practice and drill with it as much as possible. You should also try to hold and keep a ball in the pocket constantly, especially early on before the season, when you’re not playing with it everyday.

When it comes to working and softening the glove’s leather with another material, like an oil or cream, people have tried and used everything from salad oil and saddle soap to all kinds of specialized lotions made just for mitts. Many a myth has been told about how to work a substance into the leather, wrapping it with string, rubber band or belt around a ball and letting it rest under a mattress, in a drawer or trapped under something else hefty.

According to Wilson Sporting Goods, makers of the well-known, long-running A2000 brand of gloves, the best substance for quickly breaking in a glove is lanolin, which oddly enough is most easily found at home in most national brands of shaving cream. Wilson also recommends saddle soap and cautions that oil may not be the best agent for breaking in a glove because it can limit a glove’s durability and may give the glove a greasy feel that distracts the player. Petroleum jelly is also an easily accessible substitute, if lanolin and saddle soap aren’t available.

Follow the simple steps below to break in your child’s first glove, and you’ll be well down a path toward shaping not only an effective, personal tool for the field but also a suite of memories you’ll never forget.

Use the glove as much as possible. Practice with it or constantly work it with your hand and a ball when not on the field.

Transfer some shaving cream (with lanolin), saddle soap or petroleum jelly to a cloth, and work it thoroughly into the glove’s pocket and webbing, rubbing the remainder lightly over the glove’s body and stitching.

Flex the mitt with your hands repeatedly to soften the leather and make it pliable for the glove hand.

When not actively working the glove, place a ball in the pocket, wrapping the glove over the ball in a manner that allows a natural fold to form that’s comfortable and shapes the glove.

Secure the glove’s pocket with heavy rubber bands or string to hold its shape around the ball.

Store the wrapped glove in a dry place where the shape can be held. Putting it under a mattress or wedged between towels in a snug dresser drawer overnight works well.

To maintain its softness, work more soap or conditioner into the glove in the event it gets wet or when you use it after long stretches of inactivity.